OpticsBlog – Thoughts and reviews of binoculars, telescopes, scopes, sights, and much more - birdwatching, astronomy, target shooting - pretty much anything related to optics, nature, and life!

We are having some friends visit, this coming weekend, and we’ve made plans to do some astronomy with both my astronomy binoculars and telescopes, since the moon will be new and that means dark skies and the ability to see some of the faint objects we want to see in the telescope eyepiece. With any luck at all, I may even be able to demonstrate some of my telescope observing tips for beginners in action.

Oh, I will need luck. I am a newcomer to the north woods in the winter and have quickly discovered that, yes, the skies are dark and wonderful when there are no clouds, but that a winter sky without clouds is the exception, rather than the rule in northern Wisconsin. I have had little opportunity to use my binoculars or setup & use a telescope, so far, this winter. We have had more days with snow than without, though most of those snowy days have been days with very light snow or snow flurries. My local friends tell me, though, that this has been an unusual winter for lack of snow, not abundance of snow! I can only imagine, then, what a normal winter is like. Wow!

So, this may be more of a Superbowl weekend than an astronomy weekend and, yes, we will watch the game. It is almost a law, around here, that you must watch the Packers play in an important game. Not to do so is to risk exile from Wisconsin. Go Packers, then.

Sometimes even those common birds at your bird feeder can be quite special. The Mourning Doves at my feeder are a good example. Doves are not generally thought of as hardy birds able to survive harsh north country winters; most in our area head for warmer climes on the first frosty nights in September. Nevertheless, I have had one or two hardy individuals at my bird feeders the last two winters.

Regardless, the Mourning Dove is a welcome addition to my winter birdwatching and they make a nice contrast to the generally much smaller birds that frequent my feeders in the winter. The subtle, warm hues of a Mourning Dove's winter coat are actually quite lovely in the binoculars and spotting scope and all the more so when captured against a snowy background as in one of my pics, above. While normally a ground feeder at the feeders, I often see them perched atop one of my feeders in the winter, fluffing their plumage to stay warm, as seen in my other pic. This calm demeanor also makes the Mourning Dove good subject for digiscoping. Doves tend to hold still and pose, nicely, at the feeder, as they fluff up to stay warm, in contrast to the notoriously ever moving Chickadees that share the winter feeder with them. Guess there’s more than one way to stay warm in the bird world.

Thanks to light pollution and smog, cities and suburbs are not the best choices for an astronomer to setup & use a telescope and, yet, that is precisely where you find most astronomers and telescopes, these days. For instance, the greater Chicago area has several very active astronomy clubs and a great many enthusiastic and passionate astronomers, despite the horrible light pollution. I know, because I lived there and belonged to a couple of astronomy clubs. Hats off to all my astronomy friends in the Chicago area for keeping amateur astronomy alive under some less than friendly skies.

I suspect you can find a similar situation in other metropolitan areas, as well, when it comes to astronomy and telescopes. Sure, we would all love to live in the desert hundreds of miles from city lights, but family, jobs and friends just make that a dream for many of us, so we do our best to do astronomy right at home. Sometimes, if you love something, you just go right on doing it no matter what. When I first moved to the Chicago area for a job, back in 2004, I was one depressed astronomer when I saw those light-polluted skies. For a time, I couldn’t bear to touch a telescope or uncase my astronomy binoculars, but only for a short time. I loved astronomy too much to quit. Eventually, I was using my telescopes and astronomy binoculars as much as ever by making a game of how much I could see in the telescope eyepiece in spite of light pollution. Yes, you can enjoy astronomy in the suburbs or the city. I invite all my fellow astronomers who observe under light polluted skies to keep observing and, better yet, join an astronomy club. An astronomy club is one thing you can find much easier in the suburbs and city than out in the country where I live, now.

I have been sorely tempted, of late, to add another telescope eyepiece to my collection of telescope accessories. Like many astronomers who have been using telescopes for many years, I like telescope eyepieces as much as I do telescopes. In fact, I know one old pro who actually owns over sixty telescope eyepieces. No, I don’t have that many, but I do understand the attraction. There is nothing quite so satisfying as the view provided by an excellent telescope eyepiece.

