I Have Binoculars! Now What?

April 1, 2022 8:03 AM

Through a pleasantly unlikely chain of events, I have managed to score a brand spankin' new set of binoculars for free. Can you help me get in the habit of using them?

I've already been meaning to explore the natural world here in New York City a little more, and had the chance to get a decent set of binoculars for free (long story) and jumped at it thinking "well, heck, maybe that could help with seeing birds or wildlife or something". I hadn't seriously intended or planned to get a set before this, though; I have the mindset that binoculars are for people who intentionally go out on the hunt for specific kinds of birds and the binoculars are there to help them find them, and I'm more the kind of person who just idly walks through a forest all "tra-la-la" and if I stumble upon something by accident, even if it's just a pigeon, then cool. I'd like to avoid packing them when I go for a walk and then forgetting I even have them in my bag until after I get home and remember "oh, crap, I could have used these".

I was going to go to an island tomorrow, parking myself on a hill and just sort of playing around with them to feel them out. Does anyone have any cool tricks I can try out that'll get me excited about using them?

Please note: I am not looking for practical how-to-use advice, I'm looking more for WHY-to-use advice.

posted by EmpressCallipygos to Science & Nature (20 answers total)

Best answer: Don't look at the sun.

That said: look at birds, birds are great. There's a pond across from my house, and once in a while I like to check out what critters are present. I'm not keeping a checklist of birds I have spotted, just looking around. Birds? Squirrel nests up high? I hear a bird singing; can I find it?

I keep the binoculars in a desk drawer, along with a book for identifying local birds. But 90% of them are chickadees and sparrows, plus some bluejays and robins. Don't need a book for that.

Also, look at the moon sometime. Even with weak binoculars, you can see a lot more than with your bare eyes.
posted by wenestvedt at 8:14 AM on April 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: My mind was blown when I got binoculars. There’s just so many birds that you can’t even really see with your regular eyes. You are about to discover the world of warblers! So jealous that you get to do this for the first time. I will never forget realizing how many little colorful amazing birds there are all around me that I had literally never noticed before.

Other things to use binoculars for: seeing what that sign over there says, figuring out what’s floating out in the middle of the water, looking at that crowd of people ahead to see why they are gathering, inspecting bugs and flowers, looking at the moon and stars at night.

Getting a harness to replace the neck strap makes them tons more comfortable for wearing during walks. A possible perk of wearing binoculars is that people will feel comfortable starting a conversation with you to ask you what you’re seeing or tell you where something cool is to look at!
posted by oomny at 8:32 AM on April 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

Island is it? Might there be whales or seals? Also passing ships off to distant Ophir. Unless your "bins" are of the mighty unterseebootkapitän variety, you'll get more at-the-ready use out of them if worn round the neck and under one arm than in a case in a bag.
posted by BobTheScientist at 8:37 AM on April 1, 2022

Best answer: The moon, yes. Birds for sure, along with other animals (squirrels, deer) and insects. To track how flowers are developing on flowering trees and bushes I can see from my window. To see what's up with the traffic jam on the road by my balcony. To watch planes fly by and try to figure out which company they are from (then looking up where the people are flying to in the flight radar app). To figure out how windy it is by watching waves on the creek.

But yea, mostly birds for me. It opens up a whole new skillset to track little birds moving quickly through foliage.
posted by gemmy at 8:37 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Get somewhere with semi-dark skies and a view to the South. The Milky Way is rather dense in that direction and with binoculars you can just scan the sky and you'll see star clusters, galaxies, nebula, and all sorts of neat things. You don't even need to know exactly what you're seeing, just look around and you'll eventually see something that you'll know is not a star.
posted by bondcliff at 8:38 AM on April 1, 2022 [5 favorites]

Just take them out with you when you go on walks. Around your neck. Then you'll use them!

I love the Audubon Society phone app because I can search for what birds I just saw by size, colors, habitat, behavior... It makes the sorting very easy. I'm sure other birding apps work similarly.

I got into birding in the last couple years during the lockdowns, and to bond with my mom who is a lifelong birder. It's really wonderful to begin recognizing birds on sight and eventually by sound.

You'll find the most birds at times and places where multiple habitats intersect. Where land meets water, where two biomes meet, and especially at dawn or dusk. But also where there are the most trees and flora.
posted by panhopticon at 9:10 AM on April 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: Yes to birds and night sky stuff. Especially Jupiter and its moons!

I was a birder before I became a botanist, and I love using bins to look at plants! Here in North Carolina, I can watch butterflies across the yard nectaring on flowers. In spring, I can look up into trees to see early blooms and budding leaves. Getting a good look at a high-up tree leaf can be really useful for identifying trees, or just appreciating them. Also, I can watch hummingbirds zoom around flowering vines high up in the pine trees. Honestly, how do people botanize anything above head-height without binoculars?
posted by Drosera at 9:17 AM on April 1, 2022

One often overlooked thing is to use binoculars to get great views of small stuff on the ground. Bugs, moss and lichens are all good candidates. With a little practice it can be almost as good as having a hand lens!
posted by SaltySalticid at 9:30 AM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

I'm a new birder, and I like the Merlin phone app. It's free, it's from Cornell, and it lets you search by bird characteristics or just start recording audio and it will tell you who's out there to help you know what to look for. It also links up with eBird, so you can be a citizen scientist and share your observation data. eBird also lets you see where other people are going birding near you and what they've seen there recently.

I tend to wear binoculars around my neck with the lens caps off while I'm wandering around hoping to see birds so I can easily check things out. I see a much wider range of species than I would have guessed before I started paying attention and it's fun to watch their behavior. There's a bit of a learning curve with binoculars, take a break if you start feeling seasick.

