Observing with Canon 15x50is bins

[Stu]

Hi

Had a quick half an hour when the skies cleared later on last night. Had packed the scope away unfortunately so thought I would look for some Perseids and use my binos in the back garden.

First target was Alberio. Not tried this through binos before and it was very nice. Good clear separation and lovely colour difference between the two components.

Next up, I thought I would try Mizar and Alcor, one of my old favourites. I was very surprised that I was able to clearly split the two components of Mizar, not something I remember doing with binos before.

Whilst observing Mizar, I was experimenting with the stabilisation on the binos. I found that with it turned off, the star images were slightly sharper than with it on. Obviously the stabilisation adds a small amount of blur as it is working. The Canons have very good optics, aswell as being stabilised so this made me think I would try them on a tripod sometime soon.

M31 was clear of the clouds by then, and made a fine sight. The skies had darkened so I was able to see it more clearly than normal. No detail particularly but nice none the less. I am definitely noticing a reduction in local LP after midnight when the new street lights dim, very good news.

I had a try for M101 and M51 to no avail but did just about manage M81, with very subtle hints of M82. I also managed M57 which again, I have not spotted in binos before but it was quite clear, if very small!

M13 was very nice and clear, M92 significantly smaller and dimmer to my eye but still clearly seen.

Spent the rest of the time just scanning around Cygnus which was lovely as always. Caught the ISS on its later pass, plus two relatively bright Perseids with nice trails so altogether not a bad session.

Am heading off on my annual camping trip to Dorset with the children soon and will take the binos plus my 106mm frac so am hoping for some clear skies. Nice and dark down there and normally plenty of meteors around to spot plus very clear Milky Way. Shall be targeting the Veil, not seen it well for a while.

Cheers,

Stu

[Alma]

I spent last week deep in rural Suffolk with reasonably clear and very dark skies and experienced a couple of the most pleasurable evenings I can remember in over 20 years of stargazing. The only equipment I had was a yoga mat, a couple of pillows and my Canon IS 15x50's. Sure, I could have wished for all the other scope gear I had to leave at home, but frankly there's nothing quite like lying flat out on your back gazing directly up at the Milky Way in dark skies, without having to worry about all that scope hardware.

Binocular viewing at its best !

[Stu]

I agree with you there alma. It is great to be able to get some decent views if lovely objects without all the hassle.

I used mine down in Dorset a fair amount and the skies, when clear, were amazing. Can't beat binos for nice widefield views

Stu