Small Scopes

Does it show you the stars or take you to them?

A story at the Seattle Weekly side rounds up telescope holiday gifts and stargazing. The telescope above is surely not very good optically, but at least you wouldn't have to admit it was a telescope. Just tell visitors it's a model rocket and put a firecracker under it.

Witty designers, eh?

posted by Tako John @ 10:32 PM 0 comments

Digiscoping: The DIY Attitude

Here's what I love about digiscoping, with a little creativity you can get good results without breaking the bank.

When time permits, I'll do a DIY roundup.

posted by Tako John @ 12:02 PM 0 comments

Oh Venus

Should you look toward the sky this January, here's a report on what you'll see. Venus is particularly recommended, and I can attest to it. Last week it was a fantastic crescent mini-moon at 60x with my Pentax scope. On top of that, Venus is so bright that it's impossible to miss with the naked eye.

Follow up: Venus is once again recommended.

posted by Tako John @ 11:36 AM 0 comments

The photo potential of "small" scopes

This site has great photos taken with "Small" telescopes. Their definition of small means 8" and 11" reflectors, so they aren't exactly small. Still, the photos are encouraging because the task is famously difficult. Take a look.

posted by Tako John @ 11:20 AM 0 comments

Cheap *and* decent night vision?

In this case I hope the announcement is half true, because low-end night vision equipment has been very weak. Night Owl Optics claims to have left the others behind.

posted by Tako John @ 5:20 PM 0 comments

Kowa to release invisible binoculars

Kowa has announced a line of camouflage binocs, with all the requisite puns. The prices range from $260 to $620, so the quality should be quite decent.

Read more here.

posted by Tako John @ 5:16 PM 0 comments

"Do not buy a cheap telescope"

Here's some advice for first time telescope buyers, from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

"There are a lot of bad telescopes out there that come in a box and claim some impressive-sounding power," said Stan Seeberg, an amateur astronomer and founder of the Vancouver Sidewalk Astronomers. "Sometimes the boxes are worth more than the products."

Jim Todd, planetarium director at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, agrees.

"I cannot emphasize enough: Do not buy a cheap telescope," he said.

When asked what to get, Todd finds out what prospective buyers want to do with a telescope and how much they have to spend. He often discovers that "what someone really wants is a fancy living-room decoration and not so much a good stargazing instrument."

posted by Tako John @ 5:06 PM 0 comments

NASCAR and bird conservation!?!

From Audobon.org, a story on making pragmatic progress in conservation:

"...[Conservationist] Cecere still appears to have found a way to span the political spectrum. “I can connect with the military folks who are proud to be American and are some of our biggest financial supporters,” he says. “I can connect with the Harley riders who view the eagle as a symbol of freedom and independence, and on a spiritual level with Native Americans. I can connect with animal lovers, environmentalists, and with hunters. The bald eagle is a flagship, a prime example of what can be done if the American people are united in a common conservation cause.”

More money goes into those pay-per-view scopes than I imagined.

"Dollywood surveys indicate that a quarter of the park's 2 million annual visitors go to the eagle sanctuary, making it the site's top attraction after those honoring Parton herself. The sanctuary's viewing scopes bring in about $6,000 in change to the foundation."

posted by Tako John @ 9:46 AM 0 comments

Winter birdwatching in Japan

The Daily Yomuri OnLine provides advice on winter watching, and what you might see:

"In the bare oaks and elms of the countryside woodlands, look for mixed flocks of various species of tit. These birds are small--sparrow-sized or even tinier--but are very active. They flit from branch to branch in a seemingly never-ending search for food. Their omnivorous fare includes spiders and insect larva, as well as various seeds and fruits.

Tits (genus Parus) are familiar birds all over the world, with more than 50 species. In the United States they are commonly referred to as chickadees, and here in Japan they are called kara.

Japan is home to five species of tit. One of these, the marsh tit (hashibutogara), lives only in Hokkaido, but the other four species--the willow tit (ko-gara), coal tit (higara), great tit (shijukara) and varied tit (yamagara)--can be seen all over the country. During the breeding season, each pair establishes and aggressively defends a territory around their nest. During the winter months, however, the birds band together and forage in small flocks. Often several species of tit, as well as other types of birds, can be seen traveling and feeding together."

posted by Tako John @ 9:40 AM 0 comments

Bird survey on Martha's Vineyard

From the December 29 The Martha's Vineyard Times:

"The Martha's Vineyard Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is being conducted today, the final Thursday of 2005. If you happened to pick up the paper before quitting time and glanced at this column, it may help the explain several groups of people you may have encountered, all bundled up and using binoculars and carrying spotting scopes. Forgive them at this season if they were parked less than perfectly; they probably spotted a bird in a treetop and wanted to keep an eye on it as they departed the vehicle. Those were some of the participants in today's attempt to count every single bird of every species on the Island."

