Here's looking at you.

Through these old binoculars. They have a 5x magnification and the optics are surprisingly good, even while the field of view is small. They are black-painted brass with leather-wrapped barrels, and came complete with velvet-lined, leather case. The only markings are "5x" and a angle markings on the ocular bridge and "CIMILIA DEPOSE" on the main hinge pin at the objective end. A web search of this name yields no useful information, so if anyone knows anything about this company/manufacturer, please let me know.

Poor tree.

Here's a big U.S. Navy Mark 74 telescope - once used for sighting big guns (> 5") on navy ships. The builder's plate indicates a manufacture date of 1944, so this sight may have helped sink some Japanese or German ships - who knows?



This was my first purchase many years ago on the fledgling E-Bay. It's mostly brass, and weighs about 20 lbs. I won the auction for something like $5.00, and I think shipping was around $15.00. The scrap value alone probably makes it a good buy!

Anyway, the optics are good (if a little dirty), and the crosshairs are fine.

Here's a shot through it drawing a bead on my neighbor's tree with no color filter:


Here's a shot through it drawing a bead on my neighbor's tree with a yellow filter:


Here's a shot through it drawing a bead on my neighbor's tree with a red filter:


You're thinking: "What's that poor tree ever done to you?", right?

Nothing. Which is why I ended up not shooting it with the 5" naval gun sticking out of my living room window.

These old eyes...

...have nothing on these.

These binoculars are probably from the late 1800's. The brass, black-painted eyecups are stamped "MARCHAND Fabt PARIS. The left brass ocular tube is stamped "Day & Night" on the top and the right brass ocular tube is stamped "U S Signal Service" on the bottom. The main body is also brass, but covered in black leather.

Interestingly, the optics on this piece are quite good - image clarity is high even though magnification seems to be only 1.5 - 2x. It's sad (to me) that many examples of Victorian optics can now be had for a song at antique stores everywhere.

No doubt the "steam punk" crowd is slowly turning these devices into fashion accesories even as you read this.