My first observation session in a long time!

[Mattiman]

Hi people..

My name is Matthew. I live in New Zealand.

I have been here in the past and went away from astronomy for a long while and my binoculars sat in the cupboard and weren't used till a few days ago I was outside and looked up and the "bug" took a firm grip and I got the urge to try again.

Anyways I  went out in my back garden armed with my binoculars tripod fold up chair laptop some books and a headlight. I managed to identify Taurus and saw the 7 sisters otherwise known as the Pleiades cluster. I know too many of you this won't sound very amazing but to me it was huge with the help of stellarium I was able to find the constellation triangulum which was exciting. I also saw the Orion nebula for the first time absolutely amazing! For those of you wondering I use a Saxon 30x80 binocular and a Celestron trailseeker tripod. I can see some of the northern sky and eastern sky from my back garden so not a lot of sky but it's enough to learn from.

I've attached a picture of my setup.

Thanks for your time and I hope you all find this a pleasure to read.

Clear skies!

 

[DHEB]

Hi and welcome back into amateur astronomy, we all understand your excitement!

Cheers

[Mattiman]

Thanks appreciate the comment

[rockystar]

nice one, welcome back to the fold, hopefully you'll soon find your feet again, plenty up there

 

[Astro Imp]

As said welcome back, once the bug grips you can have some great times with bins.

Good luck.

[Ben the Ignorant]

30x is within telescope magnification range; you should be able to see many things in the deep sky, even some of the smallish ones, but the rather large framing will keep them in context.

[brantuk]

Welcome back Mattiman. We all dip in and out of the hobby from time to time - but the bug still bites especially when you look up and see a clear sky. Sounds like you had a nice session there - may you have many more.

[StarryEyed]

Matt.

There is nothing on this world that provokes as much wonder as allowing photons made in alien stars that have travelled for hundreds of years at the speed of light and started their jouney a hundred years before I was born to fall into the eye and stimulate the electrons in the retina so we can say to ourselves "wow that's an amazing shade of orange"

The one thing you can be sure of is your back amongst your like minded friends.

Kevin.

[Moonshed]

I am principally a telescope man but own a modest pair of bins which give me a massive amount of pleasure just trawling through the awesome Milky Way on a dark night. That is something you just can't do with a scope, the FOV is too small for that. Welcome back into the fold, tarry a while.

[Mattiman]

thanks for the comment moonshed. i appreciate it. i do agree with the FOV comment. my binos have a FOV of about 2- degrees which is quite small and sometimes i go to look through the and ive missed the object, i.e. im too low or too high but all of that comes with experience i guess.

[Moonshed]

Talking of experience Mattiman the funny thing I have discovered over the years is how the more we look through our chosen instruments at the night sky, the more we learn to see. With experience, we get to see more over the years even using the same equipment. When a novice looks through my scope at a distant galaxy or nebula they only see a fraction of what I see, sometimes they are even completely unable to see a dim nebula. Not really surprising when you think about it. For example a colour checker in a paint factory will with their experience be able to spot differences in shades of colour way, way beyond what we can detect. It still surprises me though when a friend or neighbour looking through my scope is totally unable to detect a feint galaxy when to me it can appear quite obvious. There is nothing that cannot be improved upon with training and/or experience. Nice to know for oldies like me? Keep looking!

[Mattiman]

thats very true moonshed yes very true. im still young but as i grow older and wiser im sure i too will see more objects the more i use them hahaha cheers for the comment.

[SonnyE]

A very hearty Welcome Back to sky watching and astronomy Matti!

Personally, when I step out dewater the dog, and shake the dew off my Lilly, I often look up, say hi to the ones I recognize, and stare dreamily at the ones I don't know...yet.

I'm a retired heart patient, so I can't take any time off. One of these days my time will likely be all off, and me too.

I hope you find the draw again, and are back enjoying the night skies on a regular basis.

Cheers! There are stars enough for all of us up there!