Tonights Best using a 11x70 Binoculars

[Draco]

Hello

I am trying to find objects to watch on any given night using my Andrews 11x70 binoculars. I have got a stable tripod so shaky hands are not a concern anymore ;) The choice of objects is greatly biased by their visual magnitude (I think the max I can do is +6.0) and the angular size (I do not know what the resolving power of my binoculars is :( ). Also, the weather, the time the object is visible and how long it stays in the sky affects my choice as well.

Currently I have got Sky Safari on my iphone and it serves me quite well however, I am unable to use it to choose objects for any other day except today.

Is there a good website that would list the night's best objects for binoculars, for a few days in advance? I am in Sydney.

At the moment instead of swamping myself with everything, I am trying to pick one object per night and spending time locating and appreciating it, before moving on to the next one.

Thank you in advance

[noeyedeer]

hi Niv,
try www.skymaps.com/ they publish sky charts and list objects that are good choices for the given month for visual, binoculars and telescope targets. Mays should be out tomorrow. just make sure you download the one for the southern hemisphere :)

matt

[Draco]

Hi Matt

Thank you heaps for the link. I will check it out.

Regards:thanx:

[ThinBlueLine]

Thank you too Matt - very handy info, have downloaded it too. :)

[mental4astro]

Here's some items you might like to pin. Having the same 11X70 binos, I looked over these targets this April new Moon. They will all be visible from urban areas, but explode when viewed from a dark site.

* Area between Eta Carina and the Southern Cross. There are literally dozens of open clusters and nebulae here mingled with the amazing patchwork of varying glow from the Milky Way. Two prize targets are Eta Carina and the giant cluster NGC 3532, and intertwined between these is a lacy network of dark nebulosity that permeates through the entire Milky Way

* Jewel Box and the Coal Sack. The Coal Sack is a huge blob of dark gas and dust that sits between the Southern Cross and the Pointers, absorbing the brilliant background glow. In binos, the boundary of the Coal Sack is a startling cache of stars not affected by the dark inkiness. Then the Jewel Box stamps its authority of light over darkness with its brilliance. The contrast is beautiful.

* Now pan the binos up to Omega Centauri. Take your time here as Omega has a surprise in store - it resolves into a tight ball of thousands of tiny stars in 70mm binos. A very steady hand is needed or a tripod to mount the binos. Surrounding Omega is the background mottling and dark nebulous fibres of the Milky Way. Aim a little higher and you'll be able to spy out the galaxy Centaurus A with its two lobes. But Cent. A requires a dark sky to see.

* East to Scorpius and the Table of Scorpius. This is a collection of some five OCs and nebulosity that a large scope can't fit the entire true size of this field in an EP. The Table reaches from Zeta Scorpii to Mu Scorpii. Both stars that form Zeta S. are some of the most massive stars in the Milky Way, and are part of the S. OB1 Association (OB1 Associations are to do with super massive stars, and in their "group" are all related). The clusters in the Table vary in size, brightness, density and colour. At a dark site, you'll notice a curious arrangement of stars that forms the shape of and anchor. Surrounding this whole complex are beautiful dark nebulae structures.

* Last teaser is another giant open cluster, M7. Take a little time here under a dark sky and some beautifully intricate stellar and dark nebulae structures become visible, including a superb long and very dark ribbon that licks an edge of M7. Superb stuff.

Happy viewing.

Mental.

PS, below is a sketch I did of the area of Eta Carina and NGC 3532 using my 11X70 binos from my home in Sydney. The view from a dark sky is almost terrifyingly complex to sketch, but I'm mad enough to have a go.

[Jon]

Nice sketch, mental!

[OzEclipse]

Hi Niv,

The sky just doesn't change that fast for the objects best suited to a pair of 11x70 binos or even a telescope. The star positions move by about 1 degree in position and 4 minutes of time per day. 360 degrees in an orbit over 365 days.

So if you look up tonight at 10pm, you'll see a certain swathe of sky
You'll the sky in the same position tomorrow at 9:56
In 4 days you'll see it at 9:44
one week later you'll see it 28 minutes earlier
one month later you'll see it 2hrs earlier and so on.

Naturally the moon shoots through the sky, planets move a little and artificial satellites like the space station are very transient but basically, the sky changes little over 3-4 days and the part that does change is a sliver on the east and west horizons.
Joe

[Steffen]

Hi Niv,
SkySafari lets you set any date you like, plus/minus a 100 years from today (under Settings > Date & Time). The "Tonights's Best" list will adapt to the night you've chosen.

Cheers
Steffen.

[noeyedeer]

no problem. I forgot it was May already too lmao!

nice tour mental! its made me grab the binos for a quick glimpse, even thou I love looking at that area, so much to see there, even too much to comprehend.

matt

[Wavytone]

Hi Niv,

The "best objects" don't really change much from night to night, more like month to month for static things (nebulae, clusters and galaxies) and the planets. Even comets. Most of you see in the sky tonight will be much the same the next night, at the same time, minus 4 minutes, apart from our moon.

[Suzy]

Hi Niv,

Each issue of the Australian Sky & Telescope magazine has a page dedicated to binocular viewing written by Les Dalrymple. In each issue, Les gives an object to view along with some interesting details on it.

Also there is a book available written by Phil Harrington called Touring Through The Universe With Binoculars. (http://www.philharrington.net/sw8.htm) He's a legend!

