Summer Milkyway with 20x90mm Binoculars

Wow! What a night I had last Night (July 15th/16th) observing with my new 20x90mm binoculars housed on an Orion Paragon Parallelogram mount with large tripod from my Backyard. After a very warm sunny summer's day, sky conditions were surprisingly transparent from 11pm onwards, and so I set about observing with my 20x90mm binos, and what views these binoculars gave! They provide a generous field of view of 3.2 degrees, along with great light gathering power, I found it was easy to find your way around the lower portions of the summer milkyway, arcing over my southern horizon.

With a very bright Moon rising, and not knowing what to expect form these large binos, I set about my first target, M11 in scutum. What a sight, there could easily be 200 stars condensed into a small area, with an 8th magnitude bright star near this clusters center. At perfect focus, the amount of stars visible was mind-boggling, the cluster itself appeared in 3D. I then moved to the bright red variable stars V Aquilae and S Scuti to observe that quality of colour that these binos could deliver. These stars really stood out from the deep dark sky blue background, presenting themselves as bright orange/red beacons of pinpoint light, both at 7th to 8th magnitude.

Moving slowly south-westwards through Scutum, star clusters M26 and NGC6664 were very impressive, standing clearly out against an already bright milkyway background. Moving to the eagle Nebula, M16, this was a beautiful collection of two star clusters, one to the north of a discernable nebulous patch of light, another to the south, glimmering of stars between 7th to 10th magnitude.

The Swan Nebula M17, was even more impressive, with a bright east-west band of nebulous light, about a quarter of a degree wide, and slightly green in colour. One point of note was the bright and beautiful orange 5th magnitude star to it's northwest, a quarter of a degree away, hanging beautifully in the seemingly endless sky full of much dimmer stars further away.

M24, The small sagittarius starcloud was presented to me as never experienced before through any optical aid I have ever used. It was simply stunning with a large east-west 2 degree wide spread of 3D like agglomerations of a multitude of bright and dim stars, hanging in the sky as though some unseen force held this large cloud of stars together, with many pin pricks of light from so far away.

Large cluster M23 was overall dim compared to any other cluster I had seen, with stars ranging from 7th to 11th magnitude arranged in a somewhat circular pattern. Scanning east, I came across the large cluster M25, which appeared as a 'diamond ring' in a larger ring of stars eminating north of this cluster in a circular pattern. The bright orange variable star, U Sagittari in the center of this 3D cluster was a superb sight, capping of a beautiful cluster, certainly to be revsited again.

Looking away from the southern milkyway, My first look at the Andromeda galaxy, M31, was incredible, larger than I had ever seen it before, with a pinpoint starlike nucleus, with bright arms either side. It was hard to believe that I was looking at a galaxy bigger than our own, with billions of stars, from about 2 million light years away. M32 alongside was easily detectable. The double cluster in Perseus was incredible, both clusters easily fitting into my field of view, with too many stars to count. One lovely memory was a line of three bright orange/red stars in the dimmer cluster.

Finally, to the moon itself, which I thought would spoil the night being so bright at three quarter phase, was simply too bright for these binos, the light gathering power was too much for such a phase, perhaps a crescent moon would be even more pleasing than it already was, and after some getting used to the sight, the level of detail even at 20x on the moon's terminator was incredible, with sharp crater walls, and smooth lava flows from the ancient past.

These 20x90mm Binoculars exceeded all my expectations when put to the test, and even under a bright moon, they gave exceptional views. I can only imagine how they will perform under a clear dark sky.

As I prepared finally for an end to the night, I was treated to a lovely bright naked eye display of silver coloured noctilucent clouds low in the north-eastern sky. Unexpectedly, from the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of the Pleiades star cluster, rising very low in the northeast, indeed reminding me that summer does not last forever !

Keith..

Sounds like a great night for you Keith! These binos certainly have set a record for you - the longest post from you yet!

Nice report - shame you didn't have a picture to complimet some of the objects! Still, you could have taken up John Flannery's Binocular Handbook Challenge and drawn a few of them for us!

Seanie.

:lol:

Great report Keith . . . some very fine DSOs you have swept up. The light-grasp of the giant binoculars means there's a huge amount of stuff to be seen (wait 'til you plough through the Virgo-Coma cluster with them!)

I invested in a pair of 15x70mm Celestron Skymasters in May ($70 in the US . . . 130 euro in Argos here! I was shocked at the disparity in prices so it was a no-brainer to get them in the US.) Also got a pair of 25x100mm Celestron's second-hand . . . yes, I'm a convicted bino-nut

The parallelogram mount is a great set-up. Suddenly it makes binocular observing a real pleasure.

All the best,

John

Thanks lads, I cannot emphasize enough how good and rewarding this et up is, I was extremely pleasntly surprised at the night I had last night ! Maybe I'm too reliant on telescopes all the time, it was really refreshing to try out something different !

I invested in a pair of 15x70mm Celestron Skymasters

These got a review in this month's sky at night magazine against 5 other 15x70's, and came out tops! I might get a pair myself.

the longest post from you yet! Razz

And hopefully more Seanie !

The parallelogram mount is a great set-up. Suddenly it makes binocular observing a real pleasure.

Absolutely, I'm never going back to handheld stuff again !
Keith..

Sounds like an excellent night there Keith.

I have 20X80's and have given them a proper run a few nights. The more I use them, the more addictive they become. Have already started thinking about 25X100's

These got a review in this month's sky at night magazine against 5 other 15x70's, and came out tops! I might get a pair myself.

Hi Keith,

I saw that review myself and was interested in their report versus the 15x70mm discussions that have raged on the cloudynights.com binocular forum. Some people on their forum have had mixed results with their purchase and found themselves having to return a badly collimated pair. I'd be reluctant to buy the Argos ones as they'll probably have been knocked about in store. The price of 130 euro (about the same when you adjust for Sterling too) is a real rip-off when it'd be far cheaper get them from the US (the cheapest I saw is $65 approx from Adorama -- I paid $70 from the Woodland Hills stall at Riverside).

Have already started thinking about 25X100's

Have a look through the "Best of" thread in the www.cloudynights.com binocular forum thread for some very good reviews of various giant binoculars. The ones Keith and I have are from Strathspey in Aviemore in Scotland and look like Oberwerk's but are clones from the same manufacturer in China. They are excellent binoculars though and reveal a huge amount of detail in DSOs (e.g. the Orion Nebula was my "first light" with the 22x100mm last December and I was amazed at the view).

John