BlueStinger

Hi, perfect thankyou. Oh and regarding your earlier post. I'm from Southampton originally, but we moved to Bridgwater when I was 7, where I lived a big chunk of my life. I know Taunton fairly well, I went to SCAT and worked in and around the town for a good few years. I've been in Yeovil now for around 15 years.

Thanks again for all of the replies. Such a welcoming place I did manage to get a quick look earlier between clouds before they set in good and proper and the first thing I noticed was just how many stars there are to be seen with just binoculars. I found a star in a gap in the clouds, pointed them at it and was surprised to see 20 or more near it too, and just how pin-pricky they look now. Awesome. I did get a quick peak at Orion and the nebula and it looked a much nicer, more defined smudge with binoculars. Though I couldn't see any colours other than blue, and the whole area is littered with stars and incredibly bright! This was all handheld and it was difficult to keep everything super steady to make out anything more. Will be much better when I set it on the tripod when it's properly clear. Sadly, when the clouds move on in a few hours from now according to satallite maps Orion will have moved out of view so will have to wait 'till tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the moon later and maybe get a pic. Which brings me to a question. Which forum would be best to post any images taken with my phone through the binoculars that I deem worthy of showing? The Imaging - Smartphone/Tablet forum, the Observing - with Binoculars, or the the actual specific ones for Nebula, The Planets etc? Thanks again! Cheers.

Hi again. Just thought I'd update here. The Skymaster 15x70s turned up today and I had a brief play in daylight. As I said earlier I'm a complete novice and have only fairly recently even heard of things like collimation and others issues that can effect cheaper pairs. These seem to be ok so far, I saw no double images or distortion and I could very easily get a very sharp image in each eye. The image was bright and crisp. Then again I have only a cheap and nasty £8 monocular to compare haha! They feel well built and hardy but the finishing on the paintwork is poor here and there, nothing major though and I only noticed looking back at some pictures I took of them. I keep looking out of the window to see if there's a tiny break in the clouds so I can use them for what I bought them for. I guess I'll just have to learn to be patient. I fully intend to take some pics with my phone attached to it, to amaze friends and family! Here's a few pics I took. I will maybe do a better write up about it when I have used it more and in the correct forum. Cheers!

Yes just up the road, or down the road, from you I'm sat patiently waiting for my bins delivery, although I don't think this miserable grey day will get any better tonight. Typical lol.

Yeovil. Thanks for the warm welcome everyone.

Thankyou.

Hi, I'm new to all of this skywatching stuff although always had an interest in the planets when a kid. Anyway, back in Jan this year I noticed a very bright 'star' in the evening sky. I'd seen it many times before but this time it peaked my interest for some reason. Curious as to what it was I found a neat phone app called Skyview and soon realised this was no star but Venus, of course, Doh! Before long I was snapping a few night shots with my P20 Pro and got hooked at looking up each night it was clear. I fell in love with Orion, with it's dimming Betelguese and near perfectly alligned belt. And I knew that middle star in the sheath was the nebula, but alas, only those with powerful, expensive telescopes could see anymore....I was happy just messing about in SpaceEngine 'til last week, when I spotted an £8 monocular on amazon, complete with mini tripod and phone holder. I knew it would be too good to be true, and of course it was complete rubbish but it does make the moon look a bit better lol. So after finding this forum, and reading up on the fact that you can actually see a fair amount with some binoculas I decided to buy some tonight. The budget is very tight so I went for a Celestron Skymaster 15x70, a tripod, a metal tripod mount and a better quality phone adaptor mount. I'm very excited I must say, and I hope it's clear tomorrow night Cheers!