Now I Understand

[Kainushi]

Well, the temperature is above freezing tonight.  There is not a cloud in the sky, and two of the streetlights on my road have burned out.  I took this as a sign from the almighty to dust off the binoculars and have a peek at the sky.  I can report that Jupiter and the Galilean moons are all present and accounted for, Orion's Nebula is looking nice, and the Big Dipper is absolutely breathtaking.  The Dipper, of course, did not require the binoculars.

I tried finding the Beehive Cluster, but could not pick it out in the sky.  Looking to my left and seeing the moon in all of its glory, I thought I would give it a gander.  It nearly blinded me.  Now I think that I understand why people use lunar filters on their telescopes.  

Happy Trails!

[Steve91]

Pointing my scope towards it for the first time the other night, before I even looked through the it I couldn't believe the light coming from the eyepiece

[Kainushi]

Surprisingly powerful.

[Sandraj]

I was shocked just how bright the moon was as well, a filter needs to be added to my list of must gets.

[Kainushi]

Sandraj,

You could wear your sunglasses at night.  

(My apologies to Corey Hart)

[Ant]

You do get used to the initially bright moon fairly quickly.

But I must admit when you look away from the eyepiece you cannot see a thing for quite a while

Ant

[Russko13]

I find very thin cloud with a bright moon tends to be a good natural filter

[Kainushi]

I find very thin cloud with a bright moon tends to be a good natural filter

Tonight would be good, but it's become too cloudy.

[happy-kat]

sunglasses the the fastest Moon filter to hand (never do the same for the sun)

[stolenfeather]

The moon is so bright that I sometimes take out a piece of paper and look at it's reflection from the eyepiece.  Hmmm...  I wonder if I could trace it next time?  I think I will wait for above freezing temperatures to try that though...

Isabelle

[Russko13]

Also I'm gutted for you that you didn't see the beehive it is spectacular in bins to say the least, I can't see it naked eye Aswell as most of the stars in cancer from my backyard but what I find helps is locate castor and Pollux in the bins and scan down to the left in a straight line, you can't miss it