The best bino objects

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

Last Friday..at about this time-I was up at Linden, skies were reasonably dark, the mossies were biting, the imaging gear was up and running and I could, in between clicking the remote for the camera, enjoy the sky with 11 x 60 binos

(I mainly enjoy visual observing with binos, my scopes are mainly for imaging..for example I travelled 60 kms to a dark site that night but didnt even have a single eyepiece with me that night! had two pairs of binos though)

Anyway there are some objects that everyone -well most everyone -agrees are better in binos than in a telescope.

A prime example is M45... superb in binos, just too big for most scopes (I know, I know in a RFT you can fit in the whole of this cluster, but I don't own an RFT and have never even looked through one).

Now this is the point of my post...just randomly scanning the sky, I came upon M46 and 47 and nearly fell off my chair. What a superb pair of objects and just perfect for binos--something you could never see in a telescope together. Havent actually seen this mentioned in any of the bino books-either Harringtons or Crossen's or anywhere else. Bino astronomy seems to be the neglected hobby.

So what do you reckon are the "bino best" objects?

As an aside , other objects I visually observed through binos on that night included:

M33,38,36,37,41,42, 78 LMC, NGC 2070, SMC , tuc 47, NGC 2232,2244, and the usual suspects in Carina, and Crux

as usual tried for the Helix, failed.(probably too low in the sky by the time it really got dark). Also tried the Crab, failed
one day.

My son who was with me and whose eyes are thirty years younger than I thought he could see the flame nebula, but I couldnt.

One of these days i will get around to processing the images I acquired on the night but it was ridiculously warm-and ridiculously noisy as a consequence so i dont hold too much hope for a half way decent outcome. But who cares?
It was incredibly pleasant to just sit back under the stars and enjoy the night sky. (A glass of red would have been even nicer but I had to drive unfortunately, so that wasnt to be)

[johnno]

Hi All,
Seeker,
I for one agree with you,there many objects that look great through a pair of Binoculars.
My 2 favourites are M42,and M45.
M45,in a pair of 20x80,s is quite a sight,as is M42,I was totally blown away by my first view of these 2 objects,in the xmas present 20x80,s.
You are right about the younger eyes,at almost 57,I DONT see,what my Mate does with his 10 year younger eyes.
Regards.
John

[RapidEye]

Couldn't agree with you more. I've had lots of awesome nights, just hanging out with my lawnchair and 10x50 Binos =-) In fact, I just got word from my astro club prez that my Bino Messier certificate just came it.

OK - some of my favs (redundant with you to a bit) M45/46, M31/32/110, M33, Veil Nebula, M15, Kimble's Cascade (probably too North for you guys), Christmas Tree Cluster, Hyades, Beehive, and Alpha Perseus Association.

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

Yes the Veil and Kimble's Cascade and the Alpha Persus Association will have to wait till I make a trip to far North Queensland

I can quite easily bag the Andromeda even though it is very low and only visible for a couple of months in the year, but not its satellite galaxies

[RapidEye]

Originally Posted by seeker372011

Yes the Veil and Kimble's Cascade and the Alpha Persus Association will have to wait till I make a trip to far North Queensland

I can quite easily bag the Andromeda even though it is very low and only visible for a couple of months in the year, but not its satellite galaxies

I don't have a chart in front of me, but if you can see M31, why can't you see the veil nebula in Cygnus - I don't believe it is any further north.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

NGC2516 is another good one in Carina Narayan.

This is a bit of the list from Starry Nights Southern Binocular list (Excludes messier).
NGC2161
NGC253
NGC 2451
NGC2477
NGC2457
IC2395
IC2391
NGC2516
NGC2808
NGC2910
NGC3201
NGC3228
NGC3111
NGC3293
IC2602
NGC3532
NGC1851

[mickoking]

I presently don,t own a pair of binox, but when I did I enjoyed tracking down galaxies. with a pair of 10x50's I could see; LMC, SMC, M31, M83, M104, NGC5128 and NGC253. I have also seen the helix (NGC7293), but have never seen thru binox despite trying M1, M57 and M33 and the veil neb (NGC6992).

My favorite object is a real cop out, The Milky Way.

While I'm here what are the inexpensive 'generic' brand binoculars like? you know the one's advertised by andrews and the like,

20x80T for $249, 20x80L for $199. Cheers

[asimov (John)]

Sounds like you had a good night.

Choice targets with my binos are:

The moon/pleiades/jupiter(mainly for the moons)/M42/milky way in general/Andromeda galaxy!

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

Originally Posted by RapidEye

I don't have a chart in front of me, but if you can see M31, why can't you see the veil nebula in Cygnus - I don't believe it is any further north.

M31 is large and bright (the core) so I can make it out against the sky glow low to the north...

[ausastronomer (John Bambury)]

Narayan,

There is a worldwide organisation of amateur astronomers called the Astronomical League. It is predominantly northern hemisphere based but they do have some Southern Hemisphere Members and some Southern Hemisphere observing lists:-

Here is a link to their homepage:-

http://www.astroleague.org/index.html

On the very right hand side near the top they have a link to their "Observing Clubs". There are dozens of these including Telescopes, Binoculars and Topical Clubs like Double Stars etc. Under the Binocular Clubs they have a "Sub Club" called "Southern Sky Binocular Club", here is a link to that page:-

http://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclu.../ssbinoc1.html

Right at the bottom of this page they have a link to "Southern Skies Binocular Object List"

http://www.astroleague.org/al/obsclu.../ssbinoc2.html

Its an excellent list and I am sure you can get some ideas and inspiration from it. You may even wish to join the League and try for a certificate.

The Astronomical League is an excellent site with some very good specific observing lists and challenges.

CS-John B

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

Thanks John, that sounds very interesting

[johnno]

My Thanks also John,
That Southern skies list is very handy.
Regards.
John

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

The Southern Skies Binocular Object List is what I worked from when I first started off with this hobby. I only had a pair of 8x32 binos, then I continued with the list when I got the little refractor.
With the 10x50's now, I like to cruise the larger open and globular clusters, also Andromeda and N253.
I tried the Veil, holding a UHC filter to one ep, no luck, but I didn't have the binos mounted at the time.

[acropolite (Phil)]

Micko, If you're after a good cheap pair of binos you can't go past the Celestron 10x50's. I bought a pair in Brisbane after seeing a pair at the Mapleton Ponderosa (Observatory really, thanks Paul)...and am amazed at both the optics and mechanical sturdyness. From memory they were around $80. The only con is that for some reason they flare a little when viewing the moon, but generally they outperform my Bresser 7x50's (which cost 3x as much) by a long margin.

[seeker372011 (Narayan)]

Originally Posted by mickoking

While I'm here what are the inexpensive 'generic' brand binoculars like? you know the one's advertised by andrews and the like,

20x80T for $249, 20x80L for $199. Cheers

I have Andrews 11 x60s and they are my absolute faourite binos..