Along the Milky Way with 8X42 binoculars

[stevecoe]

Howdy all;

These observations are from a site about 100 miles from Phoenix, Arizona and 40 miles from Flagstaff.  It is dark and among the beautiful pine trees in northern Arizona, USA.  This is our rainy season (7 whole inches) and I had to wait for some clouds to go away, but once they did it was very nice indeed.

Even on a mediocre night far from city lights, the band of the Milky Way is fascinating.  The combination of bright nebulae and clusters along with the dark band all along the Milky Way never ceases to make me want to just sit and enjoy the view.  I keep thinking that I would like to draw it, but I have never made time to take on that daunting task.  All the observations below are with my Orion Savannah 8X42 binoculars on a night I rated 6 out of 10 for seeing and transparency.

M 8 8X42 binoculars  Bright, large, elongated 1.5X1, 6 stars seen within the nebula.  The nebula is larger and more easily seen with averted vision.  This nebula is within the dark nebula down the middle of the Milky Way, a fascinating view.  It can be seen with no optical aid.

M 17 8X42 binoculars  Bright, pretty large, elongated 2X1, one star involved with the small binoculars.  Averted vision makes it larger and more prominent.  There is an obvious orange star nearby to the northwest.  

M 23 8X42 binoculars  pretty bright, large, round, compressed, 4 stars resolved with direct vision, another 5 seen with averted vision.

M 25 8X42 binoculars  bright, large, little compressed, 12 stars resolved, another 5 seen with averted vision.  Just seen with naked eye.

M 55 8X42 binoculars  pretty bright, pretty large, round, much brighter middle, averted vision makes it larger, a nice globular.

Clear skies to us all;
Steve Coe

[happy-kat]

Your observing site sounds very nice and dark.

Enjoyed reading your report.

[andrew63]

Some lovely sights.   You are further south than us in the UK, so that part of the sky must be gorgeous to view at that latitude.  Sounds a great spot to observe from -  so much sky to see...

andrew

[orion25]

Great report. I bet the Milky Way is amazing in your neck of the woods 

Reggie

[stevecoe]

Thank you folks;

I am glad to hear that you enjoyed my observations.  I just also wanted to say that you don't need a great big telescope to view and enjoy the night sky.  Here is a shot of the Milky Way above the trees from the site.  It is a 4 minute exposure with a 17mm lens.

Clear skies to us all;

Steve Coe

[laudropb]

Nice report and you are perfectly right. It's all about the enjoyment you get, not the size of your scope.

[BinocularSky]

I am glad to hear that you enjoyed my observations.

Steve, I've been enjoying your observation reports for over a decade (usually accessed via Guide or DeepSkyPedia)!

  I just also wanted to say that you don't need a great big telescope to view and enjoy the night sky.

Indeed; some of my most pleasant nights have been spent with small binoculars.

[xtreemchaos]

great report mate,you did have a cool night.thanks for posting. charl.

[DemosL]

I've used scopes since 1969 and many times my back and neck would ache after an observing session. I can't take them out anymore because of really bad hip arthritis, so I bought the Celestron 15x70 SkyMaster bins and a zero gravity chair.

These have reignited my love of astronomy and I have never been more comfortable, even after 2 or 3 hours.

[stevecoe]

BinoSky, I am glad to hear that you find the notes in Guide useful.  One of these days I need to send him an updated set of observations.  List of things to do.

DemosL, If you are all the way leaned back in a chair, how do you use a star chart.  I know the major objects pretty well and can find them rather nicely, but if I am chasing smaller fainter objects I don't see how to star hop with the chart.  So, I use a regular camp chair and have a small table nearby with chart and red "torch".  It does make it difficult ot get to the zenith, however.  There does not seem to be a good answer.

Clear skies to us all;

Steve Coe

[DemosL]

Stevecoe - I don't use a star chart outside for 2 reasons:

- I've been an amateur astronomer since 1969; and

- I do sky sweeps, like the astronomers did before anything was cataloged. It's more adventurous that way.

If I find some DSO and want to know which one it was, I can later look at a chart.