The story continues...these people are passionate!

"The CBC is a 24-hour day, so should people be foolish enough they could begin birding at midnight, attempting to locate nocturnal owls by sound. Typically on the Vineyard CBC, up to a dozen observers do go owling — but not starting at midnight. A 4 am wake-up is sufficient punishment to provide for plenty of time to stumble around in the freezing darkness trying to hear above the wind in the trees."

posted by Tako John @ 9:31 AM 0 comments

Get Firefox - It really is that good

I put two Firefox ads on this site because I really really want more people to use it! Once you've tried tabbed browsing there's NO going back to Internet Explorer.

It's too bad they don't demo tabs when you install Firefox, and you have to play with the options to get the most out of them. (I made tabs visible even when only 1 tab is open, and put a "New Tab" button in a prominent location.)

Get Firefox. Play around with tabs. You'll like it. You'll like them.



I've also created a fantastic bookmark folder bar in Firefox. Each topic has a sub menu so I can quickly access anything I want--no more rolling through huge nested menus.

posted by Tako John @ 10:22 PM 0 comments

Stealth vendors

These companies sell OEM or surplus optics. Is it worth the gamble to you? Do you rely on brand names?

Agena AstroProducts

Owl Astronomy Products

Paul Rini Eyepieces

posted by Tako John @ 9:37 PM 0 comments

Great discussion forums

Here are a couple of busy forums for scope discussions:

Digiscoping - Birdforum

Telescopes and astronomy - Cloudy Nights

posted by Tako John @ 9:33 PM 0 comments

Reference eyepiece: Pentax XF Zoom

Pentax 65mm scopes are often bundled with the XF Zoom eyepiece. This eyepiece is therefore something of the intended reference standard, so I purchased it with my own scope body. The XF Zoom goes from 6.5mm (60x) to 19.5mm (20x), and its eye relief ranges from 11 to 15mm. The street price is about $250.

I will post comparisons of this eyepiece with others in the future, but have a few comments about it at this time.

First, a zoom is a zoom. Some love them and some hate them. The brightness decreases and eye relief shrinks as magnification increases.

The image is bright and clear. In my (hazy coastal) area it often surpasses the atmospheric conditions. When city lights twinkle with the naked eye you can bet they'll be even worse with magnification... There's slight distortion on the perimeter, but I've got to look for it to notice it. I've noticed minor internal reflections or flare when there's an intensely bright linear object in the middle of the lens with dim objects nearby.

Overall, the XF Zoom has excellent build quality and decent performance. Is it worth the price? I aim to find out.

posted by Tako John @ 6:38 PM 0 comments

A new scope, new needs

I recently purchased the Pentax PF-65ED-A spotting scope. Better View Desired raved about its performance, and at roughly $500 for the body, it is far more reasonably priced than Leica, Zeiss, and Swarovski products. It's not so expensive that I would worry when throwing into luggage or actually taking it outdoors.

The Pentax was more appealing to me than similarly priced Kowa scopes because it uses standard 1.25" telescope eyepieces. From what I've found on the web, this is both its greatest strength and its Achilles heel. Most 1.25" eyepieces are designed for astronomical telescopes--which have longer focal lengths and different needs. Pentax released a series of compact eyepieces designed for this scope, the XF series, that are matched to the size of the scope. Unfortunately, Pentax eyepieces retail for $150 to $300 each, so each one represents a pretty big commitment. Furthermore, the vast number of 1.25" eyepieces on the market calls out for experimentation! Got to try cheap, expensive, short, long, special purpose, and conventional eyepieces...

I've found a range of contradictory opinions about using non-XF eyepieces in this scope, but none of the explanations (pro or con) were backed up with specific details. I want to know!

And so began SmallScopes.

posted by Tako John @ 6:03 PM 0 comments

First Post: Why Small Scopes?

This site is meant to 1) post information on all topics related to small scopes, including telescopes, spotting scopes, binoculars, monoculars, rifle scopes, and accessories, 2) provide a place for sharing experiences with products. Please submit links, reviews, or topics for discussion.

Thanks.

More to come.

posted by Tako John @ 12:54 PM 0 comments