I know as a young person I was fascinated by a couple of things. The first was the concept of how far away can I see, the second was how small an object can I see. To this day, I am still interested in those two concepts. How far can I see is a telescope or binoculars question. I have binoculars for the boat that are ranging binoculars. They can tell you exactly how far an object is away from you. At home, I have a couple of telescopes.
All with the intent of seeing far. I remember going with my dad to the Indiana University telescope in the early 1970s. I think it was before we went to Bangkok. I was awe of what that telescope could see. It was heavily affected by light. Literally just off the main drag of both the IU campus but also of the city of Bloomington Indiana. But I was hooked.
Microscopes are also interesting, I have an “image magnification system to view coins, but that is more from a collection and collector perspective. Sometimes you can’t see the struck mint stamp, they can be very small. Sometimes the dates are very faded.
None of this, of course, applies to Macro photography which is a very different image to capture. This is examining objects far away or objects very near with intention of determining critical information, like is there water on Mars, or was that coin really from San Francisco!
-
Question of
have you ever been to an observatory?
-
Yes
-
No
-
-
Question of
Do you sometimes gaze at the stars and wonder if somewhere another bearing is looking back at you?
-
Yes
-
No
-
-
Question of
Do you own a telescope?
-
Yes
-
No
-
I have binoculars. It was used by my husband. Now deserted in the closet
I can understand why they are in the closet. Memories are funny sometimes.
how do ranged binoculars work? are they bouncing a laser or something?
yes, they bounce a short beam laser to range the object. Really effective on water, less so on items moving fast.
that’s to be expected. I assume it then projects some sorta HUD to provide distance and such?
It is actually below the FOV so you can see, measure and decide quickly.
but does it have a compass?
The really high end ones do, yes have a compass.
so damn cool. just like the binocs from empire strikes back
Technology has moved so far in the past 10 years. i hear the old line from the comic many years ago
stop the world I want to get off.
I don’t have a telescope but I have good binoculars to look at the mountains sometimes
You are lucky – I have to drive an hour to see mountains!
I winter them when I clearly watch them ski, my friend
That is awesome – I love to watch skiing from the comfort of the lodge with a fine scotch.
Obviously you can enjoy it too, and that’s right, my friend
I often observe the night sky with a telescope and wonder if someone might be looking back.
.I am glad to know that there are others that do this as well!!!
We have binoculars and a telescope. We also like to watch for meteors during the meteor showers with our naked eyes. I’ll bet the University telescope was really something to see!
It really was – I loved into into the heavens!
I have binoculars. I have visited the Nehru Planetarium where I got to see some of that
I bet that was an amazing view!