- #1
Dembadon
Gold Member
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I'm looking for input/advice. *nudge* Russ
There's going to be a meteor shower (Lyrids) during my wife's birthday, and I want to take her to see it. Maybe bring some food to cook on the mini BBQ, wine, you get the idea. =]
So, I want to have something else to do just in case we don't see anything; it's my understanding that different showers have different peak hourly rates, and my research indicates the Lyrids's rate is quite low. So I found an app called Sky Safari (ver. 4) for $0.99 with some really nice features for finding stars, planets, etc. A friend told me I should probably get a set of binoculars if I wanted to see objects with higher Zenithal Limiting Magnitude (dimmer), so I bought a pair of the following:
https://www.amazon.com/Bushnell-Falcon-10x50-Angle-Binoculars/dp/B000051ZOA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397494537&sr=8-1&keywords=10x50+binoculars
Here's my plan: I went to http://darksitefinder.com/maps.html and found a place nearby that has low light pollution. I want to go out to the site and setup a comfortable area where we can recline, eat, and watch for the shower. However, if we aren't seeing anything, I plan on using Sky Safari to help me find different constellations and maybe even our neighbor, Andromeda.
Questions: Will those binoculars enable us to see some local clusters and nebulae? Should I bring anything else? I don't have a telescope, and it's not something I know enough about to even be able to make use of a borrowed one. I want to make the most of this night, so please, if any of you have ideas, I'd love to hear them! Thank you.
There's going to be a meteor shower (Lyrids) during my wife's birthday, and I want to take her to see it. Maybe bring some food to cook on the mini BBQ, wine, you get the idea. =]
So, I want to have something else to do just in case we don't see anything; it's my understanding that different showers have different peak hourly rates, and my research indicates the Lyrids's rate is quite low. So I found an app called Sky Safari (ver. 4) for $0.99 with some really nice features for finding stars, planets, etc. A friend told me I should probably get a set of binoculars if I wanted to see objects with higher Zenithal Limiting Magnitude (dimmer), so I bought a pair of the following:
https://www.amazon.com/Bushnell-Falcon-10x50-Angle-Binoculars/dp/B000051ZOA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397494537&sr=8-1&keywords=10x50+binoculars
Here's my plan: I went to http://darksitefinder.com/maps.html and found a place nearby that has low light pollution. I want to go out to the site and setup a comfortable area where we can recline, eat, and watch for the shower. However, if we aren't seeing anything, I plan on using Sky Safari to help me find different constellations and maybe even our neighbor, Andromeda.
Questions: Will those binoculars enable us to see some local clusters and nebulae? Should I bring anything else? I don't have a telescope, and it's not something I know enough about to even be able to make use of a borrowed one. I want to make the most of this night, so please, if any of you have ideas, I'd love to hear them! Thank you.
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