Nature & You: Making sense of last-minute Christmas gift choices can be bewildering

For that nature-lover on your Christmas gift-buying list, nothing can be more confusing than trying to make sense of all the specifications on binocular choices.

I’ll attempt to present you with a brief tutorial on how to make heads and tails of all the confusing information when you initiate your comparison shopping.

First off, you’d be wise to buy binoculars that are in the mid-range of the pricing scale. The inexpensive binoculars are just too flimsy, and one errant bump can jar them out of focus. On the other end of the spectrum are those mega-expensive models that are best suited to professional scientists who spend all day, everyday in pursuit of flighty quarry.

Secondly, binoculars that have an image magnifying power of 7x or 8x are the best match for the average user. It might bear mentioning that my personal binoculars are the 10x power variety. If you should choose to parrot my choice, just be forewarned there is a requisite learning curve that will eventually enable you to use the high-powered optics with ease and comfort.

The third thing to consider is how big you want the optical lens farthest away from your eye to be. This is important because using the binoculars during early morning, low-light situations makes it imperative you have binoculars with lens diameters that permit an adequate amount of light to enter the binoculars; you want to be able to see what you are looking at. For the 7-power magnification, an objective lens of 35mm is sufficient. If, however, you are hankering to buy some binoculars like mine, the 10x power magnification will make it mandatory that you have an objective lens with a diameter of 50mm.

Binoculars can be wonderful Christmas gifts.

Here’s hoping your gift recipient will flash miles of smiles this holiday season.

Neil Garrison was the longtime naturalist at a central Oklahoma nature center. His email is atlatlgarrison@hotmail.com.