1st dark sky session with Apollo 22x85s

[geoflewis]

I started writing this report last night, but we suffered a power cut, with power not being restored until after I had retired to bed around midnight.....

The strong winds from the tail of storm Dennis continued well into Sunday night, but with a couple of hours of clear Moonless skies I had my first long session out with my new 22x85 binoculars on the P Mount earlier in the evening between 7pm-10pm. I came back inside a few times during the session to check Stellarium for star positions, magnitudes, etc.

Having experimented with and without wearing my glasses, I opted to go without for most of the session. Even though the astigmatism in my right eye prevented me getting perfect focus with that eye, using both eyes offered wonderful views of many targets.

At the suggestion of @Ships and Stars I thought I'd start by observing with filters in the eyepieces - a Baader UHC in the right eyepiece and a Lumicon OIII in the left. First up was the Tadpole Nebula region in Auriga, which was an easy get with a region of general nebulosity seen around the Letter Y cluster NGC1893. The nebulosity seemed better defined through the OIII filtered eyepiece, but was visible with both eyes separately and in bino-vision. I slipped over to the region of the Flaming Star Nebula on the other side of the 'ladder' asterism formed by stars 16-19 & IQ Aur and think I got hints of nebulosity, but couldn't really call it for sure. Next I tried the California Nebula in Perseus, but drew a blank, so I removed both filters and headed back to Auriga to check out the M36-M38 open clusters, spending a reasonable amount of time with each, allowing individual stars to resolve down to high mag 9s and maybe low 10s. General scanning around Auriga brought other smaller clusters into view - NGC1907 very close to M38, NGC1857 and NGC1778. I popped back to the Letter Y cluster again, now more aware of the general nebulosity in that region even without filters, then further east still within Auriga I located the Broken Heart Cluster NGC2281.

I next dropped down to the lovely Shoe Buckle Cluster M35 again spending several minutes here to resolve individual stars, before quickly ticking off nearby clusters NGC2158, NGC2157 and NGC2129.

Having earlier skipped past The Pleiades Cluster M45 to unsuccessfully try to see the California Nebula, now it was time to drink in this brilliant sight, almost filling the FOV with clear evidence of nebulosity around the brighter stars. Again I spent quite a long time here trying to acquaint myself with different asterisms (pairs, triangles, etc.) within the cluster and checking the magnitudes of fainter stars to try to ascertain the limiting magnitude of these binoculars, though I was somewhat overwhelmed by the plethora of bright stars.

Next up was the Double Cluster in Perseus, of which these binoculars offered a breathtaking view. Now I really could set about checking faint star magnitudes, clearing seeing down to mag 10.7 with direct vision and maybe mag 11.0 with averted vision. This is a full 1.0-1.3 magnitudes fainter than I could see with my cheap Revelation Astro 15x70s, so a very pleasing step up in performance. From the Double Cluster it was a short hop over to the Owl/ET/Dragonfly Cluster in Cassiopeia.

Getting somewhat clustered out, I decided it was time for some galaxies, starting with Bodes and the Cigar pair (M81/M82), very easily located with their different shapes clearly seen. In fact I was a bit surprised just how clear was the spiral shape of M81, though of course no spiral arms seen at this small scale. Whilst in that region I took a look a Mizar an easy split then tried both M101 and M51, but these were very low altitude and in the murk, so not seen.

Over in the west M31 was delightful with it's adjacent satellites M32 and M110 both clearly seen, the first time I've seen these without a telescope, making for a wonderful visual trio. M33 was also easily found, though it was just a hazy blob without any clear structure visible.

By now Orion was coming clear of my house, from where I had set up the binoculars, so of course the Orion Nebula M42 and friends had to be seen. The extensive wings of M42 looked superb and I just able to split the 4 trapezium stars. M43 was also clear, with hints of nebulosity around the Running Man region, indeed there hints of nebulosity all around this region, so I put the Baader UHC filter back in to see what if anything that revealed. I got hints of the Flame Nebula near Alnitak, but I was unable to detect IC434 the Horsehead Nebula.

The wind was steadily strengthening, clouds were starting to roll in and after some 2+ hours of enjoyable observing I was beginning to get quite cold, so it was time to call it a wrap.

