Meet My Friend, Theo

While we all sit around finagling (I can't believe that it's a real word, but it is) with a silly program (more on it later in this post), I figured I'd write my next blog post. Another educational one, on a piece of equipment lovingly called a theodolite.

Never heard of it before? Neither had I until I started applying for internships in marine mammology. Seemingly it was originally used for surveying on land, but someone thought "why can't I track dolphins using it?"

Well... you can, I guess; but it's really really hard.

Too late, it's the thing to do now. Le sigh.

First. Climb up to the top of a high cliff. Make sure you have a clear sight to the water, no trees or tall buildings in the way.

So now you have this theodolite

Hello, Theodolite

It's sitting nice and neat in the box, but you want to use it. Take its stand

Hello, Stand

Set it up. Make sure it's level. Otherwise steps after this will be harder. Use little bubble levels to make sure it's level.

Using two hands, place the theodolite on the stand. Screw it in. So far, so good.

Now... level the theodolite. There are three levels on the theodolite.

You use the little discs to mirco-move the theodolite up and down until the theodolite (for now on being called 'theo') is completely level no matter which way you spin it. Note: there are two dials on the theo. One lets it spin on the horizontal plane, the other let's the eyepiece spin on the vertical plane.

Okay, turn it on. Spin the eyepiece around until the theo recognizes it (beep!). Then you need to set the horizontal 0 mark. You can use any reference point, but then you have to remember your reference point for the day and it'll change every time. So why not just use North? That way, you can use the same reference every single time! Genius! I wish I had come up with it.

Press the "0 set" button and you're ready to go.

Find something to track. Boat, jetski, surfer, dolphin, whale, whatever. Line them up above or below the white arrows which are set up like a sight of a gun (I had to be told that). Then look through the eyepiece and you'll see a cross hair (now I feel like a stalker/ sniper). The goal is to line up that crosshair at the exact same place on your subject every time.

Now the theo is part binocular, so you can see things in the water from so far away. So as your subject is moving, you can fine tune the eyepiece to follow it as it moves through the water.

It's hard. Like, really hard. Like, ridiculously really hard.

While watching your subject, when it does something of interest, you record the behaviour and the 'location' that is on the theodolite. Then you can use that 'location' to figure out a true location later on (which will come in another post).

That's all there is to a theodolite. In essence, it's an easy piece of equipment to work. In reality, it's a pain that takes years and years of experience to expert. But it's effective and less expensive than tagging whales.

Speak Loud!