This is a closeup of the eye of a living dragonfly. I was able to get close to it--within a few inches, and then I greatly enlarged the photograph. This picture suffers a little from the technical limitations of what I am doing. The facets of the eye are clearly visible on the print I scanned, but the computer file doesn't show it too well.
Dragonflies are predators of flying insects, especially mosquitoes. Their larval stage is also predatory, and lives in the water, feasting on aquatic larvae, including the aquatic larva of mosquitoes. So unless you like mosquitoes, dragonflies are a very good thing.
Bird watching has been around for quite a few years now. Recently people have started watching butterflies in the same way--learning to identify them from a distance using close focusing binoculars.
Very recently there have been some small groups of people who watch dragonflies in much the same way. There is a small group of butterfly and dragonfly watchers in Iowa. They can be reached at: : IA.BTRFLY@listbot.com