First Report - Saturday 21st Feb

[ashenlight]

My first report - so be kind please

Well, after the recent terrible cloud cover, I decided to make the most of the relatively cloud free sky Saturday evening. I went out with my Summit 10x50s at about 10pm, and after half an hour getting dark-adapted and peering at the sky-chart, I got started.

I started with my old faithful, Orion. I love to view the contrast in colour between Betelgeuse and Rigel and had a look at M42. I'm always amazed at the views I get of M42, although I can make out the haziness of it with the naked eye, it becomes so much clearer through the bins. Using Orion's belt, I made my way towards Taurus and had a look at Aldebaran and the wonderful Hyades, and then onto M45, the Pleiades. I always enjoy showing this off to my sister, I think she likes the romantic idea of the stars being the 'seven sisters' of greek mythology, and actually listens when I give her a few facts about the distance the stars are from us - a miracle considering she is at the precious age of 17!

Back to Orion, I used Betelgeuse to star-hope to Gemini, and Castor and Pollux. A wonderful blue/white colour through the bins, Castor is amazing, whilst Pollux has a lovely orange colour. I had never really looked properly at these, so was in awe for a few minutes at them.

My next triumph of the evening came with finding Saturn. Using the sickle to locate the stars in Leo I used my star chart from the BBC Sky at Night mag to locate Saturn. It didn't look much more then an orange/yellow disk through the bins, but I was still very pleased to have found it!

Using Ursa Major I traced my way from the 'handle' of the saucepan down to Arcturus, in Bootes. I haven't spotted this before as it tends to be behind the trees and the neighbour's extension, but I stood on the coal-shed and managed to spot it (the shed is only two foot off the ground - I wasn't scaling a mammoth garden shed or anything). I was really astounded at the brightness of this star. It seemed around mag 0.5, I could be wrong about this though, I've only really started taking notice of magnitude! Patrick Moore goes on about this in the interactive planetarium that comes with the mag's CD, so I was very pleased to have found it, now I can listen and know what he's on about!

I think I managed to make out Auriga - although with the light pollution around here I found it hard to locate the fainter stars that would have made the shape more obvious.. although I think I have found Capella, it was very bright and obvious, not far from Elnath in Taurus. I will have to investigate this the next time the cloud clears to see if it really was what I thought it was.

Well, there's my first report. Nothing too fantastic really, but it was a great night for me. I was out there until gone midnight! Time goes so fast when I'm looking back in time, ha! A light covering of cloud came in about 12:10am, so I decided to call it a night and went to bed a very satisfied stargazer indeed.

Amanda

[jgs001]

Very nice report Amanda, it sounds like you had a lot of fun.

[ashenlight]

Thanks jgs001, and I always do

[Doc]

One of the best reports I have read for a long time. You have a way with words it mmust be that English Lit degree coming out.

[omega3]

Hi Amanda,

Clearly you had a good evening. I too started by using a 10x50 bins and had much fun. I still use binoculars and now often put them on my Horizon tripod. You do see more on a tripod and you can refer to your charts and go back and check the same view again. I was also out on the 21st and took this of Auriga with Perseus on the right, Pleiades and Aldebaran on the tree line. Sorry the picture isn't very good as its my first attempt at photographing constellations with my camera. I find it useful to identify all the spots of light against the charts the next day. It helps you learn your way around the skies.

Alan

[argonaut]

Amanda,

What a excellent report. We would certainly like some more like that.

I think you are a bino addict in the making :-)

Clear Skies for your next excellent report.

Glen.

[argonaut]

Nice pic Alan.

Got myself a Panasonic LX3 for wide views. Must wait for better skies though.

Glen.

[ashenlight]

Thankyou Doc, argonaut, pleased you liked it I think I might already be a bino addict, I found myself cursing at the cloud coming down the road earlier - the rubbish weather certainly is frustrating.

omega3, that photo is lovely, it has a wonderful mood about it. There's something so humbling about seeing a vast expanse of sky like that, don't you think? I always find whatever I'm worried or stressed about, just half an hour looking at the stars with my bins puts it all into perspective!

That is a really good suggestion, particularly as I always find myself struggling to locate the same patch of sky to put names to various stars, putting the bins down to look at the star chart can make you really loose your place. You have inspired me to have a go at astrophotography! Just need to save up for a decent camera now... what length exposure did you have to take that image? I am completely new to astrophotography, it's something I'd love to try my hand at once I've got the money though.

Amanda

[ian_d]

Great report Amanda, thanks for sharing it. Binoculars are the (relatively) unsung heroes of astronomy!

Cheers

Ian

[Viking]

A good report. It makes it seem that we were there.

Clear skies to all in the bins forum .................................... and to those on the dark side!!!

John

[Sam]

Excellent report Amanda! I like how you describe the star hopping it makes the reader feel like they were there (well it did for me anyway!).

Sam

[ashenlight]

Thankyou Ian, John and Sam, really glad you like it I keep a little notebook from each observing session, I draw a few diagrams of constellations with arrows to remind me which way to go to different stars etc, so I'll transfer some of my notes each time I have a good night out under the skies.

Let's hope this cloud clears

Amanda

[argonaut]

Amanda,

Sketching is also another side to binocular obseving. Would it be possible some time to have a peek? If your sketching is as good as your report,we are all in for a treat.

Clear Skies.

Glen.

[ashenlight]

argonaut, they really are nothing fantastic! Saturday's observation note-book entry has a rather rushed pencil sketch of Ursa Major with some arrows coming off stars to remind me where to go next time to find the same stars. I have just been looking in the forum section for sketching, mine are nothing like that! I'd love to have a go at that though, you might have inspired me there! If I do, I will scan it in and post it here.

But really, my sketches resemble constellation versions of stick-men.

Do you have any sketches from bino observing of your own?

[argonaut]

Mine are not very good at all. I was just trying to inspire people to give it a go :-)

I will also give it another go. I did buy the book Atronomical Sketching-Jeremy Perez. It certainly makes interesting reading.

Glen.

[omega3]

Amanda,

The photo was taken wide 27mm, for 5 secs on a tripod. I think it could probably be exposed for 15 secs before the stars start to trail. Some compact cameras have scene mode starry sky which allows you to expose for up to 60 secs. You can try and have a go if you have a compact camera. If you live in an area with a lot of light pollution the background will be quite bright and you need to darken it in post processing - Picasa is what I used for the photo.

Alan

[mdstuart]

Next go out at 2 to 4 am and find the coment Lulin which is bright and in Leo now...near Saturn. That would be a real moment... It looks great in my 15 x 70's

Mark