Based on last night's session I can definitely say these binoculars have met my expectations, so I'm sure that they will get a lot of sky time over the coming weeks, months and years.

 

[Ships and Stars]

Excellent Geof, the Flaming Star is a tricky one, I might be fooling myself to say it's even visible through binos, but pretty sure I've caught a little nebulosity there before (maybe I was using the 300p that night from home along with the binos?)

The Flame Nebula - even a hint is pretty good there! We had patches of clear sky, but also had 65mph gusts, so well done for getting out thee. Good comparisons with the Rev 15x70s - I'm already tempted to go bigger now. Aperture fever meets binoculars 

[Ships and Stars]

PS Geof - Meant to say I'll try the California Nebula tonight with the 15x70s and Hb and let you know how that works. We have a really good forecast for one of my dark sky spots locally, so I need to be extra nice to my wife today so I can get set up earlier! Terrible of me, I know...

You caught quite a few targets with the binos, sounds like a great evening.

Edited February 17, 2020 by Ships and Stars

[Ciaran Meier]

That's a lovely report. I have a set of Stellar II 15x70's and there're great. The freedom of bins is hard to beat. Like you mentioned in the Pleiades, it's really nice just to dwell and let random asterisms pop out.  I've never tried for nebula though  with the bins, going to add a few of your successful observations to my list 😀. 

[geoflewis]

28 minutes ago, Ships and Stars said:

PS Geof - Meant to say I'll try the California Nebula tonight with the 15x70s and Hb and let you know how that works. We have a really good forecast for one of my dark sky spots locally, so I need to be extra nice to my wife today so I can get set up earlier! Terrible of me, I know...

You caught quite a few targets with the binos, sounds like a great evening.

 

7 minutes ago, Ciaran Meier said:

That's a lovely report. I have a set of Stellar II 15x70's and there're great. The freedom of bins is hard to beat. Like you mentioned in the Pleiades, it's really nice just to dwell and let random asterisms pop out.  I've never tried for nebula though  with the bins, going to add a few of your successful observations to my list 😀. 

Thanks both, it was indeed a very enjoyable evening. I have always enjoyed scanning the Milky way with the handheld 15x70s, but mounting them and now the 22x75s on the P Mount is a vastly improved experience. It is so easy to set them up and unlike using either of my telescopes, the freedom to just slew around the sky somewhat randomly with both eyes glued to the eyepiece was delightful. I kept returning to some targets for another look and was popping in to check out star configurations on my laptop using Stellarium, which of course ruined my dark adaption, but was nevertheless very helpful when trying to locate the Flaming Star and California nebulae. I have imaged both of them, but just use GOTO and plate solve, which doesn't require any knowledge of local stars to find them, so taking time to navigate via star hopping took me back many years (50+) to when I was just a visual observer.

@Ships and Stars I will be very interested to get your feedback with using the Hb filter as I don't have one of those in either 2" for my C14 or 1.25" which I could use with the binos. Regarding the Flame, I did wonder if I was just seeing the bright halo around Alnitak, but it did seem that the brightness extended up and to the left (NE) of the star, in the direction where the nebula is located.

[scarp15]

Nice report and probably an ideal approach with windy conditions.

[don4l]

Thanks Geof.  That was a very clear and informative post.

I'd like to do more visual observation,  but there is always another image that needs finishing, so I never seem to get around to it.

Your combination of binos, mount and suitable seat seems to be very practical, and importantly, easy to use.

[geoflewis]

6 minutes ago, don4l said:

Thanks Geof.  That was a very clear and informative post.

I'd like to do more visual observation,  but there is always another image that needs finishing, so I never seem to get around to it.

Your combination of binos, mount and suitable seat seems to be very practical, and importantly, easy to use.

Hi Donal,

The decision to invest some £800+ in the P Mount and new binos was precisely because I like to do some visual, but since I built the observatory my scopes seem to always be in the middle of data capture for an image. That is even true when the sky is not suitable for imaging, as I don't want to remove the camera for an eyepiece. Several folks said I'd be better investing in a portable Dob, which may be true, but then I'd need more storage space plus I like using binoculars so that is what I did.

Cheers

[Stormbringer]

they are cracking bins arn't they 

glad your having the fun i have with mine 🍻