Dark sky trip in April with binocs: what not to miss?

[neural]

So I've booked our trip to La Palma (see thread a week or two ago -- many thanks again for helpful suggestions). We're going in mid-April and I'm hoping to manage maybe two or three observing sessions. I'll be taking my 16x70 binocs and new monopod, as well as the good old Mk 1s.  Bearing in mind that almost all the observing I've ever done has been from badly bright skies (NELM 4.5 ish), I'm just not familiar with what I can expect to see with 16x binocs from a reasonably dark site. 

My question to the wise heads of SGL is therefore as follows: what should I not miss seeing, with a dark sky, at a latitude of 29 degrees north, in the evening or morning sky of mid-late April? Should I concentrate on the Leo-Virgo galaxies, or are these unimpressive in binocs? Should I get an early night and spend as long as I can sweeping Scutum, Scorpio and Sagittarius? What do you think? 

thanks in advance,

yours excitedly...

[messiermark]

Sagittarius and Scorpius are both good choices lots of clusters and nebula, also Omega Centauri in Centaurus the largest and brightest globular easy with the naked eye, should be great with binoculars.

[neural]

Yeah, I thought of omega Centauri. Tried for it once four years ago from the Cyclades, when I was first getting into astronomy -- didn't get it though. The Canaries are slightly further south and I have high hopes. I'll still need a good southern horizon.

Any thoughts on things I'm not likely to see from home for LP reasons? E.g. galaxies (I've seen M81/82 at 10x and will certainly be trying at 16x)? Large nebulae (is the Veil doable in binocs)? Larger planetaries e.g. M27?

[pete_l]

Omega centaurii should be an easy target from La Palma (assuming you have a southern horizon). I can get it quickly in 10x50s and La Palma is a good 8-9 degrees further south. So the target will be higher AND it will be about 1 magnitude brighter due to less atmospheric extinction. It could even be naked eye visible.

Otherwise, I'd focus on the southern constellations. They are without a doubt the most interesting areas of the sky and contain stuff you simply couldn't see from England, no matter how dark your skies.

[Stu]

I do hope you like late nights or early mornings! Best time to see Sagittarius at this time of year there is after 3am, through until you lose the darkness.

That said, it should be pretty spectacular with plenty of bino visible objects to trawl around.

Under good conditions, the veil is doable in binoculars, the eastern section in particular. Give the North America nebula a go too. Both these will also be early morning objects.

Definitely have a look at M24 too, that's pretty spectacular.

[neural]

Good advice, thanks. I'm sure you're both right to stay in the south, it's more than 20 degrees further south than anywhere in the UK (even the LMC comes within 10 degrees of the horizon!). Cheers for the heads-up about the Veil and NGC 7000 -- I'd love to see them and will put them on my list. Didn't think of omega Cen as a naked-eye target ... how great would that be! I might actually end up just gawping and forget to use the bins....