In my early days behind the telescope, there was never enough money in the budget for those fabulous wide angle telescope eyepieces that are so popular to this day, but I did have enough to acquire some excellent Plossl and orthoscopic design eyepieces, so I was never left wanting for optical performance, albeit optical performance with a narrow field of view. It was only when I joined an astronomy club that I first had an opportunity to peer through a fine collection of Televue Nagler eyepieces. I was stunned and hooked on the “spacewalk” views from the start. No, I can’t say that I saw more detail in those early Naglers than my plossls and orthoscopics, but that ultrawide field of view that you get with a Televue Nagler and, now, a Televue Ethos is very addictive, especially for an observer like me who observes for mostly for aesthetic reasons. I’ve seen about all the faint, difficult fuzzies I need to see. Now I just want to sit back and enjoy the view and there is nothing like the view in one of the new Televue Ethos. It will be my next telescope eyepiece.

I have a mild case of cabin fever after being stuck inside for over a week trying to shake a bad sinus infection. The almost daily dusting of snow, which makes for excellent cross country skiing conditions just adds to the temptation to escape from the house, but I know better than to aggravate an already nasty condition. So, here I sit, and try to make the best of some enforced indoor time.

Thank heavens for my bird feeders and the endless hours of birdwatching and digiscoping they provide. I can sit at my table, binoculars in one hand and a hot cup of herbal tea in the other while I wait for my body to heal and still feel as if I have something constructive to do. I’ve also started an equipment list of things I want to purchase later this spring when I get my tax refund. The list includes more telescope accessories, especially another telescope eyepiece, more fishing rods and reels and a couple digital cameras to replace our aging Panasonic Lumix and Sony Cybershot. Then there is a used Bell canoe down at our local outfitters … Okay, it would take tax refunds over a decade to probably pay for everything on this wish list, but at least dreaming keeps my mind busy while my body is on the mend. That can’t be a bad thing.

A computerized telescope should more correctly called a telescope on a computerized mount because the computer is actually on the telescope mount, not the telescope, though there are now some telescopes, such as the Meade LS that have sensors mounted on the telescope to send information to the computer. It’s really about the mount when it comes to computers, though, not the telescope, even though most folks just say computerized telescope.

I am the first to admit the usefulness of marrying computers and telescopes, whether we want to say computerized telescopes or computerized telescope mounts. In fact, computer or no computer is one of the telescope first questions you should ask. Computers on a telescope are much more than just another one of those telescope accessories that drive up the price of a telescope. Yes, computerized telescopes do work and when everything is correctly aligned (telescope and computer pointing at the same thing), they are a wonder. I don’t use one, though, because I learned the night sky long before there were computers in the home, let alone on telescopes. I still navigate, the old fashioned way with a star atlas, though I know the location of most of the well known objects in the sky well enough not to even bother with a star map. Of course, I also grew up before light pollution was so widespread; I had dark skies with plenty of visible stars and that makes navigating, manually, without the aid of a computer, both practical and effective. Light polluted skies are another matter. It can be very difficult to see enough stars to under a light-polluted sky to navigate effectively with a star map, even for old-timers like me. Computerized telescopes, then, have been a boon to urban and suburban astronomers. I do recommend computerized telescopes for beginners who observe under light polluted skies, but I also think that everyone should also know how to use a star map, as well. That intimate relationship you form with the night sky as a result makes for a better astronomer.

When people think telescopes they typically think refractor telescope. After all, refractors are the oldest telescope design, though, surprisingly, not the simplest telescopes to make. That distinction falls to reflector telescopes – it is easier to make the mirrors used in reflector telescopes than it is the lenses used in refractor telescopes. In fact, in recent times grinding and polishing your own mirror to make a reflector telescope was quite popular. So why did it take over a hundred years for the reflector to compete with the refractor?

