Pleiades, andromeda and mirfak

[Ger]

I decided that I was too tired to set up my telescope after a long day but realised that the skies were clear and it would be a shame to waste it, so grabbed my binoculars and a chair and went into the back garden.

having been to a dark site a couple of weeks ago and enjoyed the experience the following week proved to be a stark reminder of the difficulty of back garden viewing, it has led me to look at picking up my first light pollution filter.. the experience of returning to my garden was a little disheartening to be honest,

anyway getting back to the binoculars, I felt I could not let some clear skies go without taking a look, so out I went. the first thing I very quickly noticed was Pleiades and it was pretty special seeing all the stars in the one fov and many more, my wife even stopped to take a look and was impressed. 

next stop was to try and find andromeda manually as I normally use the telescope with the goto, it was not that difficult lodge and not to dissimilar to the telescope view in that it was a bit of a grey smudge but it was still impressive to look and and nice to find manually as it helps with finding my way around a bit more.

finally I was looking around mirfak and I was amazed at the number of stars that floated in, around and under this star, again it was very impressive.

considering I was not highly motivated I came away pretty happy.. I suppose I will have to use the binoculars a bit more as they bring excellent results 

[Nojus]

Same here,I was amazed when tried to walk across the sky with my Celestron 12x60..I was surprised how nice the sky is in binoculars..

[TSRobot]

I too love my binos (9x63) and often forget about them. When I return to them i feel so happy. Observing is so simple again suddenly. To just enjoy the whole sky is amazing and I can feel child like again.

When I came back from holiday in the Swiss Alps, Coventry sky looked quite bland at first, but the binos help reintroduce me to my polluted home skies ?

[Alan White]

Binocular sessions are part of any observing I do, it's where I started out.

Similar to you some nights I am just too done in to set up,
I still want a relax and grin so I grab my trusty 10 x 50's and away I go for an hours relaxed meandering.

 

[jabeoo1]

I have just been out scanning with a low power wide field EP on the same targets, stunning! (forgot binoculars)

The double cluster is Perseus is an absolute monster.  

[Nojus]

what do you think guys,16x50 Nikon can do it? I'm wondering if this huge magnification is suitable for stargazing without the tripod..