Measuring distances suddenly becomes easier...

The AAG survey team tested our new distance-measuring device at Buckland on Sunday - and found it a great time-saver.

This  is a 'Disto', a combination of a movie camera and a low-powered laser beam. Use the camera to focus the laser on a target, and it tells you the distance - to the nearest single centimetre! 

Our photo shows the Disto on the right and target on the left.

On Sunday the team needed to find the exact position of an earthwork in woodland, by measuring the distance to two separate points on the boundary fences and using triangulation. One distance was about 350 metres, the other 200 metres. With the Disto this took about an hour to measure accurately. With old-fashioned tape measures it would have taken more than twice that time.

So now we have no need for tape measures. What a pity we've all spent the past year learning how to use them...