The problem was the reflective surface needed to turn a figured piece of glass or metal into a working mirror. The first reflectors used mirrors out of polished brass or other metals, but the brass surface did a poor job of reflecting light and the brass soon tarnished. It was only when technology allowed curved pieces of glass to be covered with a thin layer of aluminum and other reflective materials that reflectors became commonplace. Even today, coating a ground plate of glass with a reflective film of aluminum to turn it into a mirror is beyond the reach of the amateur telescope maker. Once you have ground and polished your mirror, correctly, you need to send it to a specialist to have it coated and when the mirror starts to lose its reflectivity after years of use, you send the mirror back to the specialist for a new reflective coat. Sounds like a hassle, but the advantages of the reflector telescope are so great, that it is well worth the hassle.

Small is beautiful, too, in digital cameras.

The shortcomings for point and shoot, small digital cameras makes for a long list and anyone who really knows digital cameras and digital camera lenses can tell you why small digital cameras are inferior to large digital cameras in some detail. I know I have explained it to more than one customer or friend. So, why do I use small digital cameras much more often than the big stuff, namely SLRs and digital SLR cameras? Am I guilty of saying one thing and doing another, photographically?

Of course not. The darn portability of small digital cameras makes all the difference and that portability often trumps all the advantages of larger digital cameras put together. Oh, yeah, a camera in hand, even a tiny digital camera, is far superior to the finest and most sophisticated DSLR left at home. Sure, I use SLR film cameras and digital SLRs for trips where photography is the primary activity, but some of my best pics were with my small digital cameras simply because I happened to have a small digital camera in my bag or pack while doing things other than photography. Never underestimate the value of portability. It may not have the sexy stature of more technical camera specs, but portability and portability, alone, is often the deciding factor as to whether you get a pic or not get a pic.

My first birding spotting scope was a small Bushnell Sentry 20x50 and I had no idea how to use the thing. I didn’t even have a tripod for it, but the spotting scope, by itself, was all I could afford; there was no money in the budget for extras like a tripod. I did see birds with that spotting scope, all the same, but it was a far cry from what I would be able to do with a spotting scope many years, later. As a birdwatching tool, that Bushnell Sentry was limited, but that was as much me as any shortcoming in the scope.

My first serious birding spotting scope was a Bausch&Lomb Discoverer (now the Bushnell Discoverer) and, yes, I used with a tripod as well as a window mount. I would eventually own much better and more expensive spotting scopes, but I did see and identify a good many birds with that old Discoverer. It was money well spent for an intermediate birder at the time.

Eventually I would own Swarovski spotting scopes, Leica spotting scopes, Televue spotting scopes, Kowa spotting scopes and put them on the finest Bogen tripods, but it all started with that first Bushnell spotting scope.

Been itching to set up & use a telescope or, at least my astronomy binoculars, but the clouds seemed to have made a permanent home over the house for the last couple weeks. Guess the binoculars and telescopes will have to wait. Wishing for clear night skies and more time behind the telescope eyepiece won’t make the clouds disappear, I know, but even a half hour peek at the stars would do my heart good. This is actually typical weather for January, up here in the north country or so I have been told. In fact, some of the locals have been complaining about lack of snowfall, so maybe I should be grateful for what few clear nights I’ve had this last month. Snow is serious stiff, up here – this is snowmobile and ski country – so I don’t want to complain too loudly.

As an astronomer, this makes clear nights and dark skies all the more precious to me. I may not get as much observing time as astronomers in drier climates, but I’ll bet I appreciate what I do get all the more. In the meantime, my binoculars and telescopes are waiting by the door, ready to go. I think I’ll go check on them, again, just to be sure.

Say the word astronomy to most anyone and thoughts quickly turn to telescopes or maybe even astronomy binoculars. This is natural, of course, since knowing how to set up & use a telescope is a big part of amateur astronomy. However, it comes as surprise to some people to learn that there is a great deal of astronomy to be done without telescopes or binoculars or any optical aid at all. That’s the way I started as a child.

