While walking the dogs.

[Tweedledee]

Took my Celestron 15x70's along on my dog walk tonight. Half way to the park the strap slipped out of its clip on the celestron shoulder bag, and the bins thudded onto the tarmac pavement. Should have checked the strap before I left the house, it was loose and in its longest position. When I got to the park I sat on a bench and got out the bins expecting them to be well out of alignment. The shoulder bag is rather thin and hardly offers any cushioning. After carefully focusing I was very pleased to find they were still perfect with no double image. ?

So I had a good hour on the bench in the darkness of the park, only leaving when the dogs started clawing at me, finally bored of running round in the dark. 

Had a very enjoyable time seeing the following old favourites...
M45, Melotte 20, Double Cluster, Stock 2, Stock 23, Kembles Cascade, NGC1502, M103, NGC663, NGC457, NGC7789, M52, M34, NGC752, Golf Putter asterism, M31, M33, Little Delphinus asterism, M15, M2, M39, M71, M27, Coathanger, NGC6885, NGC6940, M11, M26, IC4756, NGC6633, IC4665, M13 and M92. Though the sky was pretty clear, sadly there was still too much light pollution for the Milky Way to be visible.

 

22 Star Clusters, 3 Asterisms, 5 Globulars, 2 galaxies and 1 Planetary Nebula! ?

[Sheila]

thank goodness for that ?

[+Ibbo]

Thats a birt of good luck.

[Tweedledee]

Cheers, If they had been out of alignment, I'd have still had a good session leaving a lens cap on. While entering the park I was already considering replacing them with a pair of 20x80's as I was sure they would be damaged. ?

 

Might still see if there are any discounts on some bigger bins at the IAS.

[Sheila]

always a good idea, new stuff ?

 

[Tweedledee]

Yes, I do like new stuff.

 

Or even second-hand. ?

[Smithysteve]

You were lucky Pete, one of my astro buddies has broken his last two sets of bins by knocking over his tripod etc, and will be hoping to find a bargain at the IAS this Saturday!

On the bright side, He now has several magnifying glasses! ?

[Doc]

I knocked my Hawkes of the shelf in the bird hide once and knocked them out of collimation, I contacted Hawke and they repaired them free of charge so all was good.

 

I'm glad they arfe OK Pete.

[Tweedledee]

7 hours ago, Smithysteve said:

You were lucky Pete, one of my astro buddies has broken his last two sets of bins by knocking over his tripod etc, and will be hoping to find a bargain at the IAS this Saturday!

On the bright side, He now has several magnifying glasses! ?

Thanks Steve. Knocking over binos on a tripod must be a very easy mistake to make in the dark.

 

2 hours ago, Doc said:

I knocked my Hawkes of the shelf in the bird hide once and knocked them out of collimation, I contacted Hawke and they repaired them free of charge so all was good.

 

I'm glad they arfe OK Pete.

Cheers, Mick. That's brilliant service, they obviously want to look after their customers and keep up a good reputation.