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Your best ever view through your bins


Nathan UK

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Sure thing! Family holiday of a lifetime to Oz this summer; lots of travelling around by plane so no strong desire to be lugging around half a tonne of astro-gear.  Bought a pair of dinky littlle Canon 8x25 image stabilised bins; you can fit them in your pocket so ideal for when out and about.  Anyway we managed to get out under dark skies whilst visiting Uluru. Absolutely stunning views scanning through the Milky Way with those little bins, and Omega Centauri blew me away.

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I'm not sure I can say which was technically the best view I've had through a binocular but the most memorable have always been down to very good seeing conditions. Firstly a few years ago I was up early one morning and orion was up and the view through the B&S 10x50EDs of M42 was amazing. I was sure I could see a hint of colour which isn't normally possible. Similarly on a night a couple of years ago  of very good seeing I remember doing a wonderful tour of open clusters with my Pentax 20x60s which thereafter got the nickname  of my "cluster busters". Having some good binos is great but if conditions play ball there are some wonderful sights to be seen.

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Hmmm, pause for thought. Probably scanning up the alignment of planets back in April 2002. Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and a near half moon, strung in a line across the sky. Lovely stuff.

Another favourite would be the Veil and North America Nebula under a dark sky with filters fitted. Both instances with Canon 15x50is stabilized binoculars, very nice too.

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This is easy for me. :) 

M31 (including M32 and M110) from the garden of my ex-girlfriend's parents. A truly stunning view which is still well impressed in my mind. It was a moonless and clear night in the mid August 2014 at 1-2am. On the nearby hill, the lights of the wedding we went to were gradually switching off. At the time I had a simple Revelation 15x70 on a basic photo tripod (both are in Italy now). M32 was majestic, nearly fitting side by side with its dust, and holding her little sisters M32 and M110. 

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Best bino view to date for me has to be Usher gap campsite at Muker with bresser 10x50, went to bed as it was cloudy, woke for a comfort break at about 0200 and it was gin clear, so grabbed bino`s and "WOW" M31 bold as you like, lots of detail, lowered bins and found i could still see it naked eye....stunning sight

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32 minutes ago, nightfisher said:

Best bino view to date for me has to be Usher gap campsite at Muker with bresser 10x50, went to bed as it was cloudy, woke for a comfort break at about 0200 and it was gin clear, so grabbed bino`s and "WOW" M31 bold as you like, lots of detail, lowered bins and found i could still see it naked eye....stunning sight

Bet you wish you brought a tripod for your bins... :)

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Difficult to pick just one. Lunar at 15x and above can be pretty mesmerising with bins owing to the slight 3D effect. Objects such as Kemble's cascade and the coat hanger asterism are framed nicely in bins also. Maybe M42 through a Vixen 81mm binocular telescope was the best I've seen, tough to call.  

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54 minutes ago, nightfisher said:

went to bed as it was cloudy, woke for a comfort break at about 0200 and it was gin clear,

Its funny how that happens, how clear skies  "settle" in the early hours. A few times I've groaned when one of the dogs has nudged me to go out in the wee hours (pun intended) but have been rewarded with beautiful clear skies. Thats when  binos kept within easy reach are a real blessing.

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I've literally just come indoors from one if my best ever sessions. I am currently on holiday at a lodge in deepest darkest cornwall. Just been lying on the terrace scanning the milky way with my 10x50 bins. It's been raining for much of the day and the transparency is amazing. I really didn't want to spoil my dark adaption by looking at charts so I just scanned and identified later indoors. Stand out moments included: 

  • Nebulosity to the east of Deneb was incredibly bright and well defined, I can't say I could see the North American outline for sure but I am pretty sure thats what I was seeing. 
  • The Eastern Veil was very faint but visible as I knew what to look for having been studying it recently through various scopes
  • Numerous dark clouds and lanes very well defined - as interesting as emission nebulae in their own way - next time I would like to identify some by name
  • Many colourful binaries including Omicron Cygni (triple), Delta Lyrae and Alberio.

Interestingly I found the constellations getting lost in the profusion of stars and I lost my way around the sky more than once! A great experience from the dark skies of Cornwall.

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The best view I had was in 20X60's of the Double Cluster from a dark site. They looked like sprinkled gemstones on black velvet. I still have the bins, but unfortunately there's fungus on one of the prisms.

Does anyone know a good binocular repair service in the UK? Fungus is easy to remove, but recollimation is something else.

 

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58 minutes ago, Merlin said:

The best view I had was in 20X60's of the Double Cluster from a dark site. They looked like sprinkled gemstones on black velvet. I still have the bins, but unfortunately there's fungus on one of the prisms.

Does anyone know a good binocular repair service in the UK? Fungus is easy to remove, but recollimation is something else.

 

Shame about the bins, I'm sure someone on here must know someone who can sort them ?

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A handful of best moments spring to mind:

1) First light with my Apollo 15x70s, a few years ago.  Suburban back garden, not far enough from Brighton, but I was amazed at the variety of DSOs that I could see.  Many of which had previously proved pretty elusive to me, even through a telescope.

2) Taking my little 8x42s on holiday to the Canaries.  Sweeping the sky from our balcony, and stumbling across a large globular cluster that I'd never seen before.  Oh my.  It was Omega Centauri.  Huge, even in the wee bins.  Stunning.  I shouted loudly, and woke up my wife!

3) Seeing the same cluster under southern-hemisphere skies earlier this year, along with 47 Tucanae, the SMC & LMC, and the rest of the southern delights.  Wow!  Never seen the Milky Way so bright before, made all the more exciting by seeing vast areas I'd never seen before.

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