Bin proven wrong!

[astroimpulse]

Pleiades!

Now, this has been something I've seen here in many pics and always thought they looked nice. But never really desired to see them as much as other things out there.

Last night while doing some gazing with my bins I saw a group of stars with my naked eye so pointed the bins at them, knowing fine well it was Pleiades.

How utterly wrong I've been. How incredibly dismissive of a 'group of stars' I've been. How apologetic to the 7 Sisters I was!

How can a 'group of stars' be so breathtaking! How can this cluster give off such a feeling of aura, charisma even!

They seem to be positioned in such a way they radiate pride in what they are and where they are. A sense of contentment. A 'group of stars' so amazingly striking in a way that is hard to absorb.

What an amazing thing to see with my own eyes. I never thought a star cluster would do this so I'm now on the hunt for the others and have a whole new appreciation of these amazing sights.

They filled the FOV of the bins perfectly too. What a bargain these are.

I also had a good look at The Great Nebula in Orion as it's easy to find. Wow! All of the above but without the ignorance of what was there. Stunningly resolved and I was blown away by what I was seeing in these 15x70 bins. I never expected to see what I saw so clearly. Wow!

M31 continues to escape me though. I know where it is. I have other stars as a guide to find it (with a mental grid map drawn between them), but it's hiding from me. Faint fuzzy or not...I'll get it

Anyway...apologies for the jibba jabba...I was just so happy with my new appreciation of star clusters

[tinvek]

this is always my first object of choice to show someone who's never looked through a scope, i use a 4 point plan to impress them

1, get them to look at it with their naked eyes

2, let them look at it through bins

3, let them look at it through the 10" dobs

4, catch them when they fall backwards

[astroimpulse]

lol

See, yesterday I wouldn't have got that. Now I do

[Rob wright]

They do look great through the 15x70's and are just the right size for the fov

m31 is a fuzzy throught the bins but is quite striking all the same and once found you will get them every time quite easily.

I go from andromeda and work my way towards casiopia and find it quite quickly

[space3]

the pleiades really look awsome through binos,

when you find m31 once it will be easy to find again, ar you in a light polluted area? if not when you do find it and you are looking at it through the binos, take them away and you should still see m31 with your naked eye, I go to a dark place with my gear and its easy to spot m31 with naked eye.

[astroimpulse]

Yeh it's very dark at times. I'm staring right at it but I can't resolve it (M31) for some reason. Maybe there was a bit of cloud or something. Hmmmm.

I pretty much use the same as Rob but the other way. Cassiopia looks like a W to me and I use it to get the right path.

When i get it I'll probably be amazed at how I couldn't see it

[HappySachs]

When I took my new bins for a spin it was the alpha perseus association (The Alpha Persei Cluster) that impressed me the most, it also hurt my neck as it was pretty much overhead . I really recommend taking a look, although in 15x70s your FOV may be a little too narrow? The colours were amazing!

[Nexus 6]

Pleiades Perfect!

Alan

[Beyond_Vision]

It is a beauty isn't it. Had a really nice view of them in my 20x80's at Kelling Heath Star Party and was able to make out some nebulosity

Regards

Kevin

[nightfisher]

M45, its a beauty and in your first post astroimpulse you sum it up very well, they are my favourite messier object ! M31 was the first messier i spotted in my 15x70`s, by accident.

you also answer a question i was about to post, can you see the great nebula with 15x70 bins, thanks.

Even though i was up at 4am for work, im waiting for orion to climb a little higher so i can view the nebula with bins, yawn yawn yawn, but will be worth it

[astroimpulse]

Cheers fella

To be honest, the great nebula was reasonably low in the sky too. But the sky was so clear.

Bit miffed over the past few days. Everyone is reporting good skies but it's cloudy here. Sat24 has shown (all day) clouds coming in off the North Sea on the Northumbrian coast and covering Co. Durham too. But when it hits the County borders it keeps disappearing! It's a conspiracy I tells ya!

[nightfisher]

i need it to rise as a tree is in the way lol

[simon84]

Excellent post Sy and nicely sums up how I felt the first time and every other time since when I set the bins on them. It is one of my targets I show to anyone who isnt into astronomy, usually gets a good reaction. Wish I'd kept hold of my old 15x70 especially now that I have a superb tripod and geared head that would have held them perfectly steady whilst I had my hands back in me pockets.....

[Moonshane]

you should see M31 unless your skies are really badly light polluted. I live within a few miles of Stockport and Manchester and can see it easily in any bins.

I use the square of Pegasus to find it.

at the minute the squre is turned 90 degrees in the sky so it's a diamond. take the left hand star and go straight out left. there's a naked eye bright star down a bit and to the left - hold your hand up to the sky at arm's legnth and close one eye - it's about the width of your four fingers away from the star in the main square. a further four finger's width to the left is an even brighter star. get this second star in the bins and look slowly up from that in a straight line and M31 should appear at a bit less than the distance this is from the main square star.

hope this helps.

I have just run through this and it works.

M33 is harder but about the same distance the other side (below) of the second brighter star.

[astroimpulse]

I haven't had clear skies since that night but I'll look, your way, the next time I'm out. I only spent a few mins tracing from cas the last time.

Cheers dude

[Moonshane]

no worries mate - I always found it tricky from Cass and find this a synch. you'll get it.

hope it clears for you mate.

[Trevor-Austin]

I bought my 38mm 2" panaview specifically for the Pleiades!

[astroimpulse]

Moonshane: After reading your way, I checked out a plan on Stellarium. As I knew the square peg I planned a scan from Mirach (just above) across to cas.

Bingo...there it was

Only my second clear sky with these bins and I only had about 1 min of break in the clouds. But the seeing in the breaks was excellent all over the sky. No mistaking it and I now know how to get to it easily.

Cheers for the tip...it lead to a result

[Moonshane]

result mate! nice one.

now you know where and what to look for it will be a breeze.

[LukeSkywatcher]

My favourite cluster is the Beehive (M44).

Not that anyone asked,LOL.

[astroimpulse]

It's a more than welcome suggestion. And I'll try and view it. By try I mean...when this blumming snow pushes off