My Praktica 10 x 50 bins arrived on Wednesday and, after seemingly weeks of cloud, I found a 20 minute window in the cloud from my back garden. I live in a relatively dense suburban area near the M25 so I have a fair amount of light pollution to contend with but I had not realised how bright a street light in an adjoining road is - it kept catching my eye and ruining my night vision. :angry:

I started with Orion and was totally unprepared for what I saw. In naked-eye vision Beetlejuice and the belt were visible but not the sword, but through the bins the sky opened up before my eyes and there was the Great Orion Nebula and the double star above - just amazing :shocked: !! (By the way, does the double star have a name? In Stellarium I can only see them referred to as c Ori and 45 Ori - sorry, much to learn evidently.) After marveling there I only had a brief look at Pleiades before the cloud rolled in but was again staggered by what these very affordable, entry level bins were producing; what a telescope might bring is seriously exciting, hopefully I can get to Ranmore soon.

On Saturday night, with friends round for supper, I only managed 20 mins again but this time had my 9 year old daughter with me who is my reason for re-igniting my childhood interest in the night-sky. Oh, I should say at this stage that I succumbed to temptation and popped down to Astronomia in Dorking on Saturday and bought a tripod, bracket and Turn left at Orion (but resolutely ignored the lovely gleaming telescopes!). Anyway, I lined up on Orion and Pleiades again for her and she had a very similar reaction to me on Thursday - her face just lit up, so a budding astronomer in the making perhaps??

Am I allowed to go on to last night as well? Well, I've started so I'll finish if you can bear it.

Now properly armed with Turn left, Stellarium, tripod and bins I felt a slightly greater challenge might be in order and, guided by various threads about the best objects for binoculars, set my sights on The Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and The Beehive Cluster (M44).

Again daughter No.4 was with me and we started at 7.30 for a 30 mins session before bedtime. Following the directions from Mirach I became aware of a small smudge when I was panning across, so stopped and tried to find it again, but to no avail. Then, remembering averted vision, aimed slightly to the right and, hey presto, MY FIRST GALAXY!!! Having read the notes in Turn left I have to say I felt pretty humbled thinking that small smudge contains about 300 billion stars and is so far away. Sadly No.4 could not quite pick it out so she found her way to Orion and Pleiades again before going to bed.

After a brief interlude (ahem, Top Gear, I'm afraid :embarrassed: ) I returned to the garden at 10.15 and set to work on The Beehive. Now, it says this is a naked-eye object, but that is certainly not the case where I am, so finding it took a little longer that anticipated but it was worth the wait - all those beautiful jewels grouped together. Thinking about it I should have noted how many stars I could resolve, but just observed it for 20 mins before the cloud came in.

All in all an amazing few sessions and looking forward to more, and Panstarrs next week