August 8, 2012: Purely binocular session in France

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

After a rather exhausting session on the 7th, I opted for a relaxed scan of the heavens with my 15x70 bins. I first scanned many of the southern Messiers around Sco, Sgr, Scutum, picking up M11, M26, M4, M80, M20, M22, M28, M23, M24, M25, M19, M62, M6, M7, M8, M20, M16, M17, M18, before swooping north to M39, M31, M32, M110, M33, M51, M101, M81, and M82, ending up with M3. The companions of M31 where very clear, and M33 showed spiral structure. I also just admired the wonderful structure visible in the Milky Way.

After just relaxing whilst looking at stuff I had found before, the urge to find new things asserted itself, and after a long stare at NGC 7000, I had a look at NGC 6526, a nebula north and east of M8. This was too diffuse to see in the C8 the night before, but showed quite easily in these big bins. The wider FOV really helps.

Next up was NGC 6304, which is a faint globular spotted only in averted vision. Open cluster NGC 6645 was spotted north of M25. This one is probably nicer in bins than in the scope, where it might be overwhelmed by the star field. I paid a brief visit to NGC 6568, which I had spotted before in the C8, and it showed up easily in the bins. The next two objects were NGC 6451 and NGC 6525, two faint open clusters north-east of M6. Nearby Trumpler 28 was spotted only in averted vision. A very faint open cluster. The last open cluster I got was NGC 6396, spotted west of M7, faint, averted vision only.

This brought my DSO count to 599 (excluding double and variable stars), and I could not leave it at that. Having admired the structure in the Milky Way before, I decided to track down some dark nebulae. Just north of Altair, B143, and B142 hove into view. Two distinct dark nebulae. The former appears as a comma-shaped dark region with one or two irregular appendages, the other is more-or-less kidney-bean shaped.

At a DSO-count of 601, and with glimmers of moonlight appearing behind a local hill, I decided to pack the bins up and go to bed.

[BinocularSky]

Top report, Michael!

[Folkert]

Bino astronomy is for visual the best. Nice report, inspiring. In 4 weeks I'll spend a week in France biking, but I may want to take a Bino with me!

[mdstuart]

Michael

Awesome report...You are really enjoying those bins..

I was out with my 20 x 80 mm cheap bins last night. Had a good look around and tried a few doubles..My favorites of the night was psi1 74 Pisces which is two mag 5 stars 30 secs apart and 86 Pisces which are 23 seconds apart. Really lovely sharp points with dark sky between them..Very much like 32 Cam near the pole star which is 22 secs separation..Try them in your 15 x 70mms...

I must try to go below 20 secs..

Mark