i try to make the world more interesting
I took out a relative's 8x42 binoculars today. Saw M7 as a faint sparkling of stars, but Andromeda was a much dimmer smudge compared to my telescope that if I hadn't seen it before I wouldn't have been able to spot. It I was able to follow a satellite though! And I got to show off Mizar and Alcor to others!
Sadly the moon was out and it was so bright it was casting shadows, stopping me from seeing any nebulae like I was hoping. Grr, how dare the moon be out there.
I have a pair of 15x70s and while they’re a nightmare to handhold, on a good dark night the number of nebulae and galaxies I can spot in thirty minutes, versus needing to aim my telescope, is incredible. Plus you get some nice open cluster targets like Brocchi’s Cluster that are too big for telescopes!
oh wow those are some big ones. How do you keep them steady? My hands were wobbling all over the place
Very poorly. Sometimes braced against something, sometimes literally lying flat on the ground and only looking straight up, sometimes just Doing My Best.
They're also tripod-mountable, which is a lot more steady but less convenient.
