# Difference between monocular and spotting scope?



## milkyspit (Dec 8, 2004)

Quick question folks, one that I've always been meaning to ask... what's the difference between a monocular and a spotting scope?


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## bindibadgi (Dec 8, 2004)

Except that the spotting scope is usually bigger, essentially nothing. I had to try hard to resist suggesting an 8 inch scope in the recommendation for monocular thread. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Oh, except that the scope would probably give an inverted image.


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## Fitz (Dec 8, 2004)

*Re: Difference between monocular and spotting scop*

Monoculars are small, pocket sized single lensed magnifiers, like a binocular with 1 tube but smaller. Spotting scopes are usually much larger, with higher magnification (20X and higher vs. 7X or so for monoculars) and usually set up on a tripod for stability due to the higher power.


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## Jeritall (Dec 8, 2004)

Size.


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## MoonRise (Dec 9, 2004)

Size, optics, construction. Think of a monocular as half of a binocular, and a spotting scope as a telescope that has the image right-side-up and correct left-to-right.

A spotting scope is typically made to be used to "spot" things, ie to look at them. As such, it will have optics and an important part of that is that the image will be right-side up and correct left-to-right as well. An astromical telescope -could- be used as a spotting scope, but the image is usually upside down and mirror imaged.

Unsolicited advise: cheap optics are horrible. Good optics are expensive. It's typically finding the price-performance tradeoff that you can live with that takes a while to narrow down. Once you see the image through good optics, you will never want to use less. Good quality optics (spotting scope or binoculars) will usually run high 3-figure dollars or into the 4-figure dollars.


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