Some Bino Nebulae from London.

[PeterW]

First clear sky for ages, not especially dark, given I live on the edge of London and have streetlights directly shining into the garden. 

Tool of the day, some APM 10x50ED binoculars on a cheap monopod with trigger ball head for stable views. I put some custom flocked dew/straylight shields on the objectives to keep the worst of the local lighting out. First I focussed them up on the Orion belt area, then I popped in my two new 5.5nm Baader hydrogen beta filters (from some recent filter testing threads on CloudyNights) and popped on my custom face visor/straylight shield. Without this any light around the eyepieces will mess the view as these filters darken things quite a lot, though enough stars are visible and sky isn’t totally dark.

The Orion Nebula was much easier and wider with the wings showing with averted vision. Moving my eyes about made some of the stars pulse as they went in and out of averred vision, which was an odd sight. No sight of the nearby flame nebula though. Next to consult sky safari for some hops for some things to find. First off the rosette, hopping down a line from Meissa through Betelgeuse. Hint of something quite large with a couple of notable stars nearby, checked sky safari – bingo. Next to check on an old favourite the monkeyhead near M35 in gemini Nothing obvious, but a suggestion of something to the left of a pair of stars – again bingo.

Final (quick) look as one filter kept falling out, I went closer to the zenith, calling first at the Pleiades and then up into Perseus to see if the california nebula might make an appearance…. Definitely a faint wide slightly tilted diagonal band just above menkib, though my neck didn’t like looking so high – again checked with sky safari. So 3 objects not normally suburban binocular viewing using filters that should “only be used on the horse head nebula with a large apertures under dark skies”….. or maybe not.

Given I’m looking somewhat in the direction of a streetlight and the only dark adaption I am getting is the time behind the face shield, this seems quite good. 

Things to fix. I need to eliminate every potential light leak in the straylight visor as I could detect some tiny leaks with averted vision and these were annoying.

I’m going to need to remake the foam rubber push-fit  filter holders so they wedge in the eyepieces better and don’t fall out into the grass so easily.

I also forgot I had the move-shoot-move Z-V bracket on top of the ball head that I should have used to add some extra height and make higher elevation viewing easier.

Next time i’ll put some blackout material over the washing line and set up a reclined camping chain behind it so I can observe for longer and get better dark adapted. See what details I can dig out and maybe go after a few more of the larger nebulae.

 

Peter

 

[tombardier]

I'm in a fairly rural area, apparently bortle 4, but the local light pollution is very distracting, and I see characteristics of bortle 5. I was out with 10x50s (Pentax SP), using a cheap photographic tripod.  It's a bit of a neck snapper, trying to use it for anything high up. I'm not sure what I was looking at really.  Fuzzies up at zenith, east of Pleiades.  Fuzzies/star clusters to the left of Cassiopeia too.. I only recently started using the binos and trying tot learn more of the night sky. I was wearing a hoodie with a very large hood, and I had a shemagh/keffiyeh draped over too.  That tends to help with dark adaptation and general immersion! The pesky clouds that kept going over didn't help with the immersion though!  Interested in the idea of filters.  Have you tried UHC/Oiii filters?  Are you filtering the objectives, or the eyepieces?

[Epick Crom]

Nice report Peter. You sure got some good views through your binoculars! Clear skies

[PeterW]

If you sit on a reclining chair you could tilt the tripod back so only 2legs are on the ground, then you could get underneath them more easily. The monopod is good for this.

 

I initially tried using an observing hood, but it falls back when looking up high and doesn’t block light from the front,!hence the face visor I made. A simple idea could be a sheet of thin  black neoprene foam sheet with 2 holes cut in that you can stretch over the eyepieces and block all light from ahead,, you could hook the hood over it. The commercial bino-bandit can work with some binoculars.

 

I have used 10nm OIII filters too on the veil (different binoculars), which worked OK. Should try some UNh CN I have, but I’m not sure how well they’ll block the pollution. The recent filter testing post on CN is here. https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/722322-pushing-the-filter-envelope-observing-galactic-nebulae-with-handheld-binoculars-under-suburban-skies/page-2

The conclusion is for nebulae you want narrow, especially under poor skies.

I am using 1.25” filters where I’ve held them in a neoprene foam ring that them push fits the eyepieces. I have one set of adapters for each pair of bins. I use sticky back foam sheet which  I stick it to a piece of paper/thin card. This gives a hard rim that the filter thread can “screw into”. As these filters are very reflective you have to eliminate all light from around your ether or you’ll  just see a reflection of yourself.

The good thing with binoculars is that the fields of view are quite large and the view the right way up so navigating is relatively easy. Using the sky safari app with a ring on screen the size of your field of view helps you know how far to move and the likely scale of things you’re looking for.

With better skies than a me there should be plenty of stuff to go after.

 

Peter

[Stardaze]

Great effort there Peter. I had a similar session myself too last night as the cloud kept rolling in but there were small pockets to observe Orion. 
I really want to try filters with my binos, and whilst I have followed the thread you link, I’m still not sure of the best diy method of attaching. Maybe a small video or article would be a great thing to do? There’s not much on the subject I’ve found really. Certainly don’t want those filters falling out at the cost of them. Have you already got UHC and O-III’s for your binos? 

Edited January 3, 2022 by Stardaze

[PeterW]

I’ve posted on my filter mounting in a thread in the bino forum. I do have OIII and UHC, but with my light pollution and my aim to see large hydrogen nebulae I going to filter as hard as I can.

 

Peter