Out with the bins.

[Paul M]

We're spending a few days up at our Luxury Cumbrian Villa while the girls are on half term. Had some nice dark skies and tonight was very good. Unfortunately Penrith to the North of my dark sky site just gets brighter. Luckily the southern sky is still quite good. 

If I'd known it was going to stay so dark I'd have set up Ye Olde Fullerscope, but if my eyesight was as good as hindsight I wouldn't need a scope

Binoculars it is then, 10x50's to be precise. I used SkySafari to plan a few objects and realised that Uranus and Neptune were well placed for my situation. I don't know that part of the sky very well. Can't see it too well from home. So I studied SkySafari looking for suitable star hops. Luckily both planets formed memorable asterisms. 

For Neptune I started at lambda Aquarii and hopped East to 81 and 82 Aqr. Projecting a line south from that pair took me to Neptune. Easy enough and it left me wondering why I'd never tried for Neptune with bins before. I was hoping for some evidence that I was looking at a planet but it was stellar in appearance. No hint of Colour. 

Uranus was another easy star hop. Starting at Omicron Piscium (another obscure star I've never really visited before) and a short pan east to a little line of even more obscure stars 5th to 7th magnitude. Uranus formed a tidy little obtuse triangle with a pair of them. As with Neptune, there was nothing planetary about the view. Perhaps with steadier hands and younger eyes I'd have eeked more detail. A nice little first all the same. 

The milky-way was fantastic, horizon to horizon. I panned round for some time just taking it in. The Perseus double cluster was obvious by naked eye and always worth a visit with the bins. In some respects it better suited to bins than telescopes. You get a feel for the scale and the setting.

I've  recounted a few times about the years I spent looking for M33 with my 6in reflector but eventually finding it from this site with the 10x50's. Now I can't miss it. No star hopping needed. Point the bins to that area between Triangulum and Andromeda and it's there, just as it was tonight. Not sure if the sky had started to deteriorate but contrast seemed lower than previously. 

By this time I was cold. The grass was frosty under foot. I hung round just long enough to see the Moon rise over the Pennines. There was a shed and some trees in the way but I just managed to spot some craters before calling it a night. 

We won't be back here until December so I feel I've got my money's worth tonight. 

 

[Uplooker]

Excellent report Paul. Well done getting Uranus and Neptune with the bins.

[Davey-T]

Nice to have some dark skies, I had a scan around looking for Uranus with 11 x 70s with no luck in my murky South London sky.

Dave

[John]

Nice report

Uranus disk is around 5.7 arc seconds in apparent diameter and Neptunes just half of that so I don't think they would appear as anything other than star-like with binoculars. It's nice to see them with bins all the same.

M33 is a nice spot as well !

[Paul M]

6 minutes ago, John said:

Nice report

Uranus disk is around 5.7 arc seconds in apparent diameter and Neptunes just half of that so I don't think they would appear as anything other than star-like with binoculars. It's nice to see them with bins all the same.

M33 is a nice spot as well !

Indeed! I kept asking myself "what do you expect? ".  I had no answer, other than colour, which I find quite intense for both planets through my telescopes. Just not collecting enough light to perceive colour. 

I guess it's a learning curve, other than pulling mercury out of twilight, I have not experience of binocular planets. Which shocks me after 40 odd years of stargazing. 

[Ouroboros]

I always enjoy searching for and finding these two planets. Uranus at mag 5.7 is fairly easy to spot with my 15x50 bins even under the relatively light polluted skies of south Oxfordshire. Neptune is harder at mag 7.8. In fact with the moon about recently I have only really seen Neptune by averted vision. 

PS Having found them it's interesting to track them over the days and weeks as they slowly move against the background of stars. 

[Ruud]

Neptune! That's great. I must try to find it myself, with my binoculars.

Thanks for the report Paul, I enjoyed reading it.

[Paul M]

12 minutes ago, Ruud said:

Neptune! That's great. I must try to find it myself, with my binoculars.

Thanks for the report Paul, I enjoyed reading it.

It's not a difficult target with good dark skies. I really can't believe I've never tried before. 

Without such tools as SkySafari etc, it would be much more difficult. Monthly finder charts in magazines? Image over multiple nights and animate? I guess the alternatives make success less certain

[John]

I find Cartes du Ciel a pretty good tool to help find the planets and to track the positions of their moons.

[Merlin66]

+1for CdC

 

[Stu]

Lovely stuff Paul. A good dark sky can be amazing enough just with the naked eye, and a pair of bins can show you a lot more. As a Skysafari fan, I can  only agree, very useful for having help available on your phone whenever you need it.

[djpaul]

Great report. 

I'm hopping for clear skies this coming Saturday. 3rd nov

As I'm off work and thinking of travelling to Norfolk for the night.

[Paul M]

11 hours ago, John said:

I find Cartes du Ciel a pretty good tool to help find the planets and to track the positions of their moons.

I tried CdC some time ago and although I liked its accuracy and features I couldn't get on with the interface. I usually take to planetarium software like a duck to water. Every time I returned to it I had to think too much! 

So I seem to have settled with Stellarium on my laptop and SkySafari on my android devices.