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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!Friday, April 29, 2011Who needs astronomy binoculars? It may surprise some people new to astronomy and even an astronomer, or two, to learn that I use astronomy binoculars and use them, often, despite the fact that I own and have owned all kinds of telescopes, too. Why bother with astronomy binoculars if you already own a telescope? Who needs astronomy binoculars? In my opinion, all astronomers can make good use of astronomy binoculars. The fact is that both binoculars and telescopes have their place in astronomy. It is not an “either, or” situation by any means. There are some things that astronomy binoculars do better than telescopes and, of course, there are things that telescopes can do better than binoculars. That’s why I have been known to park my astronomy binoculars, nearby, when I setup & use a telescope. Yes, there are plenty of nights when I use the telescope, only, but there as many, or even more, nights when I use only astronomy binoculars. For sure, my favorite astronomy binocular, my Nikon 10x70 Astroluxe, still cannot be beat for grab and go astronomy and gorgeous views of large open star clusters. I’d feel lost without it. So, here's one to add to your telescope observing tips: add a binocular, even an ordinary birding binocular, if that's all you have, to your astronomy equipment list. Thursday, April 28, 2011Frog music One of my favorite north woods fun things is about to start and, no, it doesn’t require birding binoculars, astronomy binoculars, spotting scopes, digital cameras, tripods or any og the other things I write up in my blogs. All you need to do is to get comfortable in your favorite chair (a Human Touch i-Joy would be glorious), open the windows on a warm spring evening and listen. I’m talking about listening to frogs in the spring, of course, and frog music is awesome, up here in the lake country. Figure it this way: when you live in a county with over 1100 lakes, that’s a lot of frogs singing. Yes, it is definitely a north woods thing. In fact, I have a couple of friends who insist I call them when the frogs really turn up the volume and go at it so they can make a trip up here for some frog music. The temperature has to be right for frog music, though. So far, this cold wet spring has not been favorable for frog singing. I did hear a little frog music on a small bog pond, one light last week, but the water in the big lakes is still too cold. Things should improve when we get some warm days, next month. Wednesday, April 27, 2011Telescope eyepiece preferencesSeems like there are a million telescope eyepiece questions you ask when shopping for this most important of telescope accessories, even when you are an old timer like me that has been nuts about astronomy all her life. The technical questions regarding telescope eyepieces may seem to be daunting to a beginner, but they are relatively simple and straightforward, at least. It’s the darn personal preference side of telescope eyepieces that make selecting just the right telescope eyepiece for your favorite telescope so hard. I am a case in point. I wear glasses when I observe and absolutely hate taking them off to look through a telescope eyepiece. I do enough fumbling when working at telescopes, changing eyepieces, adding filters, barlows and so on as it is. The last thing I want to add to the mix is my glasses. They belong on my face and I leave them there. I am also fussy about seeing the entire field of view when I look through a telescope eyepiece, right out to the field stop. This really adds nothing to performance, it’s just one of my personal preferences. That’s the way I want things to look in the eyepiece. The trick, then, is finding telescope eyepieces that have enough eye relief so that I can see the entire field of view while wearing my glasses. Unfortunately, this eliminates a lot of otherwise superb telescope eyepieces for consideration. I love the new 17.0 Televue Ethos, for instance. What an incredible eyepiece! For me, though, that 15mm of eye relief is just a tad too short with my glasses. Sure, I can still probably see 80% or better of that whopping 100 degree field when wearing my glasses, but I still prefer a Nagler 17.0mm so I can see out to the field stop. Just a personal preference. That’s the way it is with telescope eyepieces. Tuesday, April 26, 2011Binoculars and cameras in the canoe Finally had a nice spring day, yesterday, so what does a north woods gal do on a nice spring day when the ice has melted and her lake is now open? Why, she jumps in her kayak for an afternoon of paddling, of course. A canoe or kayak, by the way, makes an excellent vehicle for spring birdwatching. Yesterday, I spotted Bald Eagles, Wood Dicks, Buffleheads, Ring-billed Ducks, Mallards, Song Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds and more through the binoculars as I slowly paddled along the shore. Indeed, a cautious approach with the paddle along the shore with a canoe