JimStan

Well, this IS my FIRST DSO, but admittedly not my first attempt at processing the data. That is one thing wonderful about digital photography, however. As you learn more tricks and processes, you can go back and work over the frames you took, even a time ago. These were taken last Winter, with a quarter moon hovering between them, and M42, which I also took that night. I think both images turned out rather well, considering that previous to this, I had only taken Moon shots. Technical data

500mm Nikon Telephoto attached to a Nikon D-80 riding on an Orion SkyView Pro motorized ( non goto ) GEM , ISO 1000, 10 light and 10 dark frames, 30 seconds each for equivilent of 5 minutes exposure in a suburban town garden

I do have several pair of binocs in the 7 X 35 to 10 X 50 sizes, but I must say that my favorite pair is an Empire model 240 ( you probably won't find them anywhere - I found them at a yard sale ) which offers an extra wide 10 degree FOV which translates to 525 feet at 1000 yards !

I have a Vivitar 7 X 50 that only has a 297 feet at 1000 yards, suffers from chromatic abberation, and puts a blue cast on EVERYTHING that you look at through it ! The only reason I keep it is because I am not afraid to lose it at a public star party. If someone walks off with it, that's their "tough luck" ! That just shows you that the name doesn't always mean everything !

A good wide-angle binocs can provide you with STUNNING views of the Milky Way, and even when one owns several telescopes, they will often pull out the binocs for a reality check on how beautiful the night sky as a whole, really is!

Clear Skies ! Jim S.