Spotting Scopes

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A spotting scope is a telescope with a large objective lens which produces a bright, upright image of great clarity and detail. Hence, they are very popular with nature and bird watchers. It is essential that a tripod is used with a spotting scope due to the large maginifications. Some scopes can be used both as visual instruments and as photographic instruments. With appropriate adapters, scopes from certain manufacturers, such as our Yukon range, can serve as telephoto lenses for 35mm SLR cameras.

How the eye piece fits to the scope body gives rise to their description as either straight scopes or angled scopes (see photograph below). The straight eye piece variety are common and often easier to use because the eye piece is in line with the body of the scope and pointing in the direction that you are looking. Straight scopes are best suited to observing birds that are at or below eye level. The angled eye pieces are fitted at 45° to the body, and if the body is rotated it can become disorientating, though with practice this becomes less of a problem. Angled scopes are best suited to observing birds that are high up, for example in trees or in flight. If you are going to use a tripod, then the tripod will be lower and more stable with an angled scope (because you are looking downwards in to the eye piece) than with a straight scope.

The size of the objective lens influences the clarity of the image. The bigger the lens, the more light is gathered and the better the image, but also the heavier and bulkier the scope which are important considerations on field trips. Common objective lens diameters are: 50 mm, 60 mm, 66 mm, 77 mm, 80 mm and 85 mm.

The eye piece sets the magnification. As with binoculars, a high magnification is not necessarily the best, because high magnification decreases the field of view, which makes targeting more difficult, decreases image brightness, decreases steadiness, and heat haze can become a problem. Common magnifications are 25x to 32x.


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