A night with the galaxies

[mdstuart]

Galaxies are my passion so I love trying to spot them with my 20 x 80 bins.

Last night was dark. Mag 5 stars visible to the naked eye..

Spotted M51 and its associate, M63, M108,M106,M94,M81,M82..

Then NGC 2903, 2841 and I managed NGC 2655 which has the supernova in it but I could not pick this up in the bins..

Just made out NGC 1023 near M34..

So 11 in all which was great!

Mark

[oldfruit]

Wow, just goes to show how useful a good pair of bins can be in the right hands.

[WayBig]

Wow, just goes to show how useful a good pair of bins can be in the right hands.

...and a lot quicker than a scope too.

That's impressive for an evening's viewing. I dont think i've seen that many in the last year!

[orionswallet]

Very impressive Mark!

Would love to get my hands on a pair of 20x80s, but for now I'm happy with my 10x50s!

John.

[Doc]

For bins that is impressive. Well done Mark.

[mdstuart]

Thanks all, I really enjoyed the session, but it was bitterly cold!

Mark

[John P]

That's a great night's viewing there Mark. You've got me really jealous, as at the very best you can see down to mag 3 from my very light polluted garden. I've got some 15x70 bins, but other than the Orion nebula, the Pleiades and the Andromeda galaxy I'm struggling to locate DSO's

[John P]

To clarify what I just wrote, the mag 3 stars are all circumpolar, as my house blocks out the stree lights if you are looking north. Looking south, even mag 2 is a struggle

[mdstuart]

John P you might want to invest in a light pollution filter? I know you can do this for a telecope but not sure on binos!

Mark

[Nexus 6]

Excellent Mark, that is a very decent count, I have similar mag skies at home mag 4.6 and even better mag 5.5 only 10 mins away, thing is, since I got my Helios bins I've only been abel to use them once! Hoping I can test them in the same way as you have and boost my Messier count for starters plus one or two other nice objects up there

[mdstuart]

Alan, I will be interested in how you get on with those 90mm binoculars.

I seem to get to mag 10.5/11 with my mag 5 skies so perhaps 6 below naked eye.

I think your helios will be a higher spec than mine and perhaps use a high proportion of the 90mm wheras mine only use about 85-90% of the aperture as I understand it.

Try a few of the galaxies I have mentioned and see how you get on.

Mark

[Nexus 6]

Mark, I will indeed post my thoughts on them and what I manage to observe, of course the conditions will play their part but not much I hope!

[Hig]

still waiting to pop my galaxy cherry..

the day after my bins came so did the clouds and i not had a night out since...

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Brilliant observing run. You must have really dark skies. I picked up M101, M81, M82 and M51 and companion in the past with my 15x70 (even from my garden), but M108, and certainly NGC2655 requires my C8 here. Haven't tried M106 yet.

[mdstuart]

M106 is pretty bright. Better than M63 but a bit tough too find in my view..

Mark

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

M106 is pretty bright. Better than M63 but a bit tough too find in my view..

Mark

I got it in the C8, and it was much easier than M109 and M108. From a dark spot I do not doubt you could see it in the 15x70 binoculars.

[Ad Astra]

I'm guessing you had these large bins properly mounted in order to get such success. Did you use a tripod or a parallelogram mount - or just Gorilla arms to hold them steady!!!

Dan

[mrmoo]

That really is good going, well done.

[mdstuart]

The bins were on a manfrotto tripod...

Mark

[Doug]

Hi Mark

well done you have a good night there, you don't mention the make of binoculars

would love to know

Doug

Essex

[mdstuart]

Just a set of Revelation ones. They have the usual coma at the edges but are lovely and sharp for 70% of the FOV, the extra aperture picks up colours in stars well etc..

Mark