catman161 Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 (edited) After doing a lot of prepping of wood for the roll off shed today I was pleased to see the skies clear this evening. As I'm on yet another agency shift (to pay for the new kit and shed!) and up at 5am I decided to just have a quick session with the Celestron 15x70 Bins. First thing I noticed was how cold it was! I spent about 40 minutes in total. The seeing was not too bad at the mag of the bins. The transparency was actually pretty good too. I started off in one of my favourite constellations; Auriga. I quickly found some old favourites in M36, M37 and M38. A spent a few minutes here just looking at these three lovely open clusters. Next I turned to Perseus and had a general scan and then found the double cluster. I love these objects (NGC 884 & 869) I spent a good 10 minutes on the double cluster-such a mesmerising sight. Next I moved on to orion and of course spent a couple of minutes on M42. I had a quick look at Betelgeuse also and then moved onto what I originally set out to look for: Comet C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy). I had spent a few minutes in stellarium to find the general area and some landmarks to hop from in my attempt to find it. I used M45 as my first big landmark. I looked at this for a couple of minutes, another one of my favourite open clusters I then moved in a gently rising diagonal line towards the top of Triangulum and straight away saw a large fuzzy star. I looked at the comet for a good ten minutes trying to discern any tail detail but alas I couldn't see any. The moon was fairly bright and in close vicinity so I wasn't too disheartened that I couldn't see any tail detail but to be honest I didn't think I would anyway and probably wouldn't with just the bins regardless of the moon being out or not. Anyway, it was a short and enjoyable session and I finally got a look at the Comet that everyone has been taking pictures of Now for a cuppa and then ready for bed in readiness to go and do some extra work in order to fund this addictive hobby Edited January 28, 2015 by catman161 +Bino-viewer and +TasKiNG 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werisit Posted January 28, 2015 Share Posted January 28, 2015 Sounds like a good little sky tour. Bins rock! It takes me 40 mins+ to set up a scope on my EQ5 and I usually can't be bothered. I was laid across the bonnet of my car with an old pair of 10 x 50 this evening looking at Lovejoy. I've been watching progress on your obsy. Looking good. I fancy an Alt Az chair with slow motion controls! catman161 and stash 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman161 Posted January 28, 2015 Author Share Posted January 28, 2015 Bins are great for the quick looks every now and then. I often take them out with me even when I'm using the big scope. Yeah hopefully will have the roll of shed up and running in a few weeks. There's lots of threads on other forums about Bino-chairs. I recall seeing one build about a year (or maybe 2!) ago on iceinspace that used windscreen wiper motors to push it around! Basically the guy had built a frame that supported his favourite reclining armchair and he used a huge homemade parallelogram mount that was hitched to the back of the chair so that he didn't even have to hold the 25x100 bins! It looked awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tweedledum Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Nice write up felix, if you are hand holding those babies you are going to get some guns! Have also seen almost like a large dob base with a frame of a chair built in! so you can rotate and adjust altitude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman161 Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 Thanks Damian-I was hand holding Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Glad you got a good bino session Felix, nice report. This is what you need, a goto bino chair... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAZ Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 If you look at the shadows, he isn't far off getting the Sun through the eye balls. The front and rear caps are on his chest. catman161 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werisit Posted January 29, 2015 Share Posted January 29, 2015 Now that's what I'm talkin' about!!! Some bit of kit. I wonder if it's heated? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
catman161 Posted January 29, 2015 Author Share Posted January 29, 2015 A bino chair would be cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tweedledum Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 Thats what I saw, chair in a dob mount! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted January 30, 2015 Share Posted January 30, 2015 It looks so comfy, after a couple of hours you could just nod off dreaming about the views you've had catman161 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 I love my 15x70s and use them very often to find sunspots (with filters, of course). In Perseus, don't neglect Melotte 20 (just aim your bins at Alpha) and M34. These were taken with an ST80 and DSLR: http://s197.photobucket.com/user/PhillipPugh/media/Deep%20Sky%20Objects/Melotte20Y14AugD23_zps0b2cab79.jpg.html?sort=3&o=5 http://s197.photobucket.com/user/PhillipPugh/media/Deep%20Sky%20Objects/M34Y14AugD23_zpsbba5a4e4.jpg.html?sort=3&o=4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tweedledee Posted February 4, 2015 Share Posted February 4, 2015 I love my 15x70s and use them very often to find sunspots (with filters, of course). In Perseus, don't neglect Melotte 20 (just aim your bins at Alpha) and M34. These were taken with an ST80 and DSLR: http://s197.photobucket.com/user/PhillipPugh/media/Deep%20Sky%20Objects/Melotte20Y14AugD23_zps0b2cab79.jpg.html?sort=3&o=5 http://s197.photobucket.com/user/PhillipPugh/media/Deep%20Sky%20Objects/M34Y14AugD23_zpsbba5a4e4.jpg.html?sort=3&o=4 I agree Phil, Melotte 20 is one of my binocular favourites too, along with Collinder 70 (Orions Belt Cluster) and Melotte 111 (Coma Cluster). They are so big that they get overlooked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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