Epick Crom

My Vision King 5x25mm binoculars arrived yesterday ordered from eBay. Night sky was clear for first light! True field of View is listed as 15° but my calculations suggest around 12°. I'm not complaining as this is twice the field of view of my Nikon 10x50's. Initial impressions? Very good for less than $90AUD, the field of view is nice and wide, not as bright or sharp as my Nikon of course but still very pleasing. I bought them for wide angle, low power views and this is what I got! I could fit the entire Corona Australis asterism in view, the entire Crux ( Southern Cross) with lots of room to spare and Alpha and Beta Centauri seen simultaneously. I'm very happy with this purchase, the water jar asterism in Aquarius looked awesome, these tiny low power binoculars really give you a unique view of the night sky! Clear Skies Joe

Yes @Captain Scarlet, they looked exactly like that 👍

Hi fellow stargazers! Sagittarius is still placed well for us south of the equator, so last night I visited this incredible constellation. Among the highlights were: M22: Absolutely magnificent, beautiful view at 70x in my 10 inch dob. The resolved stars looked like LED lights in this globular. Polis ( Mu Sagittarii): A nice double star with fainter companions either side of it. M25: A stunning messier open cluster. Underated! M23: Another beautiful underated open cluster in Sagittarius. This looked so nice at 50x using my 24mm Panoptic. NGC 6567: A new to me planetary nebula, first time seeing it last night. It is nestled close to a faint field star. 534x showed it nicely as a tiny nebulous puff of light. M24: This is an insane star cloud! So much happening within and around it, I got lost observing in and around it for over an hour, dark lanes, asterisms, packed starfields, multiple stars and even several open clusters reside there. A great visual stimulation! I ended the night by observing the always stunning Saturn. It looked razor sharp even at 686x. Three of its moon's were in a line on one side, with bright Titan shining on the other side. A very satisfying observing session! Clear Skies Joe

Amazing session and fantastic report Magnus👍. Great pictures too!

That's beautiful, thanks for posting @Captain Scarlet

Yeah +1 for 10x50mm binoculars. Mine always give vivid and colourful views as you described, there is something magical about the views!

Great report Peter and nice you caught a reappearance of Europa from an eclipse. I've never seen an eclipse or a reappearance of a Galilean moon, must have been fantastic! Clear Skies Joe

G'day fellow observers! I saw ARO 11 (Campbell's Hydrogen Star) for the first time last night using my 10 inch dob. What a beaut, first planetary nebula that I've seen a reddish colour to it as opposed to green or blue. It looks like a star at low power but reveals itself at high power and still retains it coppery colour! Also spent an hour wandering the magnificent star fields in Cygnus.

Thanks for your report Paul, enjoyed reading it and nice choice of targets! Joe

Fascinating information Nik, thanks for this I had never heard of this star before. I'll hunt it down tonight! Clear Skies Joe

Welcome back to visual👍

Nice report Paul. Observing on a night of perfect seeing is a game changer!

Great stuff! You and your children will never forget your first telescopic observations of Saturn 👍

Yep, it's always interesting when a star of similar magnitude as the galilean moons masquerades as one 👍

Good luck mate👍

The early evening sky was clear with a steady atmosphere so I decided to go crazy on the waxing crescent moon and unleash my 2.3mm eyepiece combined with my X2 shorty barlow on it using my 10 inch dob! This combination resulted in 1,044x magnification. Strewth, the image held up! The craters Aristoteles and Eudoxus looked amazingly large at this power, with an unnamed mountain near Eudoxus casting a prominent shadow. I saw a shadow half way all along the Alpine Valley, that's the first time I have ever seen that. The lunar features take on a new identity under very high magnification!

Fantastic report SwiMatt, I'm glad you are discovering the magic that is visual observing! Clear Skies Joe

Hi Marvin! M22 is spectacular indeed. I'm in Australia and it is an impressive sight as it's gets virtually overhead here. Having said that, wait until you see NGC 5139 (Omega Centauri) and NGC 104 (47 Tucanae) 🤯 Those two are in a class of their own! NGC 6752 in Pavo is also incredible. I hope you can visit our fair shores one day to see them for yourself! Clear Skies Joe

I had my best ever views of Mercury yesterday evening! Started observing the closest planet to the Sun just after sunset whilst it was 20° above the horizon with my beloved 10 inch dob. Seeing was very steady and I observed Mercury as a crescent for the first time. My session was enhanced by being joined by my wife, daughter and son. They were very impressed with the rare sight of crescent Mercury 😊

Nice to hear that you finally got a nice clear night Mike👍

Sounds like a lot of fun Kimboman, nice report 👍 You guys are lucky up north with all the major meteor showers, glad you enjoyed the Perseids! Happy Observing Joe

I'm purely a visual observer. I'm enjoying visual so much that I haven't even considered AP. I love the intimacy of visual 😊 My backyard is bortle 6/7 where I do my observing and there is a lot to see! Do whatever pleases you, after all we are all in this wonderful hobby to enjoy ourselves. For me, visual observing brings me the most joy and satisfaction. Clear Skies Joe

Well here in the west coast of Oz we've been having our fair share of cloudy nights as well, but last night was clear as a whistle. Some highlights from my observing session with my 10 inch dob: Getting a clear view of Mars as a tiny orange disk. Super view of Mercury, almost at half phase. NGC 6067 open cluster in Norma was amazing, very rich. NGC 6321 open cluster in Scorpius was absolutely blazing as it was at the zenith and transparency was excellent. NGC 6025 open cluster in Triangulum Australe looked great, it has a broken circle of stars close to its centre. NGC 5139 Omega Centauri was the highlight of the night. A massive ball of countless stars fully resolved. Wow! Then I got my first glimpse of Saturn this season, 15° up. Nice to see the gas giant again, it's rings noticeably more narrow than last year. Wishing all my northern hemisphere friends clear skies! Joe

Wonderful report! Double, triple and the rarer multiple stars are a joy to observe. So much to see, magnitudes, star colours, separations and PA angles.. plus they are aesthetically pleasing to the eye!

Hi Ratlet. I'm glad you are discovering the joys of binocular observing! I too have a pair of 10x50mm binos and find them indispensable and showing me the broader context of the night sky. I also use mine hand held while sitting in an office chair. I find that holding them near the objective lens end provides more stability. Enjoy! Joe