mark81

My most used binoculars were a pair one of my grandparents gave to me about 25 years ago. Over the last couple of years they have been falling apart to the point where they are useless. I happened to mention this to a lovely lady I work for and she casually said I could have her pair and she has only ever used them once and never will again. Off she went and soon returned with a pair of 10x50 tasco zips. OK, only tasco but these are brand new! In a nice case, neck strap, eyecups and the glass is so clear and clean - maybe a bit of dust need clearing out - you might see in the pics. I told this story to my neighbour who straight away said 'oh. You could have had my pair - I never use them' This got me thinking - how many people have binoculars stored away and never use them. My advice is to bring them into a conversation - as subtle as you can of course and you may very well be surprised.

Hi welcome to SGL - that's a nice picture. I cam never line my phone up to the eyepiece for some reason...

hey, welcome to SGL. 250 miles for dark skies? Wow, that's dedication

Welcome to SGL! lets hope the clear skies remain....

hi all, only just found this part of SGL, thought I would give it a go. Nothing too exciting just m13 cluster. Midnight on the 18th with 8mm BST and ST80

after a long hard week, with aching bones and wanting sleep, at 11 last night I thought, for some reason, it would be advisable to take a small telescope out into the cold and try and spot some galaxies. A thin slither of moon shone away near Leo and the not quite dark blue of the sky didn't fill me with much hope. I started finding leo52 which I couldn't see with the naked eye and only have a red dot finder but was lucky with my guess. Nudging down slightly and to my joy, there was m105, m95 and m96. I say joy, not because they were glorious galaxies or even faint fuzzies but just three brightish stars - there was no fist pumping. I then moved to Denebola and the tiredness came to the surface when trying to find comma6 through the diagonal but as with a diagonal left was right and front was back which threw me off course a bit but eventually saw m98 and 99- this time as small grey pixels. I continued on across to Vindemiatrix seeing hundreds of the faintest of faint grey pixels and rather than try to identify any I thought I would just enjoy the amazing notion that they were all distant galaxies. Amazing. I realise this is not the most exciting report ever, but I have a bad back and my neck hurts so someone else has to suffer just a little bit...

nice job! I and I'm sure many others will look forward to hear how you get in with these.

yeah, a good pair of 10x50s is great for grabbing and getting out there but if your going to mount them, then certainly go for the bigger set, the extra aperture will be great and with the image nice and stable you cant lose !

I am so jealous right now......

hey, welcome to SGL. Nothing wrong with a pair of binoculars, I had a pair for ten years before my first scope and I still use them a lot (also a pair a Olympus 10x50s) really good for clusters under dark skies.. Check out the binoculars forum on the observing section.

hi welcome to SGL, +1 for the 130 tabletop scope. I know its a little out of the price you wanted to spend but you will get much more use out of the extra aperture.

that's very true. The equipment you use the most is the best for you. I was very tempted to get a big scope to start off with but so many people said the same thing, that's why I went for a small grab and go set up. I've also got a pair of Olympus 10x50s and when I've got an excuse not to use the scope I grab the bins. can i ask, are you using the cameras for long exposures on a motor or just shoot and snap?

I must say that I am enjoying hearing about this little 70mm and what it can do.. Keep letting us know what your seeing with it..

wow, that's what I call an observing session. I really enjoy reports like this on what smaller scopes can do. Inspirational! Thanks

I had a pair of generic 20x50's for years - when I say generic I mean 'cheap' a brand that nobody has heard of. If you compared them to generic pair made today with those old ones you would notice a difference because of the better optics - but compare them to a 'real' decent pair and the difference can be amazing. I recently had my hands on a pair of Nikon Prostaff 10x42's. Although the mag is half of my generics I could see so much more.