First Light 15x70's :)

[Johnnyaardvark]

Decided to treat myself to some larger objective binoculars while I am deciding on a scope and also as I suspected they will come in useful for those quick setups and something to do while I'm imaging [hopefully]

 

To my horror yesterday. They had arrived while I was out and had been thrown or dropped over a 7ft gate! Very well packaged they appear to be ok but I guess I am still some what concerned.

 

 

 

Anyhow after a very windy night it cleared up this a.m. so I couldn't resist going out to see how they are.

 

 

1/ Had a look at Jupiter, very low in the sky - could make it out as a disc and a few moons visible. Little surface detail if any - hands or tripod not quite steady enough.

 

2/ scanned the sky in hope of finding M82/81 but struggled hand held.

 

3/ Down towards Cassiopia and lower and across to look for the double cluster. Pretty certain I found it although fainter and fuzzier than I expected so possible the couple of nebula above it?

 

4/ back to the plough to see if I could navigate a little better and star hop from Mizar and Alcor to the other bright stars in URSA Major to get a feel for the field of view. they looked great! Started to get a better feel for where I was looking and chanced across too beautiful fuzzies... mentally noted an L shape of stars below it. Confirmed in Stellarium after... I am SO HAPPY as I have never seen Bodes and Cigar nebula before. They looked great and were pretty clear considering my light polluted skies!

 

Looks to me like the Bins survived the fall and the collimation is pretty good (near perfect). A little trouble setting the adjustable right eyepiece but some of that was that Jupiter was low in the sky and struggling to hold it steady and my current tripod rather on the short side... Yes the bracket that comes with these is a lot more wobbly than it looks...

 

Will check collimation etc more tomorrow in daylight!

 

Anyhow, chuffed to bits.

 

Steve

[Brantuk]

Well done Steve

 

They're not bad are they. I still use mine a lot - especially for wide objects - Andromeda looks good in them (nice big smudge) if it's nice and dark, and the Beehive cluster is amazing in bins too. Pliades is another sweet one to look at. But Bodes and Cigar look better from a dark site than LP (I s'pose that goes for anything really).

 

Jupiter should appear as a bright globe with a line of 4 moons either side of it - it's fun to watch how they change position from night to night - sometimes one or more of them are obscured by the planet cos they're round the back, so you may only see 3. I like picking out globulars - quite easy at Belper.

 

What scope are you getting? (and when? lol).

[dawson]

Lovely report. Nice to know someone is do some astronomy at present.

If you work out what the angular field of view is of them, you could make a circle out of an sheet of OHP film and use that on your chosen star atlas (assuming you match the FoV to the scale of your atlas), to help confirm the things you've been looking at, or to plan an observing session.

But pleased you've got them and can start exploring a little deeper than naked eye astronomy. And glad they survived delivery; i'd make sure you feed back to the courier and the retailer about the incident: the one thing worse than not being in when the delivery person arrives and takes it back to a sorting office in the outer Hebrides which opens for 30 minutes once a month, must be if they lob it over a fence and break it!

Great start; look forward to more reports.

Jd

[BAZ]

If you didn't notice any collimation problems, then they are more likely to be OK. The reason I say this is that when you look at stars, they are pin points, and you are much more able to pick up they are not merged. If you do a check in daylight, look at something that has small and easy to see fine detail to it.

A TV aerial is ideal as it also seems to show any false fringing fairly easily.

 

If you think you have problems with them, then do the same with another pair of Bin's that you know are good. It might be your eye's that are squiffy, my left isn't too good so I have to be aware of it.

 

Like Kim say's, get them somewhere dark and the faint stuff is easier to find. 

 

Here's what the Double Cluster looks like, mid way between Cassiopeia and Perseus.

 

http://www.eastmidlandsstargazers.org.uk/topic/7100-perseus-cluster-2214/#entry82234

[dawson]

Looking online, it suggests the FoV is about 4.2 degrees; looking at the double cluster in Stellarium, it looks something like this:

 

 

I hadn't appreciated that the Heart and Soul nebula were so close to the Double Cluster:

 

 

JD

[Johnnyaardvark]

Hi All,

 

Thank you very much for the replies.

 

Well done Steve

 

They're not bad are they. I still use mine a lot - especially for wide objects - Andromeda looks good in them (nice big smudge) if it's nice and dark, and the Beehive cluster is amazing in bins too. Pliades is another sweet one to look at. But Bodes and Cigar look better from a dark site than LP (I s'pose that goes for anything really).

