Bicycle + Binoculars = Awesome

[Size9Hex]

Superb session tonight. Instead of popping out into the yard, I shoved my gear into my backpack, hopped on my bike and pedalled off in search of darker skies. Decided not to take any star maps or lists of targets, planning instead to just enjoy whatever was there.

As I rode, It was exciting to see some promising sights in the sky. Despite the glare of my bicycle headlight beam, I could see the sky was darker just a few miles from home, with the Milky Way nicely visible.

After a bit of off-roading, I reached the top of a local hill and set up, with fireworks flashing on the horizon in every direction.

I warmed up with a few of the usual suspects while my eyes adapted to the dark. Alpha Persei, the Pleiades and Kemble's Cascade looking nice as always, although somewhat brighter and more vivid, and with normally averted vision stars being less shy in the darker skies.

It got better and better from this point onwards.

Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. I brought the binoculars directly up to it, and was confused to have not found it. I followed a more controlled star hop and realised I had been right on target but just hadn't recognised it as the dim grey blob I've seen before. Far brighter than usual, with an obvious bright centre, fading steadily outwards into the surrounding sky.

Andromeda Galaxy. I could followed the usual star hop, and literally stepped back from the binoculars in disbelief. It was huge! From home, the bright core is visible with some sense of elongation. The elongation seemed much greater, and with averted vision, my sense was that it extended to almost half the field of view, which matches what I have since seen in Sky Safari.

Triangulum Galaxy. Again followed my regular star hop to a kite shaped arrangement of stars. The best I've ever managed from home was to sense a faint presence at one corner of the kite. Tonight I saw a much brighter glow, but also sensed for the first time that it had a certain boundary and shape. A fairly squat, fat object, but slightly elongated from top left to bottom right across the view. Again, it matches what I've subsequently seen on the map.

I stepped back from the tripod and looked steeply up to near the zenith, took in the whole sky, and was quite stunned.

The Milky Way is visible from home as a glow, but I don't recall seeing much structure to it. Through Cygnus, a dark lane of clearer sky ran down towards Aquila, separating two brighter milky bands on either side. Further up, the right hand band appeared to spill outwards into a large lobe and fade into the sky as it passed behind Cygnus' left wing, while the left of the two milky bands continued up past the zenith and across into the sky behind me. Stunned to see this matches the map, and I've since learned the dark band is the Great Rift.

North American Nebula. Saw it (in a sense) for the first time tonight having been fascinated by it since seeing a photo as a child. As with Andromeda, I find it amazing that such huge features are hiding in plain sight. From home, it simply doesn't exist, but I decided to give it a go in the binos tonight, having been encouraged by the amount of detail in the Milky Way. From Deneb, I hopped past 56 and 57 Cyg (no Pelican to be seen sadly). I wouldn't saw I exactly saw the shape of North America, but I certainly saw a boundary between dark sky and milky sky on the Atlantic coast side of the nebula.

Double Cluster: Clearer than usual. Spotted a couple of nice bright stars, close together, in the top right cluster (i.e. furthest from Perseus). The right hand of this pair of stars appeared more complex, as if a double or even triple that didn't quite resolve. This nicely matches the environs of the brightest 6.6-6.7 pair I've since seen on the map.

Based on the forecast, I guessed it would be an early night, so a number of the sights were quite rushed. With cloud bands starting to thicken, I packed up and pedalled home. A short and sweet session.

[Paz]

Great post - this should inspire more of us to get out of our gardens! It is also a good reminder that you can have a good time without a lot of kit.

[Piero]

That's the way I do as I don't have a backyard or a car.

Not easy, but it can be very rewarding particularly if considering that you have a chance to get out from the normal town life and focus on nature, just nature with its noise. Beautiful.

Piero

[ollypenrice]

Inspiring post.

Olly

[Ouroboros]

Thanks, Size9Hex. You've painted a wonderful description of your observing 'adventure' that also reminds us of the real advantage of using nothing more than a simple pair of binoculars.

[Stu]

Great stuff Size9, really enjoyable read. As you say, once you get under a dark sky these huge faint objects really start to show themselves properly.

I can't see your kit list via Tapatalk, but if at some point you can get yourself a widefield 80mm refractor, an OIII filter and get it to your hill then the North America Nebula will show itself beautifully as long as you have good transparency.

[MAN or ASTROMAN]

An inspiring post,paul.

[laudropb]

Very nice report which shows what can be done with a little effort.

[scarp15]

A quite uplifting enjoyable and descriptive story, Bicycle + Binoculars simple is best.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Many light years ago, I used to go out on a Yamaha FS1E, (the 'fizzy'), and strapped a tripod and/or monopod under the saddle/seat and fuel tank with bungee cord and strap a pair of 16x50 binoculars & case to the fuel tank with bungee net to a few dark sites near home.

Does that count? 

[Size9Hex]

That's the way I do as I don't have a backyard or a car.

Not easy, but it can be very rewarding particularly if considering that you have a chance to get out from the normal town life and focus on nature, just nature with its noise. Beautiful.

Piero

Credit where it's due too. It was one of your earlier posts that inspired me!

[Piero]

Credit where it's due too. It was one of your earlier posts that inspired me!

Thank you!  

I am happy to see it was useful and your post shows you had a nice time out there too! 

[Size9Hex]

Great stuff Size9, really enjoyable read. As you say, once you get under a dark sky these huge faint objects really start to show themselves properly.

I can't see your kit list via Tapatalk, but if at some point you can get yourself a widefield 80mm refractor, an OIII filter and get it to your hill then the North America Nebula will show itself beautifully as long as you have good transparency.

Thanks for the tip. I suspect it won't be long before I invest in some bigger kit, and comments like this make it even harder to resist!

[dick_dangerous]

Great post - big apertures are all very well, but tiny apertures can be packed up and taken to truly dark locations and achieve better results!

Paul