or kayak will provide many interesting birds to see in the birding binoculars. Just be sure your binoculars are waterproof, as accidents can happen. A canoe or kayak is also a great way to get pics with digital cameras. The perspective from the seat of a canoe or kayak is somewhat unique. That low to the water angle makes for some fun and interesting pics. Image stabilization, of course is a great camera feature to have on the water. If its wildlife you’re after, you’ll want more magnification than the typical point and shoot digital camera can provide, so time to load up that one of those digital SLR cameras with long telephoto camera lenses. See you out on the lake. Monday, April 25, 2011Permanent observatory for a telescopeI have a 12.5” Dobsonian telescope coming next month, so I have been busy with plans on how to best use this telescope on our property. Now, telescope size is relative, of course, but a 12.5” telescope is much larger than my current 80mm (three inch) refractor telescope, no matter how you define small or large telescope. With a 12.5” telescope, you have to be a bit more deliberate and thoughtful on where you setup & use a telescope. You can’t just throw a 12.5” telescope over your shoulder and head out the back door as I often do with my small telescopes. My immediate yard area is surrounded by north woods and, thus, my overhead observing window for a telescope or astronomy binoculars is quite small. I do make good use of this small window, all the same, but it prevents me from seeing much of the southern and eastern sky and that hurts because those are the areas of sky loaded with things I love to see in the telescope eyepiece. On the other hand, if I walk about forty yards or so down to our dock, I have a huge window of sky above our lake. That’s where I plan to do most of my serious observing with the big telescope, but that dock is going to need some work to make it a good observing platform for a telescope. Maybe it is time to think of building a permanent observatory for a telescope. When you hit 12.5" in telescope size, that is always a good idea. Friday, April 22, 2011BarlowsBecause I much prefer to wear glasses when looking through a telescope eyepiece, I’ve always made good use of barlow lenses, especially back in the days when it was hard to find telescope eyepieces that had enough eye relief to use with glasses. Barlows help, here, by allowing you to double, triple and so on, the magnification you get with those eyepieces that do have enough eye relief for use of glasses because the eye relief of your eyepiece doesn’t significantly change when you add a Barlow lens. Barlows also help the budget because a single Barlow lens can be cheaper alternative than buying extra eyepieces. That is not to say I have no issues with Barlow lenses. For one, some telescope eyepieces just don’t seem to get along with a barlow, for one reason or another. To be honest, this is the exception, rather than the rule – most telescope eyepieces do fine with barlows – but it can happen. For another, adding a barlow means more lenses in your optical system and that can work against you when you when searching for very faint objects, simply because more lenses means more light loss. Finally, I hate fumbling with barlows when changing eyepieces. It can sometimes be a juggling act adding and then removing a both an eyepiece and a barlow to get the magnification I want. I do prefer the simplicity of only dealing with a separate eyepiece when I change magnification. Keeping things simple when dealing with telescopes is always an advantage. That said, a barlow is still a great addition to your eyepiece collection. Thursday, April 21, 2011Wood Ducks are back  Our lake might not have its resident pair of Loons, but it does have resident Wood Ducks, so I am not complaining. Doesn’t matter what tool you use to get a good look at a Wood Duck – birding binoculars, birding spotting scope or digital cameras – this is one spectacular bird. I saw our first pair of Wood Dicks, yesterday, flying over the house, but it was that very distinctive whistling call I hear, first. That’s often the first notice you get that Wood Ducks are in the area because of the wooded, secluded areas they prefer. My Wood Ducks are back, though, and I am happy to have such a magnificent bird to add to my backyard birdwatching list. Yes, the Wood Duck is on my back yard birding list. Last summer, I often saw a hen and her ducklings resting on our dock, so Bill and I decided to put up some Wood Duck nesting boxes around the dock to see if we could encourage them to actually nest on our property. We’ll soon see if we chose the right spot for the nests. Wednesday, April 20, 2011Astronomy presentationI miss teaching. I gave my astronomy presentation to very enthusiastic and very grateful bunch of my fellow seniors, this morning, and could not be happier. I guess once a teacher, always a teacher. Teaching is in my blood as much as astronomy, birdwatching and all the other things I love. The biggest challenge of my