Screwdriverone
30-04-2008, 11:02 AM
Hi All,
Just last night I went out to a new estate not far from me where there were no streetlights and an almost 160 spherical field of view (if that makes sense) and was blown away by how much more I could see in my 11x70 binos!
I was marvelling at Omega Centauri and FINALLY found Centaurus A (bit dark to see but I knew what it was and more importantly, where it was), saw Jupiter rising and 5? moons? I saw 2 on the eastern limb, quite close together and 3 on the western side.
After peering through the binos for a while and resting them on the car bonnet on the tripod, I stood up a bit to rest my neck, bent my head back and thought.....what's that smoky thing running from Centaurus through Scorpius and over past Libra and realised it was part of the limb of the Milky Way that I had never seen before.
Well, out came the planetarium and within 30 mins I had spotted M17, M8, M5, M22, M7, M6, M4 and even M13!
I couldnt believe how I hadnt seen M8 before! :eyepop: I had been familiar with Sagittarius as Jupiter has been roaming through there recently and I have enjoyed Scorpius' tail and the Open and Globular Clusters that surround it (favourite part of the sky at the mo'). The sky was so clear and stable that the Lagoon Nebula was as bright and almost the size of Eta Carinae as it looks from my backyard!
Its a real pity that the scope is at the shop getting fixed as I would have loved to get in nice and tight to the Lagoon, but having said that, my 11x70's were outstanding! Nice wide field of view and great contrast.
It was a little difficult finding things because of all the stars I normally couldnt see throwing me off a bit, but damn, what a night! I am not very experienced at estimating the seeing or transparency, but I would hazard a guess and say that it was at least 8/10 seeing with probably 4.5/5 transparency?
It was probably only around about 5-10C by about 1:30am so the hands were suffering holding the binos after a while and this is what sent me back home, otherwise I would still be out there!
Anyone else think last night was an exceptionally clear night?
Chris
Just last night I went out to a new estate not far from me where there were no streetlights and an almost 160 spherical field of view (if that makes sense) and was blown away by how much more I could see in my 11x70 binos!
I was marvelling at Omega Centauri and FINALLY found Centaurus A (bit dark to see but I knew what it was and more importantly, where it was), saw Jupiter rising and 5? moons? I saw 2 on the eastern limb, quite close together and 3 on the western side.
After peering through the binos for a while and resting them on the car bonnet on the tripod, I stood up a bit to rest my neck, bent my head back and thought.....what's that smoky thing running from Centaurus through Scorpius and over past Libra and realised it was part of the limb of the Milky Way that I had never seen before.
Well, out came the planetarium and within 30 mins I had spotted M17, M8, M5, M22, M7, M6, M4 and even M13!
I couldnt believe how I hadnt seen M8 before! :eyepop: I had been familiar with Sagittarius as Jupiter has been roaming through there recently and I have enjoyed Scorpius' tail and the Open and Globular Clusters that surround it (favourite part of the sky at the mo'). The sky was so clear and stable that the Lagoon Nebula was as bright and almost the size of Eta Carinae as it looks from my backyard!
Its a real pity that the scope is at the shop getting fixed as I would have loved to get in nice and tight to the Lagoon, but having said that, my 11x70's were outstanding! Nice wide field of view and great contrast.
It was a little difficult finding things because of all the stars I normally couldnt see throwing me off a bit, but damn, what a night! I am not very experienced at estimating the seeing or transparency, but I would hazard a guess and say that it was at least 8/10 seeing with probably 4.5/5 transparency?
It was probably only around about 5-10C by about 1:30am so the hands were suffering holding the binos after a while and this is what sent me back home, otherwise I would still be out there!
Anyone else think last night was an exceptionally clear night?
Chris