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Nice session with the 15 x70's.


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Headed up the road a few miles out of Belfast for a bit of a darker sky.  Some nice targets and a few first time spotted in the big bins. 

Started as usual around Orion. Highlight here was splitting Mintaka which I cannot achieve just a few miles back home. 

Next door to Taurus and managed to spot M1, the Crab Nebula. Would have missed it if hadn't known it was there.   Followed a chain of  stars down and spotted a fabulous red glowing coal. DSO Planner identified  119 Tau, the "Ruby Star"  A red supergiant around mag 4.  Worth a look. 

Up a bit for a quick sweep through the Augria clusters M36 M37 M38 and then over to M35 in Gemini. 

A bit further east to the Beehive which is totally lost from my back yard.  Really stunning with all those lovely doubles peppering it with colour.  Down then to M67 a fairly bright OC. 

Round to Leo for the Triplet but only managed M66. 

Swung further round to get M81/82  galaxies with the spindle shape of M82 very  apparent.   Down a bit then to find M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy.  Very faint and only popped with averted vision.  

Closed of with  Spiral Galaxy M94 which seemed quite compact in the bins. 

Enjoyed my few hours of peace and was nice to get distracted from the news for a while. 

All the Best

Ciaran. 

 

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Nice session Ciaran :smiley:

You did well to get M1 with your binoculars - I expect your sky was darker than mine normally is. I've always struggled to see it convincingly with binoculars, even my 11x70's.

 

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Nice one Ciaran,

Impressive observations there, M1 is always tricky and as you said, easily missed if your not sure exactly where it is.  Maybe I will give it a go as it's higher in the sky and less prone to poorer conditions lower down. 

M51 is also a great find. Looks like a nice weekend ahead so that might have a go.

Mark

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4 hours ago, mark81 said:

Looks like a nice weekend ahead so that might have a go.

Hi Mark

Just arrived back home from a stint out with the scope. Cloud rolled in so have called it quits for the night. There's such a difference between using the big bins and the scope. Yep, the scope of course can pick out the detail but the big bins are great for  general viewing and kind of feel a bit more natural to use.  If I had to choose between the 8 inch newt or the 15×70's it would be a close call to be sure. 

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18 minutes ago, Ciaran Meier said:

Hi Mark

Just arrived back home from a stint out with the scope. Cloud rolled in so have called it quits for the night. There's such a difference between using the big bins and the scope. Yep, the scope of course can pick out the detail but the big bins are great for  general viewing and kind of feel a bit more natural to use.  If I had to choose between the 8 inch newt or the 15×70's it would be a close call to be sure. 

Agreed.  Using both eyes, seeing things the right way round and most of all, the convenience of them and how easy they are to use make them so appealing...

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