astronomy presentation was getting my Apple laptop connected to the provided Epson projector, but with some expert help from my hosts, we got it done and just in time, too. I was about to improvise for a couple of hours when, low and behold, my Power Point magically appeared on the screen. Now, me talking for a couple of hours on astronomy and telescopes is anything but a challenge. In fact, the challenge is getting me to pull the plug on one of my favorite subjects in two hours. Hey, I could easily talk for two hours just on telescope eyepiece questions and not even dent the surface. Kick in astronomy binoculars and I could talk myself hoarse. So, how do you say all there is to say about amateur astronomy in two hours? You don’t, but when you have a great audience, it isn’t necessary. I will be seeing some of those folks, again, I’m sure. Tuesday, April 19, 2011Astronomy presentationI will be giving a presentation on amateur astronomy, tomorrow, for a group of my fellow retirees and a two hour presentation, at that. When I started designing the presentation, I was quite sure it would include a great deal about astronomy binoculars, telescopes, telescope accessories and so on. After all, writing about all this astronomy gear is one way I help to support myself and it’s saved the farm a time or two during hard times, not to mention helping to buy a telescope or more binoculars. My presentation, now that it has been prepared, actually has relatively little about telescopes and astronomy binoculars than I expected, though. Why? It’s been my experience when talking astronomy to beginners and the interested public, that we astronomers move too quickly into a technical discussion of equipment and gear and spend too little time on educating folks as to the actual nature of what they see when they look through a telescope eyepiece. Yes, the actual images of star clusters and nebulae can be quite spectacular in their own right, but much of the beauty and appreciation of what we astronomers see in our binoculars and telescopes is in knowing the true nature of what we are seeing. For example, without a thorough understanding that the faint gray fuzzy you are seeing in the telescope eyepiece is a actually a universe of its own with billions of stars at an unimaginable distance, it will remain nothing more than a faint gray fuzzy and a disappointment when first seen. Not on my watch. Monday, April 18, 2011Astronomy presentationI have an astronomy presentation to give to a group of my fellow seniors this week, but it just so happens that there is a winter storm forecast to hit on the very day of my presentation. Not to worry, I have been told, because folks up in this country are a hardy bunch. That’s good, because spending long hours at the telescope eyepiece or with the astronomy binoculars, up here in the north country, sometimes demands a bit of that hardiness. If the cold in the winter doesn’t get you, the mosquitoes in the warm months will. That’s enough to make some of my southern astronomy pals think twice before they setup & use a telescope or uncase binoculars. On the other hand, our northern skies will take your breath away on a clear dark night. At my location, there are no large cities to either the east, north or west for hundreds of miles, so our skies have been spared a lot of the light pollution that plagues other areas. South is a different story, of course, but I’ll brave the cold and mosquitoes, any day, I mean night, if it means being able to use my telescopes and binoculars under dark skies. Friday, April 15, 2011Weight in a spotting scopeThere is a real advantage to lighter weight in a spotting scope when you plan to throw the spotting scope and the tripod that supports it over your shoulder and hit the fields. That’s why I scaled down from a large 80 mm class birding spotting scope to smaller 65 mm spotting scopes many years, ago, for field work and have never regretted it. What little I lost in performance with the smaller scopes has never been missed, but I say a prayer of thanks thank for that savings in weight every time I shoulder a lighter scope and tripod combo. Going lighter on spotting scopes has definitely extended my hours in the field behind a spotting scope eyepiece. On the other hand, lighter weight can work against you. For example, these last few days, the wind has been nasty out on our lake. In fact, it nearly toppled over my small spotting scope which I set up on the dock to scan the lake for birds. The prospect of seeing my spotting scope tumble off the dock into the lake did not thrill me, so I replaced it with my heavy my custom 80 mm LOMO APO refractor on a heavier tripod. I wouldn’t want to carry that spotting scope too far, but no wind short of a tornado or hurricane is going to topple that spotting scope and tripod. Sometimes weight in a spotting scope is a good thing. Thursday, April 14, 2011stunts with the astronomy binocularsWhen it comes to astronomy binoculars, you sometimes need just a touch more magnification, even if it means you have to