 

Jupiter should appear as a bright globe with a line of 4 moons either side of it - it's fun to watch how they change position from night to night - sometimes one or more of them are obscured by the planet cos they're round the back, so you may only see 3. I like picking out globulars - quite easy at Belper.

 

What scope are you getting? (and when? lol).

 

They are really not bad at all. Very impressed with their light gathering ability. I certainly look forward to using these at a darker site. I was a little disappointed that it cleared up so late last night as the Pleiades and M42 had set but certainly look forward to checking these out and the Andromeda galaxy when it's favourably placed, May be a little scuppered by the moon for these the next few nights even if the weather allows!

 

I'll look into the beehive. There are quite a few open clusters I have not seen and I have never had any luck really with globulars (with my scope as a youth) so they are on my list both visually and photographically. I didn't know I'd be able to see them in bins?!  

 

Jupiter was nice as it showed as a disk with the moons but someday I hope to see the GRS as I have only seen bands on it's disk in the past. I read with interest forum members comments about dusk covers with holes in to stop down the aperture and improve contrast/resolution. I think this could be worth a go with a scope (when I get it) to maybe bring out a little detail.

 

As for which one and when... still looking at the ED80 and the HEQ5 Pro but I know I will be hungry for more FL for visual! I also want to see an HEQ5 close up (and ideally next to an NEQ6) for some direct comparison of size, so holding out a little for a meet somewhere I think. Also not sure weather or not to aim at 2nd hand for one or both but a bit nervous about knowing what I am buying and what condition it's in.

[Johnnyaardvark]

Lovely report. Nice to know someone is do some astronomy at present.

If you work out what the angular field of view is of them, you could make a circle out of an sheet of OHP film and use that on your chosen star atlas (assuming you match the FoV to the scale of your atlas), to help confirm the things you've been looking at, or to plan an observing session.

But pleased you've got them and can start exploring a little deeper than naked eye astronomy. And glad they survived delivery; i'd make sure you feed back to the courier and the retailer about the incident: the one thing worse than not being in when the delivery person arrives and takes it back to a sorting office in the outer Hebrides which opens for 30 minutes once a month, must be if they lob it over a fence and break it!

Great start; look forward to more reports.

Jd

 

Thanks James for your ideas, comments and screen shots. As for field of view and star charts I have only been using electronic versions of late. Stellarium has ocular views that I have been playing with quite a bit and the Skymaster 15x70s are actually one of the default oculars. I've also added in some f the details of the scopes I have been looking at, possible lenses, barlows and the sensor on my camera to get a feel for field of view and things that I may be able to see/image. It's a great tool but not the same as actually looking of course. I'd never heard of the heart and soul nebula until last night. there is certainly loads out there to see and image.

 

Have given feedback to the retailer about delivery but I guess I won't hear much.

 

Great to be looking with something a little more than the naked eye but the weather looks pretty atrocious again tonight. Hope to be adding more reports soon. I want to get more into planning and recording what I do. A friend of mine showed me a log book he'd been keeping and it certainly fired up my interest. It was a lovely record and quite an impressive selection of objects all be it pretty minimal compared to some experience here.

 

Steve

[Johnnyaardvark]

If you didn't notice any collimation problems, then they are more likely to be OK. The reason I say this is that when you look at stars, they are pin points, and you are much more able to pick up they are not merged. If you do a check in daylight, look at something that has small and easy to see fine detail to it.

A TV aerial is ideal as it also seems to show any false fringing fairly easily.

 

If you think you have problems with them, then do the same with another pair of Bin's that you know are good. It might be your eye's that are squiffy, my left isn't too good so I have to be aware of it.

 

Like Kim say's, get them somewhere dark and the faint stuff is easier to find. 

 

Here's what the Double Cluster looks like, mid way between Cassiopeia and Perseus.

 

http://www.eastmidlandsstargazers.org.uk/topic/7100-perseus-cluster-2214/#entry82234

 

Aha... Had seen Ron's images and had been partly what inspired me to go and hunt for the double cluster last night.  I had seen it a few years back at a moon watch event I organised as part of the international year of astronomy. I remember it looking pretty stunning through quite a nice Meade SCT that a parent brought along for students to look through. I thought it was closer to Cassiopeia from back then so had been useful reading about where it actually is.

 

As for collimation I think they are ok but could still check again. My eye's are far from perfect when I switch from one to the other. Great advice though and I'll give comparing to some other smaller binoculars I have a go.

 

Great community this very useful and friendly. I'd have not seen anything last night if it had not been for Steve and Mike keeping me up in the chat room.

 

 

Thanks to all,

 

Steve