I also recommend finding a beginner's class or just walking up to other folks with binocs and asking questions, it's so helpful to start out with some birds being definitively identified for you as you start out. Like, oh, that's what a rowing motion of the wings looks like!
posted by momus_window at 9:50 AM on April 1, 2022 [3 favorites]

Best answer: If you're on a large body of water, look toward the horizon and spot all manner of fata morgana. I used to stare at the coastline through binoculars in Southern California all the time, because this phenomenon is just so weird and cool and visually interesting.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 10:13 AM on April 1, 2022 [2 favorites]

Best answer: So many good suggestions already! Definitely look at the moon, and at the gas giant planets. A fun astronomy thing to try is looking at the stars and the handle of the Big Dipper, it makes the double stars much more apparent!

A tip for looking at moving objects: find stationary point of reference. Tracking a moving object and binoculars is hard. For example, if I'm looking at a bird flying over the city, I make a mental note of a unique building or infrastructure about to be in the bird's path. If I try to instantly follow the bird, it disappears before I have a chance to figure out what's going on.

If you have any discomfort with how they hang on your neck/body, try a different style of harness or strap. I like (SL, Amazon) this kind. I have liked it less when my chest is bigger due to weight gain. There's also a style that you wear like a messenger bag, although I'm struggling to find it right now.
posted by Guess What at 11:09 AM on April 1, 2022

Your ad link says it comes with a tripod adapter. Detail on the moon (and everything else) is ASTOUNDING with it mounted camera tripod.
posted by brachiopod at 12:39 PM on April 1, 2022

If you ever go to sporting events, bring them. There is always downtime and I've found looking at the press box, and the production/television staff and all the equipment to be a fascinating side show.
posted by mmascolino at 1:05 PM on April 1, 2022

Birds. Birds. Birds. Birds. Birds.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:28 PM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Best answer: New York City? Hoo boy, do you ever have a bunch of beautiful old buildings to look at.

Back in the day they did a lot of ornate architectural work cornices, friezes, facades, caryatids, pilasters, arches, cantilevers, gables and domes...

The Plant House on the corner of 52nd Street is worth a close look. So is the Sinclair House on 5th Avenue. The Dakota. City Hall. The Woolworth Building. Carnegie Hall....

There are so many! And not just the famous ones. Anything built before 1920 is apt to have interesting features if they have not been eradicated - many have been redone at street level in order to install plate glass windows and such, but upper windows and roof corners are amazing. You can take your binoculars inside old churches. You can look at some of the older schools and civic buildings.

Make sure you bring them with you when you go anywhere with older multistory buildings. You will see amazing things.
posted by Jane the Brown at 5:38 PM on April 1, 2022

Seconding the idea of getting an inexpensive camera tripod. You won't especially use it all the time, but especially if you look at the stars and planets you'll get much better results than hand holding the binoculars. Even for extended bird watching at a pond in a park a tripod can come in handy. You can get very light-weight tripods that can compress small enough to put in a backpack or bag; they are marginal for photography but great for observation.
posted by lhauser at 6:32 PM on April 1, 2022 [1 favorite]

Read the directions, if any, that came with. All binoculars are not the same with respect to adjusting focus in both eyes. Take a few minutes to practice.

Also, get familiar with the depth of field phenomenon. If you focus on something say 100 ft away, some close things and some far away things will be out of focus. Depth of field is about the size of the area where stuff is in sharp focus. This matters if, say, you focus on something 15 ft away, then want to transition to something 100yds away. You may have to refocus before can even get it in view.

10x magnification is higher than most people use on moving platforms like boats because the jiggle us is magnified. Learn a comfortable stance that lets you hold still.

I use binoculars to watch sailboats, but I admit that's a bit obscure. I once took one to the ballet. We had the next to last seats in the highest balcony. The binoculars allowed me to see the secret details of the dancer's makeup. Opera glasses are only 3x for a reason. We live in a wooded area and binoculars are handy for various wildlife, like foxes. (The deer are too close and too frequent to get much attention. )

And, yes, use the strap around your neck.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:43 AM on April 2, 2022

I know you said you don't want "how-to" advice but make sure you (or any other binoc beginners) understand how the diopter on your fancier binoc's work. I spent a fair bit of time really frustrated with an inherited higher-end pair from my parents before I downloaded the manual. This happened despite having been having had cheapo binocs for pretty much my entire life.
posted by srboisvert at 5:18 PM on April 2, 2022

Response by poster: Well, I brought the binoculars out to Governors Island yesterday - along with the pamphlet that came with the box - only to find that the pamphlet was just a folded piece of paper which said, in multiple languages, that the manual could be found on the manufacturer's web site. I tried playing around with them, but it looked a little blurry in the center of the field of vision in both eyes, so I will read the manual and learn how to set the focus right and try again. (NYC Transit screwed me over a little and I got there way later than I wanted anyway, so I wouldn't have had much luck anyway.)

I'm definitely thinking of "Stuff to go check out" though.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 4:56 AM on April 3, 2022

Best answer: I can't quite get into the idea of wearing binoculars around NYC, but in a tote bag, they're easy to reach whenever I see something I want a closer look at.

Go to Cashmere Veil in Prospect Park, lots of nice birds to see in there. And the lake. And any of the woodier and/or watery parts of Central Park are great too. And pretty much anywhere on Jamaica Bay. Plus, there are fancy birds just about everywhere in NYC -- I saw two downy woodpeckers in Union Square this morning just with a quick wander around with no binoculars.

Also, take a look at Andrew Garn's recent book on pigeons. There are a bunch of fancy pigeon traits you can look for among normal pigeon populations and it's neat to find one with, e.g., feathery feet or a fancy hairdo.
posted by snaw at 6:43 AM on April 3, 2022