Observations using 11x70 Binoculars Performing well

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

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! 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

[Jazza (Jay)]

Yup, spent a good long time out there last night withthe scope, then went for a walk up the paddock with my binocs.
Fair bit of cloud around but the bits that weren't covered were insanely beautiful! Also saw Cen A through the binocs and the crappy (ish) GSO finder...
Tarantula was a dream, and the lmc though binoculars was amazing.

[glenc (Glen)]

I did some viewing with my 20x80s this morning. I enjoy looking through them just as much as my 12" dob.
You can see a lot more in a short period of time and I enjoy hunting for things.
Saw two faint galaxies, NGC 6744 and 6822, also saw some nebulae M 8, 20, 17, 16 and NGC 6334, 6604, 6992 and 7000.

[Ian Robinson]

Lot to be said for a good pair of binoculars for astronomy.

I still have my venerable old 20x65's (though they've had a hard life .... ) and regularly enjoy my 20x80's though they are a bit on the heavy side and are best with a tripod.

Much more convenient than lugging out the newtonian and it's GEM.

[Craig.a.c (Craig)]

I bought my self some 10x50 binoculars and was surprised at how much I could see through them. I found the Eta carinae nebula with my binos before I found it with my telescope.