My first evening with my new bino's . . .

[Rebus]

Hi all,

I've recently rekindled my interest in astronomy after about twenty years and after joining up here the other day and reading loads of good advice around here, decided to get a pair of reasonably priced binoculars (Olympus 12x50's) rather than just going all-out and getting a telescope to start with.

I think I made the right decision, and after a rather cloudy day and some rain at tea time, the skies cleared and apart from the odd cloud floating around it a was a crisp clear night in my back garden in deepest Dorset.

Over the last few days I've been looking with the naked eye at the various constellations, trying to find my way around the sky, along with Venus and the moon etc. but when viewed through the new bino's, wow! what a difference, The moon is now almost 3D in apperance!

I can now see so many more stars of lower magnitudes and when mounted on a tripod I could just make out the moons of jupiter, although they did just appear as two objects either side of the planet, but they were the right distance and angle away so I'm sure this is what I saw seing as they are currently in two quite close formations so to speak.

Jupiter was pretty high in the sky and I was craning my neck trying to view Jupiter and the moons, but because I wasn't that steady and looking through the eyepieces at a funny angle I could not get a good consistant view - I must set myself up properly another night to get a more comfortable, clearer view.

Pleiades looked amazing, with so many more stars visible amongst the main seven compared to viewing with naked eyes.

I also managed to take some pictures of the moon with my camera (Canon 7D with 70-200 & 1.4x converter)

Next time I will plan my viewing a bit more, and set my tripod up at a better height with a chair. I also found myself flitting from one thing to another, but just wanted to try out my new 'toy'whilst the skies were clear

Ah well, enough rambling from me, but I just wanted to share . . .

Kevin

[rory]

thanks. there's some pretty dark(ish) skies down doset way i here.

lets hope there are plenty of clear ones.

[Mr Q]

Buying a good binocular is a good idea since some DSOs do look better in bins. The second advantage to having it is that it can give you some observing time when setting up a scope does not allow the time. And a third advantage is that the binocular can go where ever you can for a "quicky" look at the night sky when a scope is not feasible. 10x50s or 12x50s are a good all-around binocular for general observing so you will be pleased to find out those bins will add to your observing pleasures for years to come. It just takes some practice aiming and locating objects.

[ismangil]

And when you do finally get a scope, you'll find the large FOV has spoiled you...

[Rebus]

thanks. there's some pretty dark(ish) skies down doset way i here.

lets hope there are plenty of clear ones.

I'm semi-rural where I live, so although I have some streetlights around me, there is not much light pollution in general.

Buying a good binocular is a good idea since some DSOs do look better in bins. The second advantage to having it is that it can give you some observing time when setting up a scope does not allow the time. And a third advantage is that the binocular can go where ever you can for a "quicky" look at the night sky when a scope is not feasible. 10x50s or 12x50s are a good all-around binocular for general observing so you will be pleased to find out those bins will add to your observing pleasures for years to come. It just takes some practice aiming and locating objects.

I've been pretty lucky going to stars with them, although sometimes I just wonder where the heck it's gone!

I know what you mean about just being able to grab them to have a look, recently I've been jumping outside if the clouds suddenly clear!

And when you do finally get a scope, you'll find the large FOV has spoiled you...

I can imagine trying to lock onto a star quite daunting at first with a scope - A 5 deg FOV is bad enough let alone something much narrower.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Buying a good binocular is a good idea since some DSOs do look better in bins

You are not wrong. There are so many DSO's that look better in bins. Even the moon (which is NOT a DSO) looks better in bins because you get the "3D" effect.