Dave's 16 Inch Binocular Telescope Page

So what does it feel like to actually use a large aperture binocular telescope? David gives us his account; Mind blowing is probably the phrase that springs to mind. I have not yet found any object that does not benefit from the advantages of binocular viewing. The incredible sense of total immersion in the reality of the experience is what binoculars are all about. It's astronomy at another level. Seeing the large globular cluster Omega Centauri for the first time almost made me fall backwards off the step. The depth and resolving power on this object is spellbinding. Moving just outside the field of view of this object and panning slowly towards it, you’re firstly presented with a pitch black sky with a scattering of random stars. As you move onto the object your eyes and senses are completely overwhelmed. You can look deeper and deeper inside this cluster and there is always more to see. It feels as though I’ve arrived on the doorstep to this cluster in my spaceship.

A definite three-dimensional feeling is present, the objects appear to float almost in front of you, even though this is obviously not possible due to the enormous distance of these objects. One explanation is an effect called chromatic stereopsis, which due to chromatic aberrations in your eyes makes the red and blue stars focus at slightly different distances. Simple things, like double stars that have never captured my imagination are suddenly transformed into objects worth gazing at. Smaller and much fainter globular clusters all benefited from the relaxing view using two eyes. The fainter globular clusters if viewed with only one eye, needed averted version to make them visible, however with both eyes open, they were blatantly obvious.

 Later in the evening Sagittarius was rising in the eastern sky so we had a look at the Ink Spot, a dark nebula in the middle of the Sagittarius star cloud. This is a beautiful sight in any telescope, with a small open cluster, the dark nebula, and a smooth sprinkling of stars forming a splendid backdrop to this view. After spending five minutes at the eyepiece we ran out of adjectives suitable to describe the experience.

The centre of the ink spot was truly jet black and you could start to see the individual background stars around the edge of the dark nebula. The open cluster seemed to have an almost three-dimensional glow. The dark nebula also changed from being just a small single dark patch to include a much larger seam running from the nebula around one side of the open cluster. The background wasn’t just a flat background carpet of stars any more but now showed small undulations, patches of dark nebula, and subtleties not seen in the other telescopes.

The viewing of the Sombrero galaxy made the dust lane look like a four-lane highway. The central bulge and the halos around the dust lane were both plainly visible.

Next we put in two UHC filters and swung around to the Lagoon nebula. My jaw dropped wide open! The texture and rifts of nebulosity on an ink black background were startling. The views we were getting were almost photographic. ETA Carina one of the jewels of the Southern skies is impossible to describe in words, this nebula that I have enjoyed hundreds of times through other instruments was seen as if for the first time. At the lowest magnification available to me it spilled out the sides of the eyepiece. You could easily spend an hour at the eyepiece and still not exhaust the details and complexity of this amazing view. I now know that my observing has been ruined for life. I doubt if I could ever again look through a monocular telescope and feel the rush that I felt that night. This is viewing transcended to another level, long and deeply satisfying enough to truly transport you to another place.

This next paragraph is after another six months of constant use, not just the first wow factor from the first few months.

I don't think that I will ever forget an evening in July when I had a look for the first time at a number of impressive planetary nebula's all in one evening.  Firstly there was a ring nebula, usually this can be seen as a small smoke ring in space.  But with the binoculars it appeared to be floating somewhere just out beyond my reach, putting in the UHC filters and the nine millimetre Nagler eyepieces I can honestly say that I have never seen the ring nebula look as spectacular as it did this evening.  Next we swung around to the dumbbell nebula. Again this object, in my 12 inch telescope, looks like an ill-defined ghostly shape slightly resembling an apple core. in the binoculars this took on a whole new light not only could you easily make out the brighter part of the nebula that the extended years on either side which make the object now appear more like an eye were immediately obvious.  Around the edges and in the surface of the main core of the nebula definite textures shapes and notches were also apparent.  I think it took us about one hour before we could tear ourselves away to even consider looking at anything else.  Next on the list was the Helix.  Usually a faint below almost completely filling the eyepiece this was again transformed into an object of great visual beauty.  No longer a faint barely detectable smudge this was now a solid easily discernible object with a capital 'C' shaped ring round the outside. lastly we swung our attention to the veil nebula small wisps of nebulosity in the shape of thin ribbons wove their way across the eyepiece.  Having both the aperture to collect enough light, the vastly improved contrast and shape recognition afforded by the binocular view really brought this to life.  So far I have not found any category of object to observe that does not benefit greatly from the advantages of a true binocular telescope. It is now become a regular occurring is to spend an evening observing and later at home to look at photographs of the objects that we have been admiring all evening and being most disappointed at how bad the photographs are in comparison to the visual feast thru the binoculars earlier in the evening.