first time viewing

[Turner]

As it was finally a cleat night last night, grabbed the 10x50 Binoculars and headed outside - initially pretty baffled just looking at so many stars!! didnt take too long to make out orion and M42, also found big dipper, and had a look at the Moon before it disappeared. I suppose like a lot of new people to this, i was thinking things would look a little 'bigger' through the Binoculars.

Just wondering where i go from here got a bit confused with trying to locate anything after Orion.

[pvaz]

At 10x things are pretty small. I know everyone says you should start with binos. There is a good reason for that: binos allow you to browse fast and learn your way around the sky.

In practice, 10x is not enough to see most objects big enough, to satisfy most people's expectations.

M42 on binos shows as a fuzzy small patch around the middle star on Orion's sword. If you live under dark skies and have a good seeing night you may see it extending a bit more. Don't expect nothing like the photos, even on a telescope it's white light/gray with a slight green hue.

[Wobbly Bob]

10x50's are great for big clusters (double cluster, beehive cluster etc) They are also good for learning the constelations and if you are lucky, like i was at Salisbury last year with John, (who is mainly an observer with Bins and scopes) you get to see Sagitarius, then you are in for some great views of the many fuzzies which are around this constellation.

The wife bought me "Binocular Highlights by Gary Seronik" It shows seasonal Highlghts with accompaning maps, very good.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

As so many I started with binoculars (10x50). You can spot quite a bit with them, but if you thirst for more, an affordable Newtonian may be a good choice. These are good, all-round telescopes.