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Concept
Monocular
Summary
A monocular is a compact refracting telescope used to magnify images of distant objects, typically using an optical prism to ensure an , instead of using relay lenses like most telescopic sights. The volume and weight of a monocular are typically less than half of a pair of binoculars with similar optical properties, making it more portable and also less expensive. This is because binoculars are essentially a pair of monoculars packed together — one for each eye. As a result, monoculars only produce two-dimensional images, while binoculars can use two parallaxed images (each for one eye) to produce binocular vision, which allows stereopsis and depth perception.
Monoculars are ideally suited to those application where three-dimensional perception is not needed, or where compactness and low weight are important (e.g. hiking). Monoculars are also sometimes preferred where difficulties occur using both eyes through binoculars due to significant eyesight variation (e.g. strabismus, anisometropia or astigmatism) or unilateral visual impairment (due to amblyopia, cataract or corneal ulceration).
Conventional refracting telescopes that use relay lenses has a straight optical path that is relatively long; as a result, monoculars normally use Porro or roof prisms to "fold up" the optical path, which makes it much shorter and compact (see the entry on binoculars for details). However, monoculars also tend to have lower magnification factors than telescopes of the same objective size, and typically lack the capacity of variable magnification.
Visually impaired people may use monoculars to see objects at distances at which people with normal vision do not have difficulty, e.g., to read text on a chalkboard or projection screen. Applications for viewing more distant objects include natural history, hunting, marine and military. Compact monoculars are also used in art galleries and museums to obtain a closer view of exhibits.
When high magnification, a bright image, and good resolution of distant images are required, a relatively larger instrument is preferred (i.
Official source
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