If you would like to get a compact monocular for birding, hunting, nature observation, or just sight-seeing, I highly recommend the Orion EagleEye 8x32. It has a very generous eye-relief so eyeglass-wearers can see the field of view.

This monocular can focus as close as 2' or so for very tight views of stuff that you might not want to get any closer to (like a wasp nest) and it is perfect for watching birds at a feeder outside your window - set the focus and grab the 'scope whenever an interesting bird shows up.

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The ether of general relativity therefore differs from that of classical mechanics or the special theory of relativity respectively, in so far as it is not 'absolute', but is determined in its locally variable properties by ponderable matter.

Albert Einstein, "On the Ether", 1924