Monoculars, also known as hand-held binoculars, can be held in the hand like binoculars, providing a permanently portable and unique viewing experience. Portable monoculars generally fall into two categories: specialized bird-watching glasses and converted small-aperture telescopes.

When hunting, camping, or attending a sporting event, you can use one eye to observe distant objects through a single telescope. You can also use a single telescope as a magnifying glass to magnify hard-to-read text. Before we learn how to use a telescope, let’s read about how to choose the best telescope.

How to choose the best telescope?

(1) Multiple

Many people always believe that the higher the optical multiple is, the better. The reasonable multiple of a telescope is related to the aperture and observation mode of the telescope, that is, the large aperture, the multiple can be appropriately higher; Tripod fixed observation can be higher than hand-held observation. If you choose hand-held binoculars, 7 to 10 times should be enough, preferably no more than 12 times. 

Otherwise, the higher the multiple is, the smaller and darker the field of view will be, and the observation effect will decline, especially the jitter caused by the high multiple is greatly increased, which makes the observed scene unable to stabilize. Most telescopes equipped by troops in the world, such as China, the United States, and Russia, are mainly 6-10 times because a clear and stable image is the most important.

(2) Lens size

You should also consider your ideal lens size, as a larger lens gives you a wider field of view and a better, brighter image. Smaller lenses may not have as good a view, but they’re easier to use and smaller. Most monoculars have lenses between 20 mm and 42 mm in size. You may find a single telescope with a specific magnification and lens size, such as 8 x 25, a single telescope with 8x magnification, and a 25mm lens. You can try several different monoculars with fixed magnification and lens size to get an idea of what you’re looking for.

(3) Price

When you buy a telescope, you should check out multiple models and brands online to compare prices. Consider your needs in magnification, lens, size, and weight per barrel. Try comparing several retailers online so you can get the best price for the monocular model you need. A famous brand telescope on the international market, its performance is very good, packaging technology is exquisite, but the general price is above two or three thousand yuan, relatively speaking, the price of the apexel telescope with the same high performance is very low, very suitable for the use of ordinary people.

(4) Prism material

Those tens of dollars of single telescope prism material probability to use BK7 material, low transmittance, dark effect, not sharp, and BAK4 transmittance are good, clear, and bright imaging. So pay attention to the prism material of the monoculars you want to buy.

(5) Antireflection film

The antireflection film, the more antireflection film, the clearer the imaging, generally monolayer mirror is red or blue-purple, the multi-layer film is light green or dark purple, and the thicker monolayer film is green.

(6) Vision

The larger the field of vision is, the wider, brighter, and more comfortable the observation range will be. Regular military telescopes are generally designed with a Wide Angle and a wide field of view.

Follow these instructions when choosing a telescope of your choice. Finally, if you are going to use a telescope in rainy weather or underwater, choose a waterproof telescope.

FAQ:

What is good magnification for a home telescope?

As the size of the telescope aperture gets bigger, the amount of light that can be collected and clearly viewed also increases, so dim and blurry objects become clear. Most users find a useful magnification is about 20x to 50x per inch of aperture.

Which is better, a refractor or reflector telescope?

If you are interested in astrophotography, purchasing a refractor is a better option because of it’s specialized optic design that captures deep space objects like galaxies and nebulae. If you are interested in brighter celestial objects like the Moon or planets or a beginner, a reflector telescope is ideal.

Are APEXEL telescopes good?

APEXEL telescopes are incredibly good and are great for amateurs and professional astronomers alike. They are also very economical compared to other telescopes. The benefit of this type of optical arrangement is the telescopes light gathering ability. The more light gathered, equals more fainter objects to be seen.