"Star-hopping" with binoculars
- rwilkinson
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- Location: Bolton
"Star-hopping" with binoculars
With the intermittent and wispy cloud making recent nights unsuitable for imaging, I've been taking my 15x70 binoculars out, to do some two-eyed visual observing for a change.
The bright image and wide field-of view make these binos pretty good for "star-hopping" to find the "faint fuzzies", and I had the Cartes du Ciel program running on my netbook as a guide.
The M13 & M92 clusters and the Double Cluster were quite easy, and I could just about make out M71, and I even found the M27 planetary nebula too.
Moving down to the bottom of the garden (where I could see better to the SW), I found M11, and could just about get M26, but no luck with M16 or M17.
Finally I had a look at the M31 galaxy, and even tried for M51 - but no sign of the latter.
And looking at these objects with such a low magnification makes it easier to understand why observers in Messier's time could have mistaken them for comets.
The bright image and wide field-of view make these binos pretty good for "star-hopping" to find the "faint fuzzies", and I had the Cartes du Ciel program running on my netbook as a guide.
The M13 & M92 clusters and the Double Cluster were quite easy, and I could just about make out M71, and I even found the M27 planetary nebula too.
Moving down to the bottom of the garden (where I could see better to the SW), I found M11, and could just about get M26, but no luck with M16 or M17.
Finally I had a look at the M31 galaxy, and even tried for M51 - but no sign of the latter.
And looking at these objects with such a low magnification makes it easier to understand why observers in Messier's time could have mistaken them for comets.
- rwilkinson
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- Posts: 1345
- Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:47 pm
- Location: Bolton
Re: "Star-hopping" with binoculars
Whilst out with my binoculars last night, I had a wacky (no, not whackery!) idea to save time when star-hopping.
So this lunchtime I got my woodworking tools out to realise the dream:
Yes - "Go-To binoculars": With the tripod legs fully extended, the eyepieces are around the right height for a seated observer. Just needs a coat of matt black paint...
So this lunchtime I got my woodworking tools out to realise the dream:
Yes - "Go-To binoculars": With the tripod legs fully extended, the eyepieces are around the right height for a seated observer. Just needs a coat of matt black paint...
- rwilkinson
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Re: "Star-hopping" with binoculars
The Go-To binoculars worked OK, but it was really awkward to manoeuvre my seat into a suitable place for each target, without banging into the tripod legs.
And the eyepiece height was wrong for higher objects.
So the mk2 version is designed for a standing observer: It will be a lot more "whackery", but hopefully much more comfortable to use...
And the eyepiece height was wrong for higher objects.
So the mk2 version is designed for a standing observer: It will be a lot more "whackery", but hopefully much more comfortable to use...
Re: "Star-hopping" with binoculars
That's brilliant Ross. More whackey than whackery, a cross between "Necessity is the mother of invention" and Heath Robinson
- rwilkinson
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- Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:47 pm
- Location: Bolton
Re: "Star-hopping" with binoculars
Yes, using my old speaker-stand to get the mount up to eye-level made the binos much more comfortable to use,
Testing last night trough the gaps in the cloud I was able to align on Altair and Dubhe, and then the GoTo found M13, M57 and M31 for me.
Testing last night trough the gaps in the cloud I was able to align on Altair and Dubhe, and then the GoTo found M13, M57 and M31 for me.
- rwilkinson
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- Posts: 1345
- Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2009 6:47 pm
- Location: Bolton
Re: "Star-hopping" with binoculars
This tall tripod is actually a loudspeaker stand, and came with a flat mounting-plate to go on the bottom of the speaker. So all I had to make was a wooden "interface plate" to fix the bottom of the Tasco mount onto it:
"Simples!"
There's a 1/4" Whitworth bolt going up into the base of the Tasco mount, and then a pair of M8 bolts going down onto the speaker-plate."Simples!"
Re: "Star-hopping" with binoculars
Yes it is a cracking idea, no more shakes and arm aches,