When planning an outdoor adventure, we concern ourselves with variables: timing, destination, equipment, and everything in between. We scour the weather forecast. Make a checklist. Add this sweet Swarovski travel tripod kit to your list’s optics column, and there will be one less uncertainty; one less worry.
This tripod kit could easily be [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Birding’
Swarovski CT Travel Carbon Tripod with DH 101 Head
Atlas Optics Intrepid ED 8×42
The gang here at Eagle Optics rolled out the red carpet recently for a shipment of this binocular which had been out of stock for awhile. Why the celebrity treatment, you may ask? Quite simply, we have long known this bin can Stand and Deliver. It is our customers, though, whose feedback [...]
Nina Learns Digiscoping (and enjoys a little beginner’s luck)
Last week I had my very first experience with digiscoping, and I can easily see how one becomes addicted to this fascinating hobby. As my coworker Mike showed me, digiscoping is taking photographs using a digital camera and a spotting scope. While I have long admired Mike’s exquisite photographs ( he has 8 [...]
About Waterproofing & Fogproofing
Waterproof binoculars and spotting scopes are sealed internally with O-rings to prevent moisture, dust, and debris from compromising the inside of the instrument. Fogproofing means that the optical barrel (or barrels in the case of a binocular) is filled with nitrogen or argon gas to prevent internal fogging caused when subjecting the optic to temperature [...]
On Nests!
Nina’s special find: a horsehair nest!
It’s the beginning of June and nesting season is well underway. Our feathered friends may be seen busily selecting their prime spot, gathering materials, and doing their magic to create the sacred place where their eggs will be laid and their young raised. Many species have already fledged [...]
Good Camera for Digiscoping!
I’ve been receiving very positive feedback from a number of customers who are using the Canon S90 for digiscoping. While Canon doesn’t make an accessory adapter to bring it out to a convenient filter thread to support Swarovski’s DCA or Kowa’s DA1 adapters, the S90 will mount to bracket/platform adapters like the Swarovski UCA [...]
About Exit Pupil
A diminutive but technical definition of Exit Pupil is the diameter of the shaft of light (expressed in millimeters) that exits a binocular’s eyepiece that can enter through your eye’s pupillary opening. Exit Pupil is calculated by dividing a binocular’s aperture by its magnification, e.g. 42mm / 8x (for an 8×42 binocular) = 5.25mm.
Under bright [...]
Demystifying Spotting Scopes
Perhaps you’ve looked at a bird through a spotting scope during a field trip and were completely awed by the intimacy of the experience. When it comes to observing a bird, nothing personalizes the experience better than the view through a scope. Intricate feather detail is revealed as a bird raises its crest, preens, or [...]
Congratulations Class of 2009 Whoopers!
Operation Migration and the Class of 2009 Whooping Cranes have completed another arduous journey from Wisconsin to Florida! This is the second time since the tragic loss of the 2006 class to a severe storm that young whoopers were split into two groups, thus lessening the impact of a possible mortality event on a [...]
This is Shrike Country
Shrike country is open country. Shrike country has peripheral perches, scrubby habitat, and lots of prey items. For as long as I’ve been visiting Pheasant Branch Conservancy, a Northern Shrike has claimed its snowy prairies throughout the winter months. Occasionally there’s been more than one shrike. Even though I’ve observed a shrike there just once [...]