Also, "Heavens Above" by Robert Bee is a great binocular book too!
Oh no! I went to look for links and both Fishpond & The Book Depository have it listed as unavailable and I can't find Robert Bee's website anymore either (he used to sell it thru there too). :shrug: That was a brilliant book.

[Draco]

Mental, that is an awesome sketch. Well done

[Draco]

wow this is awesome. So much info and so little telescope/binocular time ;)

I got myself a cheap 114mm/900mm FL telescope on eq. mount. It is awesome! I love it love it love it. However the supplied eyepieces (H20mm,H12.5mm,SR4mm) are not the best and the finderscope can be quite troublesome aligning with the tube. But all in all, I am really amazed. Just have to balance my time so that I can go out with a list and try to find objects and not get lost in space ;)

BTW I would like to learn how to star hop to get to a particular object. Is there an easy way to start? I can now easily locate the Crux (yup, I didnt know the Southern Cross :sadeyes:), Scorpion constellation, Orion constellation, Spica, Sirius (hard to miss ;) ). Are there particular stars/constellations that are easier to use as base/reference stars when trying to go to others? I guess this will all depend on what I am trying to get to? At present I am trying to get to the ghost of jupiter however with the moon out, it is abit hard so was thinking of trying to locate it when the night is not that lit up.

thank you and you all are awesome :thumbsup:

[Draco]

Thanks Steffen. I didnt know about this feature in SkySafari. Will definitely check it out. :thanx:

[Jon]

Probably a good move.

But, if you want to try: first start by locating Alphard. That's Alpha Hydrae, about a third of the way between Sirius and Spica. Or tonight, it's about halfway between Sirius and the moon. Alphard's the brightest star in Hydra, the long, thin water snake.

Then hop two clearly-visible stars back along Hydra's tail. These are lambda and mu Hydrae. Stick with the second one. (A star chart will help you out here).

From mu Hydrae go up (towards the zenith) about two degrees. Mu should still be in your finder. Ghost of Jupiter should be right there.

Something a bit magical about planetaries. They're very ... alien.

Cheers

Jonathan

[Draco]

Thanks Jon. Will definitely give that a go.

[Suzy]

Hi Niv,
regarding your question on star hopping....

My suggestion would be to learn the 26 brightest stars in the night sky. Don't be overwhelmed, you'll get to know them fairly quickly.
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/brightest.html

I think it's a lot easier to start with this than trying to learn complete constellations quickly. I think you'll learn more by taking it slow and just concentrating on a couple of constellations at a time (as I do). You'll also get familiar with the brighter stars within that constellation by name. The alpha stars are usually (but not always!) the brightest members. I enjoy the times when I stay within a constellation and explore it really well, this way I not only get familiar where objects are, they're put to memory easier, and it also makes it more personable for me. It's a great feeling- I really feel at one with the sky when I can look at a whole constellation and "know" what lays where :D. Usually! :P You'll get there soon enough. ;)

Star hopping is using the brightest stars in the constellation and then generally zeroing in on the fainter stars thru the finder to make a trail to the object. Make out patterns from them- arrow shape, square etc to figure out the trail. A very good example of a star hop would be the one to M104 (The Sombrero Galaxy) in Corvus, which is in our skies now.
Take a look at it here on this thread (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=58377) and refer to post no#36 by pgc hunter and post no#37 by Eric. Print it/bookmark it- it's a fantastic hop!

What's also helpful is learning how to measure the sky using your hand.
See here. (http://oldthoughts.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/measuring-distances-in-degrees-in-the-sky-using-your-hand/) Close one eye and use your outstretched hand. As an example, with M104, you would measure the 4 degrees by hand from the launchpad of delta Corvus to know whereabouts that galaxy sits- so you know how much sky you're dealing with.

[Draco]

thank you so much Suzy. That is truly awesome info. I must say there is soo much that I still have to read up on just based on the comments to this thread alone.. woohoo.. loving it.

There is one question I have which has been bugging me for the last few days. Please let you know your comments on this guys and girls

"If we turn off the sun's light, we will be able to see all the stars that there are because as the earth rotates on its axis (24hr period), it will make visible pretty much all the stars that there are (lets not complicate things and put in the fact that all northern stars are not visible in the southern hemisphere and vice versa) since the sun's light is not there to drown out the star light. However, since the sun's light cannot be turned on or off on will, the only star's we can see are those that are not on the side of the sun, if we have the earth in the center. So basically all stars on the night side. Now as the earth orbits the sun on its annual cycle, the night sky that is visible will be changing since the location where the earth is, is changing. So based on this, the stars that are visible in the night sky can be used to find out where in the annual cycle we are. Well all this is just a re-iteration of what everyone knows.

Now my question is this. Is there a website where I can find out which stars/constellations are visible on a month by month basis for the southern hemisphere? I have got a planasphere but it does require abit of fiddling around. I am after a reference chart so if tomorrow I want to know what constellations will be in the july night sky, i can quickly look it up"

thank you

[Draco]

Hi Suzy

The link you have does have the constellations by month, however the pretty pictures are missing :(

[noeyedeer]

Niv,
try here rasnz.org.nz/Stars/Constellations.shtml

matt

also in the menu on the left it has monthly sky charts similar to the one I posted earlier in the thread.