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M8 with binos?



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 7th 05, 11:47 PM
md
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Default M8 with binos?


"Mirfak" wrote in message ...
Under very dark skies, with no moon, can you see M8 with a good pair of
7x50's?

On an unrelated note, since April, I've had requests from no fewer than 4
people to conduct an observing session so that they can see Mars, which,
in July/August '05, "will be closer to Earth than it's ever been in human
history." Two of those people said that they heard this on NPR. The
other two got it from spam email. Has anyone else here encountered this
misinformation?


yes, I have read it on usenet, and received it by email. it is just an echoe of the messages
flying around in 2003.


  #2  
Old August 7th 05, 11:59 PM
William Hamblen
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On Sun, 7 Aug 2005 22:42:43 +0000 (UTC), Mirfak
wrote:

Under very dark skies, with no moon, can you see M8 with a good pair of
7x50's?


You can do it under crappy skies. I can see M8 from my front yard
with 7x50s. M8 is the second brightest emission nebula after M42/M43.
It's pretty bright.

  #3  
Old August 8th 05, 12:50 AM
Chris L Peterson
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On Sun, 7 Aug 2005 22:42:43 +0000 (UTC), Mirfak
wrote:

Under very dark skies, with no moon, can you see M8 with a good pair of
7x50's?


M8 is borderline naked eye. With binoculars it is easy- you don't even
need very dark skies.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
  #4  
Old August 8th 05, 03:36 AM
Marty
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Naked eye, under half decent skies, M8 is a little puff of smoke coming
out of the spout of Sagittarius' "teapot."
Marty

  #5  
Old August 8th 05, 04:18 AM
David Knisely
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Mirfak wrote:

Under very dark skies, with no moon, can you see M8 with a good pair of
7x50's?

On an unrelated note, since April, I've had requests from no fewer than 4
people to conduct an observing session so that they can see Mars, which,
in July/August '05, "will be closer to Earth than it's ever been in human
history." Two of those people said that they heard this on NPR. The
other two got it from spam email. Has anyone else here encountered this
misinformation?


Yes, it is possible to see M8 even in a small pair of binoculars. In
fact, from a dark sky site, M8 is often visible to the unaided eye as a
tiny faint oval patch (as long as the moon isn't up). As for the Mars
story, that has been floating around in an annoying manner for months
now. Clear skies to you.
--
David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club:
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

**********************************************
* Attend the 12th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY *
* July 31 - Aug. 5, 2005, Merritt Reservoir *
* http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org *
**********************************************

  #6  
Old August 8th 05, 03:33 PM
shneor
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Right! I don't think it's "borderline naked eye at all". It's clearly
visible on an average - or even below average -night at IHOP (IceHouse
Observation Plateau) in the Sierra foothills. It's visible in the
"yellow" (CSC light pollution map) on an average night.

Clear skies,
Shneor

  #7  
Old August 8th 05, 05:16 PM
laura halliday
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Mirfak wrote:

Under very dark skies, with no moon, can you see M8
with a good pair of 7x50's?


Easily.

Like all such objects, aperture helps. Last week at
Mount Kobau M8 was nice in 20x80 binoculars, and a
delight in an 8" SCT.

The same binoculars showed M8 and M20 together, as well
as M81 and M82. The view of the Pleiades was nothing
short of astonishing...

Laura Halliday VE7LDH "Que les nuages soient notre
Grid: CN89mg pied a terre..."
ICBM: 49 16.05 N 122 56.92 W - Hospital/Shafte

  #8  
Old August 8th 05, 05:35 PM
Chris L Peterson
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On 8 Aug 2005 07:33:32 -0700, "shneor" wrote:

Right! I don't think it's "borderline naked eye at all". It's clearly
visible on an average - or even below average -night at IHOP (IceHouse
Observation Plateau) in the Sierra foothills. It's visible in the
"yellow" (CSC light pollution map) on an average night.


I call it borderline because some people can see it, and some can't.
Also, to see it naked eye requires reasonably dark conditions. I would
use "borderline" for objects like M31 and other DSOs that are close
enough to visual thresholds that in a given group, some people will
simply not see them, even if they have reasonably normal vision.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com
  #9  
Old August 8th 05, 06:38 PM
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Chris L Peterson wrote:

I call [M8] borderline because some people can see it, and some can't.
Also, to see it naked eye requires reasonably dark conditions. I would
[also] use "borderline" for objects like M31 [because] some people will
simply not see them, even if they have reasonably normal vision.


Well, it's a free country, and you, like Humpty Dumpty, are welcome
to use words any way you like. But the problem with calling M8 or M31
"borderline naked-eye visible" is that it doesn't leave much space
for describing (say) M13, which is much harder to see than M8 and M31,
or M33, which is quite a bit harder than M13.

Yes, of course you need modestly dark skies to see M8 naked-eye --
same as which can be said for all deep-sky objects shy of the Pleiades
and the Big Dipper. And yes, a few people can't see M8 or M31 even
under pristine skies. But in my experience, that's *quite* a small
segment of the population.

Two caveats. First, for people in mid-northern latitudes, the
visibility of M8 is highly sensitive to latitudes. It's one thing
to see it from Florida, where it's high in the sky, and another
entirely from Norway, where it barely grazes the horizon.

Second, my own impression of M8 is that it's an exceedingly bright
and obvious fuzz patch even in decent suburban skies. But I strongly
suspect that what I'm seeing is actually the embedded star cluster,
NGC 6530, rather than the nebulosity, which is properly called M8.
In binoculars, however, the cluster and the nebulosity are quite
distinct and are both easy to see -- under decent skies.

- Tony Flanders

 




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