I was in elementary school when my oldest sister taught me my first constellations as we walked home from evening school functions on cold North Dakota winter nights. She learned them from our mother, of course and, later I taught them to my daughters in much the same way. Knowing the basic constellations has become something of a family tradition and one I later shared with others beyond our family. As an adult, I once volunteered as a tour guide at a local astronomy observatory and although much of my work involved helping people look through a telescope eyepiece, my favorite duty was to take guests on a tour of the constellations and brighter stars, mixing a little history and mythology as we went.

I still like to sit on a lawn chair on some nights without my telescopes or binoculars and let my mind and eyes just wander through the constellations as I recall fond memories of my first days in astronomy.

It’s hard for many newcomers to amateur astronomy to understand why some of us old astronomy nuts would pay more money for a single telescope eyepiece than many beginners pay for their first telescope - telescope, tripod and mount, eyepieces and all. After all, isn’t the telescope, itself, more important than the telescope eyepiece you use with it?

Lack of experience is the source for such a question. Telescope eyepieces may be technically regarded as telescope accessories, but that designation understates their importance. Truth is, a telescope is only as good as the telescope eyepieces you use with it. Telescope eyepieces are, indeed, every bit as important to telescope performance as the optics in the telescope optical tube, itself, but it is hard to appreciate this fact until you’ve actually used excellent telescope eyepieces and seen, firsthand, what a difference good telescope eyepieces can make to performance and viewing pleasure. For sure, once you've used good telescope eyepieces in your telescopes, you will never be satisfied to use cheap telescope eyepieces, again.

This doesn’t automatically mean you need to buy the most expensive telescope eyepieces to upgrade the performance of that first telescope, however. Since most beginner telescopes are supplied with eyepieces of minimal quality, you can upgrade performance with only a modest investment in additional telescope eyepieces. You may not get those eye-popping ultra wide fields of view with conventional designs such as the Meade Series 5000 Plossls, Vixen NLV, Televue Plossls or Celestron Axiom LX eyepieces, but you will get enough optical quality to bring out the best in any telescope plus lifetime quality to boot. Best of all, when you move on to a bigger or better telescope, you will already have quality eyepieces to match.

There was a day in amateur astronomy when it was quite popular and practical to make your own telescope. This was mostly a matter of making reflector telescopes, since grinding the proper shape of the mirror used in reflectors was much easier than attempting to grind lenses used in refractor telescopes. Once your reflector mirror was ground and polished to the correct figure, you sent it off to be coated with aluminum to make it reflective. Then, with finished mirror in hand, you assembled the rest of the telescope from parts obtained from various sources. Sounds like a lot or work, but at one time, you could actually save money by making your own reflector rather than buy a telescope ready-made. Then, too, you had the satisfaction of using a telescope you actually made, yourself.

Those “ make your own telescope” days have passed, however. Mostly it’s been a matter of economics. Thanks to computer assisted manufacturing processes and cheap foreign labor costs (most telescopes are now made in China), you can buy an imported telescope, complete with all accessories, much cheaper than making a telescope on your own and what's more, optics are as good as anything you are likely to make yourself. Then, too, sources for telescope parts have pretty much disappeared from the market, even if you did want to make your own telescope.

I never did get a chance to make my own telescope, back in the days when making telescopes was popular. I came close, but never took the plunge, thinking I could always do it, later.

Digiscoping is a bird and wildlife photography technique that has gained wide popularity and rightfully so. Digiscoping is both effective and easy to do – you jut place a small digital point and shoot camera behind the eyepiece of a spotting scope and fire away. Okay, there is a bit more to it than that, but it really is a fun way to take wildlife pics and, because digiscoping gives you access to more magnification than any other form of photography, you can get pics that cannot be taken by conventional photographic methods.

