What is a Monocular and How Does It Work?
A monocular is a small, lightweight telescope that has just one aim lens. That means you won’t need to carry around anything heavy or worry about having to set up the tripod for your telescope before you can start observing. All you’ll have to do is hold it up and look through the eyepiece to see a magnified version of your subject! Monoculars are great for bird-watching, hunting, scouting or any time when weight and simplicity are important considerations.
How to make the most of your monocular?
The best way to make the most of your monocular is to use it during the day. This will reduce the light pollution around you, allowing you to see more objects in the sky. Just be sure that you have an unrestricted view of the horizon before you start things like trees and buildings can block your view of what’s up there!
Monoculars for different purposes
If you primarily intend to use your monocular for birding, then a light weight, high-quality unit with a low power magnification is a must. If you want to do wildlife viewing or another outdoor activity, than a more powerful unit that provides higher levels of magnification is better suited.
For most people who are looking into buying a monocular, they are mainly purchasing it for bird watching. A good quality and lightweight model will be best suited for this type of use. You will still need to get an item that provides some level of magnification because the products without that feature are really too basic to be worth purchasing. If you will be doing a considerable amount of birding, then you should look for an item that has a 7x or 8 x power magnifications. If you are just going to have them around the house for occasional use, then it probably isn’t worth spending a lot extra on something with those features, more information.
How does the monocular work?
A monocular is simply a hand held telescope that has one eyepiece instead of two. With this one lens, the user can still get magnified vision as long as they hold it up to their eye and can keep both eyes open while looking through it. It takes some practice getting used to but many people find that there is less strain on their eyes when using these types of devices.
What are the types of monoculars?
There are three main types of these units that you can purchase; straight, porro prism and roof prism. It will all depend on what is best suited for your needs. Straight models have longer barrels while the more sophisticated roof prism models feature multi-coated lenses to help with image clarity and brightness. Porro prisms provide good contrast between dark and light areas but they don’t provide as much magnification power as the other two styles do.
Conclusion
A monocular is a type of magnifying device that typically has one lens. The other eye will see an image through the eyepiece and it can be used to read small print or make detailed observations. Monoculars are often available in pocket-sized models for easy carry, as well as standard versions with adjustable optical lenses so you can get just the right magnification.