My Binocular History

[jgs001]

Binoculars started me off in Astronomy. About 18 months ago, I was helping my eldest with his Astronomy badge for Cubs and one of the requirements was to look at the moon in either a pair of Bino's or a scope. Now at the time I only had a pair of Bushnell 7x35wa's. The view was not exactly stunning (as we kept warm by looking through the living room window) and at 7x it's not that much bigger, but it was enough. The extra power and resolution of just that small amount was enough to kick start me.

My next purchase was a pair of Celestron 12x50's and a tripod bracket. Much better than the 7x35's, although I struggled to use them on a tripod, I soon found that by laying on a camping mat in the garden I could use my cheekbones as a sort of prop for helping keep them still.

I got wind of the Lidl specials, and with the help of the MiL got a pair of the 10x50's (and three pairs of the ultra cheap 10x25 roof prism Binos) one for the car, and one each for the children (at £6 each, if they banged them it was no biggy). The difference between the Bressers and the Celestrons was significant. The Bressers are ligher and more contrasty. And they've had a lot of use. I've spent many an hour meandering along the milky way lost in the sheer number of pinpoints that the bins reveal.

Most recently I've picked up a pair of Celestron 15x70's, and whilst they are huge, compared to the Bressers, and much heavier, they get a lot of use. Normally whilst the scope is running and capturing image data, I'm out with the 15x70's meandering around looking at clusters.

Some of my favourites are

M45 - The Pleiades - I visit this every night when it's visible

M44 - The Beehive - The same here.

Mel111

The Messier chain (I made that up ) from Gemini to Auriga

M35, M36, M37, M38 and around M38, the Smiley Face and Little Fish asterisms.

The engagement ring asterism around Polaris is also quite sweet.

Kemble's cascade is also a great sight in a pair of bins, although I think it works better in the 10x50's

M42 works well

The Mirfak Association is another quite amazing sight in the wide field that Bino's give, and of course, near by, how can you forget the Double Cluster.

I quite regularly take a pair of Bino's away with me, lightweight, small, and perfect for an opportunistic night, if it's ever clear...

And there's nothing faster for grab and go.

If anyone is following my Blog (it's linked in the Sig) you'll know how much mine get used as I write up all my observing and session notes there.

[argonaut]

Nice history John.

Very interesting indeed,thank you.

Glen.

[Taff]

Hi John' I started off with astronomy when i was 10 year old when i saw the moon for the first time with its craters i had a pair for christmas that was 36 years ago, god don't time fly by.The first open cluster i looked at was M45 then M42 and the only planet i found at the time was jupiter i tried to find saturn but with no luck, i was still trying to work out the constellations with a planishere it was had at the time trying to find my way around the sky.Mark

[jgs001]

Thanks guys. Mark, old Lunar has a lot to answer for doesn't she ?