A monocular can be seen as a miniature version of a low powered telescope. It is used with one eye and is about half the size of a binocular. Being a pocket sized optical device, it is very convenient to carry and it comes in handy when you want to occasionally view objects from far away. Monoculars are essentially for people who don.t want to carry around a binocular or spotting scope and need to use an optical device sparingly. The small form factor makes it easy to carry around but it can cause some eye strain if used for long periods of time. So depending on its usage, a monocular or a pocket sized binocular can make the perfect device.

No one knows who invented the first monocular but the first documented scope maker is Hans Lippershey. He holds the first known patent for telescopes and his first prototype was the monocular. Other accounts of ancient monoculars date back as far as Arabia so the true inventor of the optical device will never be known. A monocular is essentially a low powered modified refracting telescope. Images of distant objects are magnified by using a series of lenses or sometimes prisms. They produce 2 dimensional images while binoculars produce a third (perception of depth).

Modern day monoculars come in a wide variety of quality and prices. Some monoculars have a magnification range of 6x while others can have a magnification of 30X or greater. If you need to see a greater distance and weight isn.t a restriction, you can go with a spotting scope. A spotting scope is essentially a large, very heavy monocular with a tripod as a support. It.s able to see much greater distances than a binocular and a monocular. Cheap monoculars can cost under $30 while high end ones can cost up to $1,000.

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