The moon last night with my bins:

[pipnina]

The weather was clear last night for the first time in nearly four weeks, how could I pass up an opportunity like this? Unfortunately I couldn't drag my scope out because people were sleeping and the EQ mount is quite noisy to move around but sitting on my front doorstep with my 10x50s proved good enough. The bins are more comfortable anyway.

I hadn't noticed it until last night, but there was a surprisingly blue patch right in the middle of the moon, just below the dark patches which were all at the top of the moon at the time, the only time i've ever seen colour in the lunar surface. As I looked up to the top left of the moon, I ntoiced a very small bright patch, whether this is because it's actually brighter than the other bits or my eyes were just comparing it to the surrounding dark patches is up for debate.

There wasn't much detail on the terminator for me, but there was a little bit of contrast down at the mottom of the moon where it met the rest of the sky.

The moon was moving through the milky way last night according to stellarium, this meant that, even though I couldn't see it, I could look at the moon and know that if I looked just slightly up I'd be staring straight at M16- a target that's been on my list of "Must see" since I got my scope.

It's just a bit of a shame I can't use all 8 degrees of my bins FOV, dang glasses. When I'm due an eye test I'm going to have to inquire about contacts, It'll make observing much more comfortable.

Did anyone else have my luck last night? I hope so!

    ~pip

[ronin]

I guess the binoculars do not have reasonable eye relief, could you not use them without the glasses on?

I know that an old set I have do not quite make the correction I need in terms of just winding the focuser as far as it will go. So they do allow for about -4.5 diopter bad eyes. Just that way you get the full field.

For quick and quiet viewing a small 70mm or even 60mm refractor on a simply manual Alt/Az is very useful. You can actually keep it in one piece so easy use. I sometimes think we overburden ourselves.

[laudropb]

Cloudy and raining here last night so a no go. Better forecast for tonight so here's hoping.

[pipnina]

I guess the binoculars do not have reasonable eye relief, could you not use them without the glasses on?

I know that an old set I have do not quite make the correction I need in terms of just winding the focuser as far as it will go. So they do allow for about -4.5 diopter bad eyes. Just that way you get the full field.

For quick and quiet viewing a small 70mm or even 60mm refractor on a simply manual Alt/Az is very useful. You can actually keep it in one piece so easy use. I sometimes think we overburden ourselves.

Unfortunately I am both long sighted (that refocussing the bins can fix) and have strong astigmatism (which focussing can't fix) so I need to use my glasses... And yeah, the eye relief isn't that great, I go down to perhaps 4.5 degrees or less from 8.

A small frac might be nice, but I'm stuck with what I've got for the moment so I might as well make do with it and use it when I can.

Cloudy and raining here last night so a no go. Better forecast for tonight so here's hoping.

Good luck with tonight, it's looking clear for me as well tonight, maybe I'll be able to get my scope out this time

[Astro Imp]

Nice report, you mentioned a very small bright patch at the upper left of the image, this sounds like it could be the crater  Aristarchus.

[pipnina]

Nice report, you mentioned a very small bright patch at the upper left of the image, this sounds like it could be the crater  Aristarchus.

I'm going to have another look with my scope tonight should the weather allow it. Maybe then I'll be able to identify it using images as reference.

[DemosL]

Nice report, you mentioned a very small bright patch at the upper left of the image, this sounds like it could be the crater  Aristarchus.

I agree. You saw Aristarchus which looks like a bright artificial light on the Moon.