PeterW

No numbers in the circular image above reported by a certified deuteranope, not sure which type you’re looking to diagnose. peter

Reiner Vogels comment on the relative sensitivity difference ofnrod and cones being about 5 mags..: …” This reduction in sensitivity by about 5 mag can be easily verified in practice. Under good rural skies, the dark adapted eye can see stars down to about mag 6. They are detected with the rod cells (and peripheral vision, another topic) and appear gray, no color. In order to see star colors, we need our cones. With the 5 mag difference in sensitivity, we should be able to see star colors for stars of mag 1 and and brighter, which is confirmed in practice.“…. Hence you’re only likely to see colours in the very brightest objects. Peter

I am not colourblind and there’s no numbers present in that picture. In low light everyone is colour blind, only the brightest objects can stimulate the coloured cone cells. Reiner Vogels physiology of vision makes for a good read. http://www.reinervogel.net/index_e.html I have heard they there are tricks for making star colours more obvious, though I am not sure of the details, maybe a little refocusing. Peter

I use some heavy 10x50 using the monopod method above. Would work fine for the 15x70 I have too. I have a bracket to provide a bit of extra height and to keep the binocular centre of gravity over the monopod… but these are extras. A decent parallelogram takes up space and is heavier. Peter

…used to add belt loops to my (rather too big) milsurplus extreme cold “marshmallow man” trousers. Not a pretty mod, but in the dark no one will care or notice! Used to use braces to stop them falling down… no more! PEter

Get reputable lasers, I once bought a cheap one and got 10x the light I paid for…. Should be happy, but I value my sight and made a filter holder for the front so I am always operating safely. A heater is probably the best option. Peter

Last week I popped the pointer down my leafy glove, slightly in the way, but kept it toasty. A warm pocket is also good. I’ve got the scope stuff one too, but rarely mount the laser. Maybe someone needs to make a self heating laser with a USB power input, so it doesn’t get cold. Peter

@Photonic Nightswhats the balance and motion locking like in the APM centre mount, I’ve heard that it’s not brilliant? with 2eyes you also get a smoother more contrasty image. Peter

More better…. that tube is likely a dozen times better than mine and infinitely better than it using NV (on many nebulae). Do post, it’s always nice to hear how’s offering people get on with different kit. Peter

Note I have the ED 70mm bins, so CA isn’t a concern, useful as I would get the semi-apo if I got a larger model. I had an ST120 and used to observe the moon with a yellow filter, didn’t do much star observing, I sold it ages ago (sometimes wish I hadn’t). Peter

There is no NV “Galaxy filter”, they do show up nice (but small, unless you have a huge, fast scope), but the only help you can give is a long pass filter. The galactic type and star burst regions can make some galaxies more impressive with NV, but they tend to be a nice add on, rather than the main reason to invest in NV. Peter

All these binoculars are pretty f5.6, so the same exit pupil and brightness. The bigger models show rain the e stars and have a more zoomed in view….. more light, but more spread out. peter

Shhh…. Don’t tell anyone, but you can see quite a few of these hydrogen nebulae and galactic cirrus with mere binoculars (and magic filters)…. Peter

If everyone optimised the use and distribution of the lighting they used then we’d all have a far better view and wouldn’t have to spend so much money on cameras/filters/NV/petrol…. Think of the combined CO2 savings. Peter PS If I had a £ for everytime someone complained about the cost of NV (without actually seeing what it could deliver) I’d be living on my own private (dark) island by now) 😉

My 13mm Naglers were lovely and compact, but there is some distortion, I am beginning to appreciate reading glasses and couldn’t quite see the whole of the 82degree field, so I moved over to Morpheus. They’re narrow enough for bino use, but much bigger than the Naglers, eye placement can be a little harder due to the longer eye relief. They have a good following, the APM 12.5 ultrawide more so, but they’re a bit more expensive. Peter

Almost too bright on the Monkeyhead! Peter

When your all shielded up you Cana get better dark adaption than normal as ambient light is blocked. Filter and eyepiece fogging can be a risk, my face shield keeps my breath out and anti-fog spray could also help if needed on cold nights. peter

