Quick session with 15x70's

[Ciaran Meier]

Popped out for half an hour before clouds rolled in while getting dinner ready.  Helios Stellar II 15x70's. Really nice views around Augria, some pleasing asterisms  to be seen and beautiful contrasting colour. In and around Taurus too, Aldebaran a gorgeous red against an empty backdrop.   Really lifts the spirit just to get a few minutes observing between this persistent cloud. 

[mikeDnight]

It's good to hear you're enjoying time with your 70mm binoculars Ciaran. They are fantastic instruments and I have a lot of very happy memories after spending many hours behind a pair of 70mm binoculars. After becoming interested in astronomy back in 1979/1980, I bought myself a beautiful 60mm Astral refractor as I suppose many on SGL did, but it was binoculars that really opened my eyes to the night sky. Telescopes of meaningful aperture were not as common place or as easy to obtain back then, so binoculars were the way to go for a lot of observers.

I became friends with a local astronomer who'd invited me to his observatory, which was really exciting as I'd never been to a real amateur observatory before. It was actually a 7' X 5' garden shed that had a fold back roof. Inside was a 7" concrete pillar with a home made aluminium fork attached to the top, and in the fork was a beautiful pair of Swift 16X70 binoculars. With those binoculars my friend taught me to find my way around the night sky. It was a thoroughly exciting time as he taught me how to observe deep sky objects of all kinds. With those 70mm binoculars I cut my teeth on every Messier object that dared to rise above our local horizon. I also bought myself a pair of 12X60mm binoculars for £12 second hand. They had a broken bridge and I had to fix one eyepice in position with plastercine, but after every session with my friends 70mm's, I'd get home and immediately set my own binoculars up on a home made wooden tripod and fork, and find every object I'd viewed through my friends bigger bino's. If it wasn't for my time with binoculars in those early days, I can't imagine ever learning the night sky as well or as rapidly as I did. George Alcock used binoculars for much of his life and discovered several comets and made thousands of variable star estimates with them. Also, there was a postman called Graham Hosti from Sheffield if I remember rightly, who discovered a nova using half a pair of 50mm binoculars mounted on a camera tripod. Your tour around Auriga rekindled some happy memories of viewing M36,37 & 38 for the first time through binoculars, they really are terrific tools! ☺

The flip top observatory is nolonger, but the concrete pillar that my friends binoculars were once mounted on is still standing 40 years later. Now with a Takahashi Sky 90 mounted on it, and my now elderly friend Derek standing proudly alongside his pride and joy.

 

Edited January 28, 2020 by mikeDnight

[Ciaran Meier]

Hi Mike

Nice post. 

I actually got into astronomy around the same time you did, was still in primary school. Yep, astronomy back then was a rare interest and a 6 inch reflector was only to be dreamed about. My first optics were a pair of old 7x50's, and as you said, if an object were possible it was tracked down.  Actually fork mounted them too on a home build tripod. Raided the local library and devoured everything astro related. I've recently seen some old astronomy books from back then and the progress made in my lifetime is just amazing.  Put it this way:  sitting in my living room with a common handheld device (smartphone) I can instantly access high resolution images taken from the surface of other planets, and we take that for granted nowadays !!!

I've owned an 8 inch newt for quite a while now but must admit that I'm enjoying the 15x70's just as much, if not more so.  😀

 

 

[mark81]

@Ciaran Meier @mikeDnight

Thanks for the two great posts...

I'm the kind of observer that will throw 100% into it night after clear night and love every minute of it. Then after a long period of cloud I lose that feeling and even end up peeling back the curtains and almost hoping for cloud so I can stay in the warm and watch TV.  But it's threads like these that really inspire me and bring back the enthusiasm.... I just peeled back the curtain and it's cloudy... ☺️.. but look forward to taking some binoculars out and enjoying...

Thanks

Mark

 

[mikeDnight]

I think we all feel like that sometimes Mark, but after forcing yourself out under the stars you find you really enjoyed it. I found a small scope like an 80ED or a good pair of binoculars can be an antidote to astrohybernation syndrome. Five mins with a small scope often turns into an hour or more. ☺

This was one of my favourite small scopes. 

Edited January 28, 2020 by mikeDnight

[paulastro]

Perhaps you ought to buy yourself another 80ED Mike!? 👍

[mikeDnight]

Perhapse I should Paul. Then at least I wouldn't have to cart that unwieldy 100mm out. 😊