Hi all,
Something that I noticed quite some time ago when I started using my binoviewer, was that ambient lighting in my peripheral vision is more noticable. It probably has something to do with the fact that 1) my head is at a different angle allowing more periphery to be visible, and 2) because I am using two eyes, I percieve double of everything.
The other night I decided to bring out my light shroud. You know, the kind you put over your head. I don't use it much becuase I never really got comfortable with it in the past.
With a Dobsonian, the binoviewer sticks out the side quite a bit. I found it very comfortable and convenient to have the shroud on my shoulders and head, allowing the rest of it to just hang, draped over the binoviewer body. So much for my ambient light problem! Occasionally, I would reach under the binoviewer to grab the two hanging sides of the shroud and pull them together so that I could not see the ground below. Talk about a little darkroom!
I was examining the faint open cluster in the background of M35, NGC 2158. I wanted to know just how much I could get this object to resolve with my binoviewer. I was pleasantly surpirsed. The highest magnification I used was 357x, a combination of my mediocre dark site and an 18" Starmaster TV BV with 2x corrector and a pair of 11mm Nagler T6. The first thing I noticed was that the cluster was irregular in shape (somewhat like a parallelogram) with edges that were easy to detect. Within the boundaries of these edges, were a myriad of faint, similarly bright stars. An uneven chain of brighter stars (4-5?) crossed the face of the cluster. What I couldn't see is any of the stars in the cluster's halo (the stars that would give the cluster it's roundish appearance). That proabably is a result of my rural, but still somewhat light polluted dark site, and I didn't really give it a chance by trying to use averted vision like I should have. I'm going to have to take a picture of the cluster out into the field with me this weekend because I want to compare what I see in the scope with some of the brighter stars in the vicinity of the cluster to see if I can resolve any of the stars in the cluster's halo.
I thoroughly enjoyed using my little shroud to help me examine a familiar object in greater detail. It's always fun to "rediscover" an object by looking at it in a new way.
Matthew Sherman
NGC ME!
Something that I noticed quite some time ago when I started using my binoviewer, was that ambient lighting in my peripheral vision is more noticable. It probably has something to do with the fact that 1) my head is at a different angle allowing more periphery to be visible, and 2) because I am using two eyes, I percieve double of everything.
The other night I decided to bring out my light shroud. You know, the kind you put over your head. I don't use it much becuase I never really got comfortable with it in the past.
With a Dobsonian, the binoviewer sticks out the side quite a bit. I found it very comfortable and convenient to have the shroud on my shoulders and head, allowing the rest of it to just hang, draped over the binoviewer body. So much for my ambient light problem! Occasionally, I would reach under the binoviewer to grab the two hanging sides of the shroud and pull them together so that I could not see the ground below. Talk about a little darkroom!
I was examining the faint open cluster in the background of M35, NGC 2158. I wanted to know just how much I could get this object to resolve with my binoviewer. I was pleasantly surpirsed. The highest magnification I used was 357x, a combination of my mediocre dark site and an 18" Starmaster TV BV with 2x corrector and a pair of 11mm Nagler T6. The first thing I noticed was that the cluster was irregular in shape (somewhat like a parallelogram) with edges that were easy to detect. Within the boundaries of these edges, were a myriad of faint, similarly bright stars. An uneven chain of brighter stars (4-5?) crossed the face of the cluster. What I couldn't see is any of the stars in the cluster's halo (the stars that would give the cluster it's roundish appearance). That proabably is a result of my rural, but still somewhat light polluted dark site, and I didn't really give it a chance by trying to use averted vision like I should have. I'm going to have to take a picture of the cluster out into the field with me this weekend because I want to compare what I see in the scope with some of the brighter stars in the vicinity of the cluster to see if I can resolve any of the stars in the cluster's halo.
I thoroughly enjoyed using my little shroud to help me examine a familiar object in greater detail. It's always fun to "rediscover" an object by looking at it in a new way.
Matthew Sherman
NGC ME!