Now, most folks use a digiscoping adapter to hold and position their digital cameras, properly, behind the spotting scope and that is probably the best way for a newcomer to go, but there are still a few of us who prefer to hold the digital camera without the aid of a digiscoping adapter. It takes practice and some patience to put the camera into the correct position and hold it steady, manually, without the aid of an adapter, but it does have some advantages. For one, I don’t have to fiddle with an adapter when I want to observe, visually, through my scope. I just look through the eyepiece as I always do – there is no adapter to get in the way. For another, I can carry my digital cameras in my pocket and just pull them out when needed, rather than leave them and an adapter attached to the spotting scope as I trek through the field. This keeps the cameras safer. Mostly, though, I like doing things, manually, without an adapter, because I can switch back and forth between visual mode and digiscoping mode on the spotting scope in an instant. This has allowed me to get some pics that I would have missed had I taken the time to attach a digiscoping adapter and camera to the scope. The deer in the pic is a good example. I had just enough time to grab my camera and place it over the spotting scope eyepiece and get a pic before one of the dogs started barking and scared the deer, away.

When you setup & use a telescope or even astronomy binoculars, there can be some unexpected challenges. For instance, if you live in a forested area, as we do, getting a clear unobstructed view of the entire sky through the trees can be a challenge, just as buildings and other structures can get in the way when you use telescopes and binoculars in urban areas. What’s an astronomer to do?

Mobility is the key. Sometimes you just have to be prepared to move your equipment if you want to see the entire sky on any given evening. At my latitude, for instance, Canis Major never rises very high in the sky. I can usually spot this constellation’s brightest star, Sirius, peeking through the pines on a clear night, but the trees hide most of the constellation’s treasures for my astronomy binoculars or telescopes. That means I have to take a long walk down my driveway (some one-hundred yards) and view the constellation from our local road. It’s not too much of a chore making that jaunt with the astronomy binoculars, but on these subzero nights, even carrying my small telescope that far can seem like an expedition. I can honestly say I would never make the trip with a large telescope.

The lesson, here, is to give careful consideration to where you will be using your telescope. When it comes time to choose the right telescope, you have to consider more than just telescope features. A smaller telescope that you can move, easily, is often a better choice than a large telescope. Telescope size can work both ways.

About a year, ago, my husband, Bill, told me there was an old Canon film camera around the house, somewhere, though it was probably buried in a mountain of old stuff in the basement or a closet. The camera had been his father’s, but it was mine if I could find it, since he knew I loved cameras. That was like telling me there was a couple pounds of my favorite chocolate hidden somewhere in the house. I went right to work.

Months, later, all I had to show for my work was a couple of Canon lenses. There were FD lenses, so I knew I was dealing with old manual focus Canon cameras, not a Canon EOS. That was fine with me, since I had already started a collection of old manual focus film cameras from the 70s and 80s. My search for the camera body, though, was futile. I was beginning to think it had been sold or lost, rather than hidden in the house.

Last week, when we had cleaned the last of our belongings from our Milwaukee home in an effort to make it ready to sell, Bill reached up high on a shelf in a closet and, surprise, surpise! There was the long lost Canon camera and it was even wearing a Canon FD 50mm 1.8 lens! It was an CanonAE -1, but not an AE-1 P, so I was able to date it to a the late 70s. Now, you might think a camera some forty plus years old would need a little TLC to get it into working order. Not so! The camera is in excellent plus condition. In fact, the light meter and all camera functions were go. The battery was even good. I loaded up some fresh film and this forty year old camera is ready to take some pics.

Now, how many digital cameras will last forty some years into the future and still be totally functional? Anyone care to place a bet?

Bought a pair of Alpina Lite Terrain cross country skis to better explore the back woods around the lake. I love my Fischer’s, but since most of my skiing is on trails in deep snow in the backwoods that I break, myself, I needed something with better float and shorter length to get through the heavy stuff. Once a trail has been laid, I can go with the Fischer’s to get more glide.

My neighbors have informed that there are trails on the north end of the lake that go back quite a ways into the woods, but the trails are not marked and are seldom used, thus there is a chance I could get lost if it starts to snow ( a daily thing around here) and my tracks get covered. Okay, a very good chance, given that I have virtually no sense of direction. Time to get that GPS? Yes, since I don't particularly like getting lost in sub-zero temperatures and I need some practice on using a GPS, anyway, since I plan to explore the national forests in the area do this summer for trout streams and spring ponds and need a way to store those locations. Mostly, I have been thinking in terms of handheld Garmin GPS, since we use one in our car. I'll go with a GPS with mapping capability for the sake of flexibility, since we will also be using a GPS on a western camping trip, tis summer. High on my list are the Garmin GPSMAP 62st and the Garmin Rino520HCx.

