Great night with the bins...

[baggywrinkle]

It was the regular meeting of Kings Lynn & District AS last night and for once we had crystal clear skies!

So we ditched the talk (to be held later) and were outside for a good couple of hours in an area called Tottenhill which while not dark skies was darned good quality.

I'd taken along my Canon IS 15x50 bins. It was a great evening for binocular astronomy.  Perseus Dbl, Cluster, Hyades and Pleiades, M42, M31 of course and then M36,37 and 38 in Auriga. The latter were faint but nicely nebulous and with the IS kicking in very easy to observe. It was the first time I had really searched for them. Where I live  Auriga comes up over an area of looming light from Kings Lynn and they are much harder to spot.

Also just enjoyed sweeping up and down the Milky way. I was quite dew soaked by the time I had wrapped up but the bins stayed clear all evening.

I have had these bins for a year and the one criticism I have is that the dioptre adjustment runs out on my right eye if I don't use my specs. Luckily there is good eye relief and I can use my specs.

I don't have this problem with my 12x50 Nikons. Is this normal?

[Charic]

Small World! I used to go fishing at Tottenhill?
 I have one pair of bins where I feel a little more dioptre is required, possibly my 15x70s.
I looked into this some time back with my D5000 Nikon. I can further correct for a stronger doptre when using the viewfinder. Not sure this is possible with bins.