Binoculars – Purchasing And Care
Of all the optical instruments, binoculars are widely used by travelers, sports fans, fisherman & hunters.
Binoculars are mounted side by side & aligned to point with accuracy in the same direction. Unlike the single lens telescope, binoculars or binocular telescopes, allows the viewer a greater sense of distance & depth. Binoculars give the users an apparently 3D image.
Binoculars are so designed that the focal length of the lenses is less than is physical length. Larger binoculars can not actually be held steady hence they’re mounted on a support such as tripod. The Large Binocular Telescope, known as LBT is located in Arizona & it produced the First Light image from outer space in October 26, 2005.
Coin operated binoculars which are mounted on a pedestal are found in popular tourism spots to help the tourists get a closer view of the sights. By dropping one or two quarters in it, it permits the use of the binoculars for 2 to 3 minutes
A very good binocular should produce two sharp images which are uniform, each image having excellent quality, free from geometrical errors or internal reflections & color corrections. Both the images right & left should be identical without any variation in orientation, aberrations & size.
The magnifying power of the binoculars is referred as 7X or 8X which means the object will be magnified 7 or 8 times of its original size. And so… Some binoculars have magnifying capacity in varying degrees. The term 7-21X means starting with 7 times magnification it can reach up to a magnifying power of 21 times. Most commonly used magnifying powers of binoculars are from 6X to 10X increasing in steps of 1.
A very good quality binocular can be identified by the popularity & fame of the brand names. By producing high quality optical products, companies such as Leica, Minolta, Pentax, Zeiss, Celestron, Nikon & Swarovski earned a good reputation. As usual we get what we pay for.
Whilst traveling, select a binocular which is light weight, compact & fits easily into the suitcase or shoulder bag. A compact roof prism binocular perfectly fits the bill as a travel companion.
For the budding astronomer, a very high quality & bright binocular with a power rating of 9X, 8X or 7X is required. Make sure that the binoculars can be held steadily while searching & focusing on objects in the sky.
By keeping the binoculars clean, we can make best use of them & get a longer life from them.
Use compressed air in cans to blow the dust off from the lens. Use lens cleaner & lens cloth to get rid of the grease & dirt from the lenses. So… Start the cleaning at the center of the lens & gradually swirl towards the rim. Use a soft bristle toothbrush to clean the crevices of the binocular casing & use a slightly damp cloth to wipe the casing.
Lucy Bartlett is a proud contributing author. Find more articles at http://mindbodyandsoulportal.info/ For lots more info visit http://binocular-heaven.info/ or http://binocular-heaven.info/binocular-comparisons.html
Lucy Bartlett