Quick 10 Mins

[Marki]

Too cold and demotivated (rubbish day at work) to put any of my scopes out, but couldn't miss what look to be glorious skies. First 5 mins with my old Tento 12x40 - made sure the Auriga messiers were still there since last time I wa sout the moon had pretty much washed the whole sky clean (they most certainly are ). Pleiades look stunning. Hyades and Aldebaran breathtaking. Andromeda galaxy looks huge! The star fields in Perseus and Casseiopiea are just awesome! I quite like these bins - nice magnification, light and easy to carry and quite robust.

Decided to get out my Zeiss 10x50 Jenoptems to compare - what they concede in magnification to the old soviet bins they more than make up for in aperture and quality of the optics though. Orion's sword looks lovely indeed with these, and although the image is smaller than the russian bins show, the better aperture of the german bins allows better resolution/detail on the nebula.

Anyway, I came inside feeling much calmer and happier. The seeing looks lovely indeed, and this is what bins are best for - widefield sweeps of those glorious rich star-strewn expanses of the winter sky.

Btw - anyone see a quick flash of light streaking from north to south through Andromeda about 15-20 mins ago? Wondered if it was an early geminid or something.

[WaveSoarer]

Great stuff Mark. I've been promised a pair of bins off Santa this Christmas to get some observing when there isn't the time to set up the scope. Plenty to see and find and a great way to get acquainted with the sky. Mrs WaveSoarer and I are looking forward to taking them on our hols where the sky will be darker than it is round here.

[Alma]

.......

Btw - anyone see a quick flash of light streaking from north to south through Andromeda about 15-20 mins ago? Wondered if it was an early geminid or something.

Possibly an Iridium flare - the north south direction fits. No Iridium passes were listed for that time in your location however, so more likely a random meteor, not necessarily a Geminid though.

[asteria]

Great report of brief session - binos are great for this sort of session.