Incredible transparency

[RobertI]

You know it’s a transparent night when you walk into the back garden and instantly see the Milky Way shining across the sky. Too good to miss, out came the constellation binos and the 10x50s for a quick view. The constellation binos were a real winner tonight, showing amazing colour and contrast on some real standouts objects:

• The line of sight triple Omicron 1 Cygni, with the bright orange A component and the seemingly green C component making a lovely pairing, and the faint B component just visible
• Omicron 2 Cygni nearby was an even deeper orange.
• The orange Alpha Vulpeculae (Anser) and its companion made another colourful line of sight double. 
• The coat hanger, just visible through the constellation binos but spectacular through the 10x50s
• Amazingly, the North America nebula was very clear through the constellation bins, with the basic shape visible and “the wall “ very apparent, but the Gulf of Mexico could not be seen. I believe the constellation bins were better than the 10x50s for the NA neb tonight.
• M39 very striking. 

It’s amazing how the constellation binoculars give a really different perspective on the sky, revealing new asterisms and arrangements not visible with the naked eye and not apparent with the narrower field of the 10x50s.

I felt the transparency had deteriorated by the end of the 30 minute session, so I think I lucked in. Two night’s observing in a row, can’t be bad. 🙂

 

Edited August 10, 2023 by RobertI

[John]

Great report Rob - wish it was like that here tonight !

Are the constellation binoculars the Vixen 2.1 x 42's ? 

[RobertI]

5 hours ago, John said:

Great report Rob - wish it was like that here tonight !

Are the constellation binoculars the Vixen 2.1 x 42's ? 

Thanks John. They are actually a home made pair using two Nikon Teleconverters cable tied together!! They appear to produce around 2x magnification. It would be nice to have a ‘proper’ pair though. 

[PeterW]

The Nikon homebrew hold their own, the Orion’s are clones with focus and many others have a narrower field…  I like lying down and using mine hands free.

where in the UK are these dark skies to be found… didn’t think too much of the transparency from London yesterday.

 

Peter

[DirkSteele]

14 minutes ago, PeterW said:

The Nikon homebrew hold their own, the Orion’s are clones with focus and many others have a narrower field…  I like lying down and using mine hands free.

where in the UK are these dark skies to be found… didn’t think too much of the transparency from London yesterday.

 

Peter

Agree.  Transparency was poor in the capital last night but at times the planets were great.