hassle with astronomy binocular tripods to provide more steadiness. Last night was a good example. I stepped out at three in the morning to let the puppy do his thing and, wouldn’t you know it, the sky was clear and the moon had just set. Naturally, I headed back to the house and returned with the binoculars. Since the constellation Lyra was high in the sky, I decided to try my hand at the small globular cluster, M56. I have seen this small globular star cluster many times in my Nikon 10x70 Astroluxe. It’s not obvious at 10x, though, due to its small size, nor is it all that bright. You have to carefully scan the neighborhood or you’ll run right by it. Then, too, at 10x it is mostly a matter of saying you saw it. That’s just not enough magnification to show it at its best. I attempt these things because I just like to push my observing skills and equipment to the limit. It's a kick for me. Same with the famous double star, Albireo, which is close by M56. I have split Albireo with my 10x70 by putting it on a tripod, but only just split it and then only on a night of stable seeing conditions. Again, it is a stunt at 10x. Albireo really does deserve a closer look than 10x, so I grabbed my spotting scope to give it a try. At only 20x in the spotting scope, the double was cleanly split and the colors apparent, but at 60x, it made me drool. Oh, yeah, Albireo really is that beautiful, but it is an object more suited to telescopes than binoculars, unless, of course, you like doing stunts with the astronomy binoculars. Wednesday, April 13, 2011pre-dawn astronomy, gacky skiesThe puppy was whining to go outside at about 4:30, this morning, so I hopped out of bed and walked him out in the yard so that he could do his thing. Of course, while I waited for puppy to find exactly the right spot to water, I checked the sky overhead for the possibility of doing a little pre-dawn astronomy with the astronomy binoculars or telescopes. The sky was clear, but it was what my astronomy friends and I used to call “gacky”. That was our fun way of saying that the sky was clear, yes, but filled with so much dust or water vapor or fog or whatever that it was hardly worthwhile to setup & use a telescope or uncase the binoculars. Still, gack notwithstanding, I did opt to return to the house for my astronomy binoculars for a closer look at the night sky. The constellation Cygnus was right overhead, so I checked a few open star clusters and, since I was in the neighborhood, I decided to pay a visit to M27. Okay, I would like to tell you that the view was spectacular, but it wasn’t. It was, well, gacky. Stars had a ring of fuzz around them and sky transparency was poor. Nothing worse than a gacky sky, except maybe a cloudy sky when you are holding astronomy binoculars in your hand. The puppy was greatly relieved, though. Tuesday, April 12, 2011New telescopeWe had a clear night, last night, but I just couldn’t bring myself to grab the astronomy binoculars or my small refractor telescope, because my mind wasn’t on binoculars or small telescopes, thanks to the large Dobsonian telescope I have on order. Shame on me, I guess, for not staying center in the moment, but the prospect and anticipation of looking through a large telescope, once again, was just too much. I did, however, spend a few minutes enjoying the night sky without aid of either my binoculars or my current telescope. Hey, a clear night sky is a clear night sky, after all, and not to be ignored. So what will I see with my new telescope when it arrives? In truth, nothing I haven’t seen before, in terms of either the objects themselves or their splendor. After all, I am an old hand with large Dobsonian telescopes. For me, it will be like coming home after a long absence, only this time I will be coming home to the wonders of the universe, the kind that only a large telescope can provide. Not bad for a homecoming! Oh, yeah, nothing like looking setting up & using a telescope on its first run under a dark sky full of stars. Darn right I am excited. Monday, April 11, 2011Telescope size is relativeWhen is a telescope a small telescope or a large telescope? It depends, to some extent, on the type of telescope in question. Everyone will agree, of course, that 50 mm or 60 mm refractor telescopes are, indeed, small telescopes, but after that, size is relative to the type of telescope. When it comes to refractor telescopes, for instance, six inches is about as large a refractor telescope as you can buy, but, make no mistake, that is still, physically, a large telescope. The long focal length and focal ratio of a classic achromatic refractor telescope makes for a very long tube. By the time you hit a six inch objective on one of these telescopes, you have a real beast. On the other hand, a six inch reflector telescope is a baby in the world of reflector telescopes, simply because it is easier and less costly to make a short focal length instrument with reflectors. In some circles, for instance, even doubling that six inch reflector telescope still only gets you a mid-sized reflector. A12 inch telescope only a mid-size telescope? That’s right, if you are talking to fans of reflector telescopes. What about catadioptric telescopes, namely Maks and SCTs? Maksutov telescopes, Maks for short, are more like refractors when it comes to relative size because they use thick, heavy corrector plates. A 6 inch or 7 inch Mak, therefore, is about as large as you can buy. Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, SCTs, on the other hand, use thinner corrector plates, so larger sizes are practical. Schmidt-Cassegrains typically don’t run as large as reflector telescopes on the jumbo end of things, but 12 inches is still practical. Friday, April 08, 2011Vendetta against small department store telescopesWhen I first started astronomy, using my small department store 60 mm refractor telescope, oh so long, ago, I was intrigued by all the objects I could see on a star atlas. Wow! Would I be able to see all those things with my little telescope? The answer was mostly no, of course. Most of those objects on a star chart were simply too faint to ever be seen in such a small telescope. I did see a few of those galaxies, star clusters and nebulae, though, and that was enough to get me hooked and, hooked in a big way, on astronomy. Oh, yeah, forty years, later, and those objects on a star chart still fascinate me and make me want to setup & use a telescope and go to work. It all started with one of those small refractor telescopes, though. We old pro astronomers tend to have a vendetta against small department store telescopes and there is a lot of justification for this. 50 mm and 60 mm telescopes can frustrate as easily as they can encourage an interest in astronomy. It’s like trying to teach someone how to survive on Chicago freeway traffic by giving them a moped to drive. For sure, learning with equipment that handicaps is always a struggle and, yes, when possible, I do try to encourage a beginner to start with something a bit larger. On the other hand, there are many thousands of these small telescopes already in the hands of enthusiastic beginners. Rather than condemn these little telescopes as junk and disappoint and humiliate the folks that bought them by being overly critical (and even unforgiveably rude, as I have seen at times), we pros should try to help by educating as to what can be seen in such small telescopes and, yes, there are things that can be seen even in the smallest telescope. The important thing is to offer the benefit of our knowledge and experience, regardless of equipment being used. We need all the astronomers we can get. Thursday, April 07, 2011How many eyepieces?Some of us astronomers get carried away, especially when it comes to telescope accessories like a telescope eyepiece. I know more than one astronomer with a collection of more than twenty eyepieces and a even a few with more than fifty telescope eyepieces! Okay, that is a bit extreme, but astronomers do get quite attached to their telescope eyepieces. So, one of the most often asked telescope eyepiece questions is, just how many eyepieces do you really need to do astronomy and cover all the bases? My recommendation has always been at least three eyepieces, one that delivers low magnification in your telescope, one that delivers a medium magnification and one that delivers high magnification, assuming, of course that you have chosen magnification appropriate for the size of your telescope. A high magnification that is practical on a large telescope is far too much for a maximum magnification on a small telescope. Keep in mind, too, that your low and medium magnification eyepieces will be much more useful and see more action than your high magnification eyepiece, anyway. Your high magnification telescope eyepiece is a distant third in importance. Another option is two eyepieces, a low and medium magnification eyepiece, plus a 2x Barlow. The 2x Barlow, such as a Meade #126, will double the magnification when used with an eyepiece and with a two eyepieces and a Barlow setup you have the equivalent of four eyepieces. Be careful, though! Adding that 2x Barlow to a mid power telescope eyepiece may put you over the top for a practical maximum magnification. That's why a 3x barlow often gets a beginner in trouble with far too much magnification. Wednesday, April 06, 2011Choosing premium telescope eyepiecesTrying to choose the right telescope can be harder than trying to choose the right eyepieces to go with it, especially when you start to look at premium eyepieces like Televue eyepieces. I already own some Televue eyepieces, but with a new telescope on order, I will need more. Question is, which ones? The problem with choosing premium telescope eyepieces is that there is a lot of personal preference involved, more so than typical telescope accessories. In fact, a lot of us astronomers are fussier about our eyepieces than even telescopes. Yes, you can read the specs on telescope eyepieces 'till you are blue in the face, but the specs rarely live up to your first look