The benefits of 82degree ep is lost a bit as you can’t easily swivel your eyes to see the whole field. I’ve replaced my 13m Nagler with Morpheus as they are just as immersive, but have more w yet relief and less distortion and I can see the whole field (which I couldn’t quite with the Naglers). I once looked through some (nominally) 90degree field of view Nikon WX, amazing, but i did note that I couldn’t see the edges when viewing- I could “see further” if i deliberately looked “round the corner” of the field. I’ve used 7mm ep (cheap ultrawide) in my 70mm on the moon fine in the past, might replace them with 6.5mm Morpheus. As Peter notes centring your eyes at high powers can be fiddly and as in note above you can’t move your eyes. About too much or you lose the view in one eye… hence the move the bino, not your eyes suggestion. peter

I only need to use the laser occasionally and even with lithium, mine complains if it gets cold. Peter

I’ve posted on my filter mounting in a thread in the bino forum. I do have OIII and UHC, but with my light pollution and my aim to see large hydrogen nebulae I going to filter as hard as I can. Peter

As someone pointed out the lack of clear guidance on adding filters to binocular eyepieces I thought I’d post how I have done the is recently that seems to work. Different binocular eyepieces have different internal diameters and depths and so you might need to play about to find the best option for your specific model. “Normally” the filter is smaller than the eyepiece/eyecup hole so you want someway to “fill the gap”. I use 3 mm thick sticky-back black neoprene foam sheet. I stick it to paper/thin card (which I blacken with a sharpie). Then I cut a hole that is slightly narrower than the filter threads. The idea is that you want to be able to “thread” the filter onto the foam ring. Next to cut the outside of the foam ring a little bit larger than the eyecup opening. You want to use the foam compression to help grip and stop the filter falling out. You might want to trim the paper back round the edge so it doesn’t reach the edge to help this. I put these in with the filter on the binocular side of the foam so if they come off the foam they will be trapped and not fall into the grass. This probably won’t work for all binoculars, I have some 7x50 where a single layer of duct tape wrapped onto the filter threads enables the filter to be push fit to the eyepieces. If the filters are larger than the eyecups then you could probably glue a foam cylinder to the foam ring that you could slide over the eyepieces to hold the filters in place. Remember for best use of filters on binoculars you need to block all straylight around the eyepiece by using a bino bandit, observing hood etc.. or you’ll be distracted by reflections from the filters which will make seeing faint stuff harder. Hope this helps, sure other people have come across other ways to achieve the same thing. Peter

Sounds a great start. I get finding stuff by rearing a laser in the handle groove. Then I just move about using skysafari fields of view with the field of view circle. Need to keep the pointed warm as it hates the cold. The great thing with binoculars is the comprarively large field of view and the non-inverted field of view so you can look around with smaller binoculars and have the same star fields in the larger binoculars without mental gymnastics. Peter

A 2XL fishing jilet from Decathlon with lots of zipped pockets to hold stuff without me having to open my coat in the cold. I plan to line some pockets with neoprene foam and maybe add use a heater to keep some things warm. Hopefully more use than the current “single bucket” I have with my current “bumbag”. Peter PS no idea why I’m lying down in the picture, I did knackeR my back before xmas, but it’s fixed now.

It’s more about their reputation, if enough people complain locally, to the councils and to their customers then they’ll have to change to stop the bad press… Starlink we’re pressured into changing their plans so their satellites were less annoying…. Keep up the pressure and hopefully you get your skies back and they keep making plentiful produce. peter

Twickenham looks like a yellow/green alien invasion when they’re cooking their grass… worst on evenings when there is cloud to scatter off. Keep up the pressure so they either add proper blinds or turn the lights out after a specific time. There is plenty of evidence that light at night is no good for man and beast. Light pollution is a notifiable nuisance and food growing is not one of the (sadly) allowed exemptions. Checked the 2021 viirs light lolly to on data… ouch, nasty red spot… it’s visible from space! peter