Early morning observing with Binoculars

[Mark at Beaufort]

I woke up at 4.45am and looking out saw a wonderful clear sky. I had used my 15x70 Helios Apollo Binos the night before which were still on the dining room table. I thought I would try and see Comet Johnson now that Ursa Major was much higher in the sky.

Check out Stellarium and noticed that the Comet was between M51 and M63 so should be easy to find. Well its not!! I found the exact place but could not see the Comet - I suppose being mag 12 I am not really going to see it in binos. The good point, however, was I had a nice view of M51 and M63.

Notwithstanding this disappointment the sky was so clear and transparent so I decided to view areas in Monoceros. I screwed a UHC and O-III into the binos and looked at NGC2244 plus the surrounding Rosette Nebula. The Neb was very easy to see and in binoculars you can appreciate the size of this Nebula. Looked at the Christmas Tree cluster then over to Leo for M65 and M66 - I could see a smudge because I knew the location of these galaxies.

Finally, I looked for M101 which I always star hop from Mizar/Alcor - almost overhead the galaxy was easy to see. So an unexpected quick observing session in the early morning.

Made a cup of tea for my wife and myself and then back to bed

[Bart]

Nice. Bet the cup of tea was welcome. It's flipping cold out there at the moment. I only use the binocs rarely, but when I do, I really enjoy it. 

[Taff]

I never knew that you can get filters' for binoculars.Mark

[Mark at Beaufort]

1 hour ago, Taff said:

I never knew that you can get filters' for binoculars.Mark

Taff I can use normal 1.25" filters because the Helios Apollo range has a screw thread fitted into the eyepiece socket. This was the main reason that I bought this type of binoculars. Link giving more information - https://www.firstlightoptics.com/helios/helios-apollo-high-resolution-70mm-binoculars.html