I’m not one to choose favorites, but if I had to vote for one of the most interesting parts of the winter sky for astronomy binoculars or telescopes, it would include the constellations of Canis Major and Monoceros. Now, plenty of folks are familiar with Canis Major since it is home to the brightest star in our sky, namely Sirius. However, very few folks even know there is such a thing as a constellation called Monoceros. That should definitely change if you love observing open star clusters in astronomy binoculars and telescopes as much as I do. If you just received an astronomy binocular or telescope for the holidays, grab the star chart and check all the open star clusters found in this area of the winter sky. Some of these star clusters, such as M41 in Canis Major, can be seen in ordinary birding binoculars or hunting binoculars, even under somewhat light-polluted skies. Others, such as NGC 2232 in Monoceros are not quite as obvious, but still worth finding. All in all, seeing all the sights in this area of the winter sky through a telescope eyepiece or the binoculars will keep you busy for many nights.

Dress warm.

The next two months, January and February, are the long “quiet” winter months up here in the northland. These are the months where winter bares its teeth and buries us all under with cold and snow while we huddle in our cabins waiting for spring … or so most outsiders think. Like so many stereotypes, this is anything but true. Winter in the north country is actually a much anticipated time of year; it’s time for ice fishing, skiing, skating, snowmobiling and winter festivals. It’s time to be dazzled by the beauty of the north woods wearing a coat of snow. It’s time to exchange the canoe and the kayak for my cross country skis. Winter is more of a party time than the funeral in the north country.

Nor do I put away my astronomy binoculars or telescopes during the winter. To be sure, you have to know what you are doing to setup &use a telescope in subzero cold, but the rewards are well worth the effort. Winter skies hold some of the best celestial treasures for both binoculars and telescopes. I particular, I love to explore in the constellations, Orion and Monoceros on dark winter nights.

The forecast is for clear skies, this evening with temperatures dipping below zero. See you at the telescope eyepiece.

Products made in China?

Like most Americans I am ambivalent on this one. After all, there are some product lines, especially when it comes to things electronic, where you simply have little choice as to country of origin. You buy made in China or go without. I’m not quite ready to give up my microwave. Sorry.

In the world of optics, where I operate, made in China is almost, but not quite, as bad. There are still other options in terms of country of origin. Professionally speaking, however, I have nothing against products made in China. I had better not, given that the vast majority of binoculars, spotting scopes and telescopes – the products I write about on a nearly daily basis – are made in China. Manufacturers have turned to China to keep the supply of optical products both affordable and plentiful and in that sense, they have been very successful. Furthermore, price, not country of origin, continues to be the best indicator of quality and performance when it is time to buy binoculars or choose the right telescope. There may have been a time when a label of made in China meant cheap optics, but no more – some truly excellent optics come out of China these days and, even at the low end of the optics market where made in China is almost a monopoly, you get a lot for your optics dollar. I won’t hesitate to recommend any product made in China for a customer as long as the customer has no problems with country of origin or simply cannot afford to spend more.

On the other hand, like many Americans, I do have personal concerns regarding environmental, labor and human rights practices in China and, as a result, I prefer to buy Japanese or European or, even better, American, when it comes to my personal optics even though I have to pay more and, sometimes, much more to exercise that option. I won’t lie about that when asked and I never have. What’s more, I will continue along these lines, as long as I have a choice, though the selection of optical products made in countries other than China continues to shrink every year and prices continue to rise to dizzying heights for products made in Japan or Europe. I’d be more than happy to revise this personal preference when and if I could receive some assurances as to how any specific Chinese binocular, spotting scope or telescope was made. In fact, I think it would be wise for all manufacturers who have products made in China to supply this information when they can, a la Nikon’s promotion of using lead and arsenic free glass and so on in some Nikon binoculars. (Good job, Nikon.) A little reassurance regarding environmental and labor practices behind those Chinese products could only improve sales.