Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/769

Rh opera-glasses are made with achromatic objectives. But there are great differences in the quality of the work. If a glass shows a colored fringe around a bright object reject it. Let the diameter of the object-glasses, which are the large lenses in the end farthest from the eye, be not less than an inch and a half. The magnifying power should be at least three diameters. A familiar way of estimating the magnifying power is by looking at a brick wall through one barrel of the opera-glass with one eye, while the other eye sees the wall without the intervention of the glass. Then notice how many bricks seen by the naked eye are required to equal in thickness one brick seen through the glass. That number represents the magnifying power.

The instrument used by the writer in making most of the observations for this sketch has object-glasses 1·6 inch in diameter, and a magnifying power of about three and one half times.

See that the fields of view given by the two barrels of the opera-glass coincide, or blend perfectly together. If one appears to partially overlap the other when looking at a distant object, the effect is very annoying. This fault arises from the barrels of the opera-glass being placed too far apart, so that their optical centers do not coincide with the centers of the observer's eyes.

Occasionally, on account of faulty centering of the lenses, a double image is given of objects looked at, as illustrated in the accompanying cut. In such a case the glass is worthless; but if the effect is simply the addition of a small, crescent-shaped extension on one side of the field of view without any reduplication, the fault may be overlooked, though it is far better to select a glass that gives a perfectly round field. Some glasses have an arrangement for adjusting the distance between the barrels to suit the eyes of different persons, and it would be well if all were made adjustable in the same way.

Don't buy a cheap glass, but don't waste your money on fancy mountings. What the Rev. T. W. Webb says of telescopes is equally true of opera-glasses: "Inferior articles may be showily got up, and the outside must go for nothing." There are a few makers, whose names stamped upon the instrument, may generally be regarded as a guarantee of excellence. But the best test is that of actual performance. I have a field-glass which I found in a pawn-shop, that has no maker's name upon it, but is quite capable of bearing critical comparison with the work of the best advertised opticians. And this leads me to say that, by the exercise of good judgment, one may occasionally purchase superior glasses at very reasonable prices in the