So it’s been some time since I took out the 10×50’s. Those are binoculars if you must know. I consider it my first foray into amateur astronomy. Anyway with light pollution being fairly heavy here in the city, I don’t see very much with the 10×50’s though they do give me a better view than with the naked eye.

For example, when I focus in on Venus in the western sky I can see Saturn to it’s right, and Regulus (77.6ly away!) to it’s left. Swinging south I see Jupiter along with Al Niyat (741.3ly), Antares (604ly), Tau Scorpii (432ly). Directly to the right of Juptier I see Graffias (530.3ly), Dschubba or Delta Scorpii (402.7ly) and Pi Scorpii (459.4ly). All this in a badly light polluted city.

The abbreviation ly is for Light Year.

I’ll be doing regular stargazing logs. During this instance I think I spotted a 737-400 if the light pattern was correct and I actually tracked him on a northerly heading for a few minutes.

I did take off one of the caps on the focusing mechanism and to my surprise there’s a mounting socket. My next kludge will be a way to mount the binoculars, and my camera on the same tripod that way I can focus stars in and then let the camera take a long exposure picture.