through that new telescope eyepiece. Specs, alone, cannot predict that good old Wow! factor and, hey, if you are going to spending big bucks on telescope eyepieces, you definitely want to be wowed. The best way to shop for telescope eyepieces? Hands down, the best way to make up your mind on buying that next telescope eyepiece is to visit an astronomy club when they have one of their outings. Chances are, someone already has that particular eyepiece and will be glad to allow you to test drive it in a telescope under actual night skies. Of course, that assumes you have access to an astronomy club. If you don’t, well, back to those specs. Tuesday, April 05, 2011Seeing conditions for telescopes and binocularsWe astronomers sometimes talk about seeing conditions as being good or bad. Why? Even with the best astronomy binoculars or telescopes, seeing conditions can greatly affect what you actually see in the binocular or telescope eyepiece on any given night. What are seeing conditions? Well, I’ll give you a clue. If there was no atmosphere, there would be no seeing conditions for us to discuss or, to put it another way, seeing conditions would be perfect. Yes, it’s all about the atmosphere above our binoculars and telescopes. That mass of air is constantly churning and it’s also filled with smog, dust particles, water vapor and so on. On some nights, the atmosphere is relatively stable and clear. Seeing conditions are good. On some nights the atmosphere is, well, a mess. Seeing conditions are poor. In fact, on some nights, despite a clear sky, seeing conditions are so poor that you wonder why you even took the time to setup & use a telescope. Seeing conditions, then, are a big deal to astronomers. We even divide seeing conditions into two types, namely transparency and stability. On a night of good transparency, we can see fainter objects than on a night of poor transparency. Transparency is the big one when you are hunting for faint deep sky objects, then. Last night, for instance, I had a night of excellent transparency and the hunt for faint galaxies in the binoculars was very successful. Stability is more a factor when we want to see fine detail, especially fine detail on planets. Interestingly, it is a rare night when both transparency and stability are good, so a smart astronomer varies their observing program, accordingly. Monday, April 04, 2011Spring birdwatching? Yeah, right.I don’t have much use for calendars, at least now that Bill and I are basically retired. Here it is, April 4 on the calendar, and it is snowing, again, just as it has been snowing on an almost daily basis all winter. My birding binoculars, birding spotting scope and my digital cameras are really getting tied of seeing the same old winter stuff. Even my telescopes and astronomy binoculars are starting to complain about having to work in cold weather. About the only things that are happy with this never ending winter are my skis, but, you know, I think they need a rest. Not much I can do to flip that switch to get my birdwatching to go into spring mode or turn my ever white winter landscape to spring green, of course, but I can try to put myself into more of a spring mode. That’s why, despite the snow falling outside my window, this morning, I decided to wear one of my spring dresses, today, instead of bundling deep inside one of my winter sweaters. Yeah, call me crazy, but a girl has to do what a girl has to do to flip her own switch into spring mode. Okay, yes, I will probably wear a cardigan over my dress, today, but at least I am wearing a dress. I am trying to get in a spring mode. That should count for something. Friday, April 01, 2011Astronomy without telescopes or binocularsThere are times when I am so awed by the beauty of the night sky that I forget all about astronomy binoculars, telescopes, telescope eyepiece, finder scope and all the other paraphernalia of your typical backyard astronomer. Okay, I don’t forget for long, but, yes, there really are nights when most of my observing is spent staring at the stars, ticking off constellations and star names with glee, rather than getting to work with the astronomy gear. After over forty years as an astronomer, a clear, dark night with stars aglow still stops me in my tracks. May it always be so. Last night was such a night. We arrived home after a fun jam session with some local musicians, parked the car in the garage and on the way into the house I happened to look skyward. That’s when it hit me. The sky overhead was clear, despite the forecast for clouds and the stars were magnificent. After staring for about ten minutes, I decided to grab my Nikon 10x70 Astro luxe binoculars to at least claim I was doing some serious observing, but, in truth, the binoculars saw little action. I just couldn’t take my eyes off the sky long enough to raise the binoculars. I was having too much fun doing astronomy without telescopes or binoculars. A beautiful night sky filled with stars does that to me, sometimes. |
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