Inspired by a thread in Equipment talk, Simple pleasures,
http://www.astromart.com/forums/viewpost.asp?forum_post_id=364287&poll_id=&news_id=&page=
I took my 10x50 binocular mounted on a photo tripod, Karkoschka (probably the smallest star atlas in the world), and my MP3 player for logging and went to my back yard - just for kicks. I was somewhat surpirsed when I logged 14 objects in 40 minutes, including 3 planetary nebulae, 3 globular clusters, 2 open clusters, 2 diffuse nebulae and 4 galaxies:
M57 - obvious, stellar
M71 - small glow
M27 - obvious
M29 - I recognized the familiar shape with averted vision
The Veil - the Easter segment NGC 6992/6995; I could see it when I moved the binocular
M101 - a tenuous glow, position angle right
M51 - pretty obvious, elongated, PA right
NGC 6940 - rather large
NGC 7000 - North America; the brightest part was Mexico
M13 - large
M92 - nicely concentrated
NGC 5866 - M102(?), easy
NGC 6503 - I saw that this galaxy was elongated, PA right
NGC 6543 - Cat's Eye nebula, stellar, bright.
One conclusion is that training and practice really help! I wouldn't have noticed a half of these objects one year ago.
Dmitri
http://www.astromart.com/forums/viewpost.asp?forum_post_id=364287&poll_id=&news_id=&page=
I took my 10x50 binocular mounted on a photo tripod, Karkoschka (probably the smallest star atlas in the world), and my MP3 player for logging and went to my back yard - just for kicks. I was somewhat surpirsed when I logged 14 objects in 40 minutes, including 3 planetary nebulae, 3 globular clusters, 2 open clusters, 2 diffuse nebulae and 4 galaxies:
M57 - obvious, stellar
M71 - small glow
M27 - obvious
M29 - I recognized the familiar shape with averted vision
The Veil - the Easter segment NGC 6992/6995; I could see it when I moved the binocular
M101 - a tenuous glow, position angle right
M51 - pretty obvious, elongated, PA right
NGC 6940 - rather large
NGC 7000 - North America; the brightest part was Mexico
M13 - large
M92 - nicely concentrated
NGC 5866 - M102(?), easy
NGC 6503 - I saw that this galaxy was elongated, PA right
NGC 6543 - Cat's Eye nebula, stellar, bright.
One conclusion is that training and practice really help! I wouldn't have noticed a half of these objects one year ago.
Dmitri
