Binocular Help

[captaincaveman]

Having not yet decided on which telescope to purchase(and to save more money;)), I have decided to do the sensible thing and get out and find my way around a little better

I have a pair of 10x50 binoculars at home that i decided to dust off and use, which gave me a little problem....

How do you go from naked eye observations of particular stars to looking through the bins without getting lost?

Last night i was looking at cassiopeia quite easily due to the fact part was close to a chimney on next doors roof, so easy to relocate

But as i moved across towards other constellations(and as many other stars naturally appear through bins), i found it very easy to lose the target star.

Ive used finder scopes on other peoples telescopes without a problem, probably due to lower magnification and stability of mounts

Can anyone give any clues on where im going wrong?

[Bart]

Captaincaveman,

It would be difficult to travel distances while continuiung to look through the binocs. You'll get lost going too far. Treat each area as a separate entitiy. Get your bearings in that area and, while you're starting off anyway, dont stray too far off easily recognisable targets.

It'll get easier, I promise, and it wont take that long either.

Good luck

Bart

[MjrTom]

I tend to sight along the barrel of the binoculars to get me in the general area.

I have roof prism bins, might be more difficult with Porro prism style bins.

[captaincaveman]

Captaincaveman,

It would be difficult to travel distances while continuiung to look through the binocs. You'll get lost going too far. Treat each area as a separate entitiy. Get your bearings in that area and, while you're starting off anyway, dont stray too far off easily recognisable targets.

It'll get easier, I promise, and it wont take that long either.

Good luck

Bart

I tend to sight along the barrel of the binoculars to get me in the general area.

I have roof prism bins, might be more difficult with Porro prism style bins.

Thanks for the replys, sorry Bart, i probably didnt explain myself very well, I usually do focus on one constellation, but without something in the background for reference, as soon as i lift the bins to my eyes i loose the star i was looking at in the mixture of all the other stars that appear, then when i do find a star of the right magnitude im unsure if ive drifted off course:icon_scratch:

Yeah they are porro prisms, is that part of the problem then?, maybe i should use a tripod and a home made sighting mechanism:)

[Ad Astra]

Hello CaptainCaveman,

The problem most new observers have with bins is that you can see so many more stars in the view than your eyes show. One of the best ways to learn this is to 'star hop' or trace out constellations that you know well.

Cassiopeia is a good one to start with, as you have noted. Try Ursa Major, Cygnus and others you know well. You have to re-familiarize yourself with this new, richer star scape in the eyepiece of your bins in the same way you first learned the sky. Look, check your map, look again. As others have said, it will become easier with time, and much more quickly than learning constellations the first time.

How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice!

Dan

[ollypenrice]

It is a familiar problem. My advice would be to pick a bright star and carefully note its colour. Bring up the bins and try to confirm that star, again going by colour. Once you can hop between naked eye and bins and back, feeling sure you are on the same star, you can begin to try to get a feel for the field of view shown by the bins. Most people are surprized by how small it is.

I remember having this problem and now I can't recreate it, so it is something that will come, fear not.

Olly

[jamespels]

Hi Cap'n,

I would agree with the advice you have been given - find a patch of sky with a prominent constellation and start there.

However, you want to start out somewhere where the constellation stars stand out against the background stars. Far be it for me to contradict Dan but, in my opinion, Cassiopeia may not the best starting point if you live in a dark area with low levels of light pollution as the background stars can be quite bright. That said, a good proportion of the "W" whould be visible in the field of view in 10x50s so you should be able to pick up the pattern anyway.

If you do find the pattern in Cassiopeia is getting lost, try the plough portion of Ursa Major as Dan suggests - there are not many stars in the area you could confuse with the ones in the constellation. Again, you should be able to keep a reasonable proportion of the pattern in the field of view so you can see where you are. Also, there are quitre a few interesting things in and around the Plough - it is easy to spend a long time just in that region alone!

Once you have got used to navigating the Plough, try to find Polaris in the bins (reaonable guide here: Free Astronomy Lesson 2 - Getting your Bearings). Once you have got this reliably, you are well on your way to judging distances and star-hopping around the rest of the sky.

I would also suggest getting a good guide to astronomical objects easily visible in bins - "Turn Left at Orion" is widely respected with good reason. The Collins "Little Gem" guides are also very good.

Hope this helps,

J.

[captaincaveman]

Thanks for your help guys, its getting slightly easier now, im slowly starhopping my way around, i can find ursa major and minor(though im struggling with the lower magnitude(or is it higher 4 stars of ursa minor)), bootes, cassiopeia and cepheus. Draco is still alittle confusing to see due to how far its spread

Cassiopeia is pretty good here, just slightly less bright than ursa major and a good strong pattern, bootes and cepheus are less somewhat

Ive found that if i use the top of the bins to aim while holding near my eyes, then put to my eyes it just takes a little raise up to usually find the target star

My next target is cygnus

[JamesM]

Sorry if this is stating the obvious but are you using the binos with a tripod? This would at least restrict you to one axis of movement at a time. This would also give you the opportunity to 'lock off' the binos and consult a star map or better still Stellarium (free planetarium software) and then come back to where you were last looking at and move on.

Hope that helps

James

[captaincaveman]

Sorry if this is stating the obvious but are you using the binos with a tripod? This would at least restrict you to one axis of movement at a time. This would also give you the opportunity to 'lock off' the binos and consult a star map or better still Stellarium (free planetarium software) and then come back to where you were last looking at and move on.

Hope that helps

James

Hi James, no im not using a tripod at the moment, the bins were just a short term measure to learn the sky while im saving for my scope.

Each viewing is getting a little easier though, ideally i wold have been better with 7x50's rather than the 10x at least till i get used to the sky.