Observing Report
by Ray Kaville
Date: 8-29-2014 Hamden, CT
Temp: around 63° w/gentle breeze
Time: @23:40 – 00:20
Equipment: 15×70 Bear Binocs on a cheap $30 Velbron photo tripod with homemade poplar bino mount no charts or aids. just browsin’ – a short tour of the sky above
Comments: Gorgeous night. Milky Way showing at zenith even before eye adjustment to darkness
A balmy breeze and just plain comfortable. No humidity, cool but not cold. Pulled my binocs, tripod & chair from the car and went looking for a binary pair in Hercules near Ophiuchus that I’ve been wanting to check out. I found a few pairs that were pretty nice and one that may have been the one I was looking for. Yellow/orange and bluegreen, and very pretty.
Moving on, M13 was easily captured and as beautiful as it gets in a pair of binocs. Albireo in Cygnus easily separated, but close. Milky Way was very apparent, various nice open clusters and groupings. NGC864 & NGC889 the Double Cluster in Perseus, the owl/ET cluster was a wide view, but spectacular nonetheless, plus a nice little fireball from the Lyra area through Sagitta burning out just about Capricornus. For some reason the double cluster isn’t as robust as I remember around here. Possibly due to good samaritans leaving outside lights on as a public service.
Up on the back deck-
M31 showed a beautiful core with growing oval cloud surrounding it. It was visible naked eye with slightly averted, but years back I could see it straight on. Triangulum was easy and somewhere near Perseus/Andromeda there were two geometric shapes. A smaller triangle and small square. Easy to find again, but not visible naked eye. I saw a large coathanger that filled my FOV near Sagitta and Sagitta itself. I may have my perspective wrong, but I thought the coat hanger was much smaller. Up to the backend of Cygnus I was panning around and spotted a nebula like opaque cloud near Sadr in Cygnus. Not sure if I should be seeing this in 15×70 binocs, but it was apparent.
A couple of satellites-
Two hits from wife in kitchen with all lights on and one in the bathroom was a real thrill. Like being fired on by a destroyer in the black of night in the Pacific. Yes, my profane moan was heard everywhere except in her lovely ears. I did spot a couple of satellites over the course of the evening, one was very dim.
Back in driveway on my way inside-
Looking at Lyra I wondered if I could spot M57 with binocs. Exactly where I point my telescope showed a small soft and dim star, it was exactly where M57 should be. Ok, no central star and no real form, but hey, it was unexpected and I’ll have to check this out next time I’m out with the scope.
I suppose I could have done more with some prep, but this was a lesiurely birthday browse and very enjoyable considering the minor (@5 minutes) setup and break down required. Relocating was equally easy. Someday I want to get a better set of binocs and a nicer tripod setup. Possibly a superchair and parallelogram mount, but that would require a lot more setup wouldn’t it?
Clear Skies!