This is madness (M31 in 1x NV)

[vineyard]

Hello,

Just a v quick report on a v brief session a couple of nights ago.  It was low fast-moving clouds, ie just a few clear bits of sky here and there.  My RAFCamera 1.25" filter adapter & the 642nm IR filter had arrived & I was impatient to try.  So eventually I took the PVS 14 just as a handheld & went outside & just pointed it up to a clear patch of sky.

The IR filter is SO much better than the Baader M&SG - the usual "oh my god so many stars" reaction when you first look through it.  And then I noticed a fuzzy patch and thought (actually in a rather blasé way) oh that must be M31.  And then I actually had to go in & check on EKOS Terrain to see if I'd got that right.  B/c I never see M31 that easily.  And yes it was.

And that's when it struck me.  This was our neighbour galaxy just hanging up there.  At 1x.  Not magnified, not isolated.  Literally just up there at 1x.

I've often read how if we could see it properly it would be as big as a full moon.  Obv even the NV doesn't make it seem that big, but it kept coming back to me that what these NV devices do, esp at 1x, is really drive home our context.

Most of the time to see M31 I'd need a telescope or maybe bins (ie, some form of magnification).  And that always makes it feel as it is really quite far away.  And makes Earth seem more unique & isolated.

But in reality we're not.  There are so many stars in our neighbourhood of the MW...there's an entire other galaxy that just hangs out up there while the whole light-polluted world continues its merry way, in pretty much high disregard to our place in space.

Yet if we were in Bortle 1 skies with enough dark adjustment, we'd see just how not-alone our planet is.  How rich & crowded even our neighbourhood is.  Would that make us pause and have a greater sense of our own context.  Perhaps be a bit less self-absorbed as a species, and also appreciative of how we are lucky to live on a little lifeboat of a planet that can just about support us as it (currently) does?  And that whatever glory & bombast motivates people & civilisations, its all but a firefly in a vast universe?  Would that change perspectives?

Enough cod philosophy - apologies - but tbh 1x NV should be not just part of outreach but also part of school education.  Kids need to see & understand our context & what our world really is!

Cheers,

Vin

 

[Martin Meredith]

20 hours ago, vineyard said:

Enough cod philosophy - apologies - but tbh 1x NV should be not just part of outreach but also part of school education.  Kids need to see & understand our context & what our world really is!

Agreed. And not just kids -- I wouldn't mind seeing it myself!

For the same reason we ought to have at least one day a year where all the lights are switched off for an hour or two, just so everyone can see the wonder of nature that is over our heads night after night (clouds permitting).

Martin

[vineyard]

That's a great idea @Martin Meredith - many parts of the world with rolling powercuts get that already & civilisation doesn't collapse.

1 hour ago, Martin Meredith said:

Agreed. And not just kids -- I wouldn't mind seeing it myself!

Its dangerously addictive b/c now I'm imagining what a headset with binocular NV in a proper dark sky zone would be like!😂 

[GavStar]

3 hours ago, vineyard said:

That's a great idea @Martin Meredith - many parts of the world with rolling powercuts get that already & civilisation doesn't collapse.

Its dangerously addictive b/c now I'm imagining what a headset with binocular NV in a proper dark sky zone would be like!😂 

Binocular nv is very cool - I think the jump up from mono to bino nv is noticeably bigger than the jump from mono to bino with normal glass. Bino is definitely my preferred way of nv observing but quite tricky to get aperture with this so I stay at 1x with the monoculars or 10x with the big binoculars as per these threads. It does start to get a but expensive though…

 

 

Edited October 18, 2021 by GavStar

[joko]

On 18/10/2021 at 16:52, vineyard said:

Its dangerously addictive b/c now I'm imagining what a headset with binocular NV in a proper dark sky zone would be like!😂 

An other solution much less expensive is simply to use an astronomy NV binoviewer.  As it is made for astronomy, it works in any telescope in prime (without backfocus issue), afocal and handheld with any camera/SLR lens. Only 500 grams in just one part, so no need to use a headset and not restricted to just afocal like terrestrial NV device you are using.

Most NV users prefers to use a NV binoviewer for visual observation and a NV monocular for visual and astrophotgraphy. 

There are much more NV binoviewers users in France and in the USA than in the UK, but here is a review on this forum. For information the user observe from the city centre of Edimburgh in Scotland and also wrote a quick comparison between his NV binoviewer and his traditional Binotron binoviewer.

 

 

Edited November 16, 2021 by joko