Binocular Space Walk - Winter

You don't need a telescope to observe the night sky. Everyone likes to just look up sometimes with the unaided eye. In a dark sky it's a spectacular view, which unfortunately is becoming harder to come by with our rampant light pollution and disregard for the value of seeing the Milky Way and millions of stars. 

Binoculars occupy a spot in between telescopes and the unaided eye. Most amateur astronomers have at least one pair of binoculars, because the view through binoculars differs so much from a telescopic view. For one thing, the field of view is much greater. Second, it requires almost no setup and expensive equipment, although you can pay a lot for high end binoculars. Third, binoculars are easy to pack and easy to point. And lastly, binoculars will show many more stars than the unaided eye, even in more light-polluted areas. 

Nikon AE 10x50

This Space Walk is designed for binoculars. A good size binocular for astronomy is the 10x50, which means it magnifies 10 times more than the unaided eye, and has 50mm objective lenses. This size is not too heavy to hand hold and still keep steady and not get too tired, although they do vary in weight. Some oft-recommended value-priced binoculars for astronomy are the Nikon 10x50 Action Extreme ATB (around $180) and the Oberwerk 10x50 Deluxe (around $200). I have the Meade Masterclass Pro ED 10x56 and they are a bargain when they go on sale around $250. If these are outside of your budget, try the Nikon Aculon A211 10x50 (around $120) or the Bushnell Legacy WP 10x50 (around $105). See a recent Cloudy Nights discussion on binoculars or another CN discussion for more options. If you will be observing with glasses, look for eye relief of at least 17mm, and preferably more.

The second piece of equipment is a reclining chair. I recommend getting a "zero gravity chair." This will allow you to lie back and observe even very high in the sky in comfort. See my article on building a binocular chair mount for a zero gravity chair mount to maximize your viewing experience. Or go ultra simple and build my Bino Body mount, which is cheap, easy to build, and makes binocular viewing a real pleasure.

This Space Walk takes you from Taurus into Auriga, Gemini, Orion, and Canis Major. It includes a vertical swath of the sky that should allow you to view all the objects without moving your chair. You will need a good unobstructed view to the south. The darker the sky, the better, without the Moon in the sky, as even a crescent Moon will wash out the view a bit.

Link to the mp3 audio file. Download the file to the device you will be using to listen to it in the field.

Binocular Space Walk Among the Stars - Winter - audio

Chart to accompany the Binocular Space Walk. Review this prior to observing with your binoculars.

Chart 1: The star "diamond" and the objects

Chart adapted from Cartes du Ciel.

Chart 2: Most distant clusters in the Space Walk. M37, M35, and the Sun are shown for comparison.

Chart adapted from Our Galaxy 2.0

The view is toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Distance (light years) in the upper left is from the viewpoint to NGC 1907. The field of view is shown in the upper right.

Chart 3: The closer clusters: 

Chart adapted from Our Galaxy 2.0. Distance is from the viewpoint to M35.

Chart 4: Stereoscopic rendering of the Messier clusters. Relax your eyes until the two images merge into a third center image. Focus on that. If you click on it for the larger image, position your eyes about 3 feet from the screen for a typical computer.

Chart adapted from Our Galaxy 2.0 and rendered in stereoscopic vision using Paint.net.

Chart 5: The closest stars and clusters in the Space Walk.

Chart adapted from Our Galaxy 2.0. Distance is from the viewpoint to Betelgeuse.

Chart 6: Stereoscopic rendering of the closest stars. Relax your eyes until the two images merge into a third center image. Focus on that.

Chart adapted from Our Galaxy 2.0 and rendered in stereoscopic vision using Paint.net.

More resources:

If you'd like to delve more deeply into one of the areas covered in this Space Walk, see the following Binocular Universe article by astronomy binocular guru, author, and writer for Astronomy Magazine, Phil Harrington:

Connect the Dots (Dec. 2013) - Taurus and Auriga

For detailed information on how binoculars work and what to look for in astronomy binoculars, see Phil's presentation for the Northern Virginia Astronomy Club from Jan. 2022.

Phil's website is www.philharrington.net.