Re: ATM Binoculars & thermal plumes.

[Chuck Dethloff <telmor@teleport.com>]

At 05:34 PM 12/23/2002 -0800, Clive Milne wrote:
>Another point to consider is the
>way your breath is directed when you're observing.

Clive,

As you noted in an earlier post, there are a lot of things that would 
factor in where body heat ultimately tracks to. Given common viewing 
positions, I would suspect that one's exhalation plume (at least in calm 
conditions) would diffuse down and away from the center of our body. Where 
it might go after that as it rises and cools is what I would try to block 
as effectively as possible in either a binocular or monocular scope.

>In my experience though, any loss of fine detail attributable to
>thermal effects is more than made up for with the perception boost
>peculiar to binocular vision.

No one has heard me say that I do not agree enthusiastically regarding the 
perception boost from binocular vision. Some of the most captivating views 
of the universe I have ever had were through various binocular scopes owned 
by Steve Swayze, Rich Livitsky, Frank Szczepanscki and also Bruce Sayre 
over the years. (Yes, Bruce, the exhalation rate is truly faster through 
binoscopes <g>)

Chuck Dethloff