Semi-first light with my new Helios apollo 15x70

[Victor Boesen]

This is a continuation of my christmaspresent thread, where I wrote about what I got for Christmas and shortly about when and where I had my "semi-first light".

Prologue:

Yesterday my mom and I drove to my grandparents' who live at a place where there isn't much light pollution especially after 1am where they turn of unnecessary street lights. The hole day it had been cloudy and raining for short periods of time, and the forecast said it would continue to be like this for the rest of the day, and night.
When we went to bed, the weather was the same, so I went to bed hoping I would get clear skies the next day(today).
Then at 2am I woke up, because I had to visit the bathroom, and my grandma always tells me about how she sometimes looks out the window in the bathroom in the middle of the night and how many stars there are, so after I did my thing I looked out the window, and suddenly it was as clear as crystal. I knew I had my new binocular and filters laying in my bedroom, so I couldn't resist having a quick trip to go and get them.

Observing:

Firstly I had to focus the binocular. The Helios Apollo has individual focusing, which I think I will have some getting used to, but after 5 minutes the focus looked good.
I was observing through a window(yes I know... not ideal, but at least it's brand new) since I couldn't just walk outside in the middle of the night without my mom and grandparents knowing. I hadn't planned any of this so deciding what to observe was a little difficult, however I decided to try M31 first, however it was getting close to the horizon.

M31:
The galaxy was a great sight extending to both sides with a bright core. I have seen this target many times before so I moved on pretty quick.

M33:
I have always wanted to see this galaxy, so I tried to find it before it came to close to the horizon. I could see a small blurry circle, but it wasn't very clear. I think this is both because I was observing through a window, and because of its low altitude.

M51:
This is also a galaxy I have wanted to see, but have never seen before, and this is probably because of the light pollution at home. I pointed the bin towards the place where I know it is, and I was treated with a small pair of blurry and glowing eyes. This galaxy was now very clear and easy to spot with averted vision.

M101:
Staying in Ursa major, I wanted to find this galaxy as well, now that I had seen M51. I knew that it would be tougher, but I found the blurry circle, bigger than M51 but also dimmer. I was happy that I had caught these galaxies, so I moved into my bedroom who has a huge window pointing south, whereas the bathroom points north.

This window can be flipped horizontally, and when I opened it up, I was rewarded with orion hanging above the only light pollution there is.

M42:
I didn't have high hopes for this one, as I am used to the small fuss seen through my 10x50 from my light polluted flat at home, but when I pointed the bin towards the nebula, I was rewarded with a glowing nebula, with arms extending out on its sides, but you could see that the nebula was affected by the light pollution. I decided to screw my UHC and Olll filter in place and oh boy! What a difference it made. The somewhat bright background was replaced with a clear black background, and the nebula was even brighter while more nebulosity was visable between the arms. I was very satisfied with my new filters.

Rosette nebula:
Ever since I have read about people seeing this target I wanted to try it myself. First without filter, I located beteleuse and went east, and I found the "ladder of stars" as I like to call them, but no nebulosity. After viewing the orion nebula I had high hopes as for seeing the rosette with the filters in place. I located betelgeuse again and went east... WOW, there it was, faint but it was there. The ring of smoke around the center stars was obvious, and I was delighted to have seen this target myself.

Final thoughts:
I am already excited to try out my binocular and filters again and I hope that it will be clear today as well, so I can get outside instead of observing inside.
I hope that you enjoyed this little read, and if you have this binocular yourself then feel free to write your best moment with it.

Clear skies, merry Christmas, and a happy new year!

Victor

[Mark at Beaufort]

Excellent report Victor. What a fantastic first light with your Apollo binos. 

[Victor Boesen]

9 minutes ago, Mark at Beaufort said:

Excellent report Victor. What a fantastic first light with your Apollo binos. 

Thank you very much. Yes, it was an amazing experience for a first light.

[MarsG76]

Cool write up, I enjoyed reading about your great first light experience... and very amusing intro.... 

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas.

 

[Victor Boesen]

13 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

Cool write up, I enjoyed reading about your great first light experience... and very amusing intro.... 

Hope you had a very Merry Christmas.

 

Thank you very much, and you too

[davejlec]

Hi Victor-  Thanks for that 1st light report!  Brought back a memory of when I had seen a partial solar eclipse with solar filters taped to my 10 x 50 looking thru a sunroof glass. Did not think of optical quality then and was just amazed that the calculated timing of the eclipse ( by a Sky and Telescope contributor ) was exact to the second! After I gave away the 10 x 50's to a neighbor I purchased a copy of the Helios Apollo 15 x 70 binocular, it's just branded differently - Orion Resolux, Astro Physics and other brand names all essentially the same binocular.  The individual focusing does take some getting used to but I think is better suited for astronomy.    

[mark81]

Great report!   Some really good objects to pick out. M33 has always been tough for me in my 10x50s... And great success with the Rosetta! Keep the reports coming..