Tonight's Stargazing

FINALLY it was a 90% clear night tonight and was able to take the new Orion binoculars for a spin. What I love about the Orion 20x80's is that you see SO many more stars than you can see with the naked eye it's really like looking at an entirely different night sky.

I really wanted to see if I could locate a nebula tonight but was unsuccessful...what I did see was as follows:

Andromeda Galaxy (M31, 4.8mag)
Easy to find once you know where to look, Andromeda is viewable with a 15x50, and of course even that much brighter with the 20x80. I still couldn't make out any detail however and looked like a dim blur.

M15 (Globular Cluster, 6.2mag)
I thought this was a galaxy, but turned out it was a globular cluster. I was never able to find this with the 15x50 binoculars, but was easily resolved using the 20x80 (but still looked like a faint blur).

NGC457 (Galactic Cluster, 6.4mag)
An interesting formation of stars which is easily seen with 20x80 binoculars.

M45 (Galactic Cluster, 1.5mag)
Always a cool formation of stars which is easily seen with 20x80 binoculars.

Jupiter & Moons
All 4 moons were very easily visible and I think I saw a hint of cloud detail on Jupiter. Very sharp using the 20x80 binoculars.

Well that's about it...going to he sack now...

What's In The Package?

It's the Orion GiantView 20x80 Binoculars! Sometimes when viewing the night sky and you don't want to set up a large telescope, whipping out some ultra-portable binoculars can do the trick nicely. I had previously owned some 10x50 Humvee binoculars which had allowed me to view the Andromeda galaxy for the first time, however it really was just a very faint blur in a sea of stars. The Orion GiantView 20x80 Binoculars fills that gap between low-power binoculars and a telescope where it has enough light-gathering power to view Deep Space Objects (DSO) and not have the setup time involved. The only downside to the GiantView 20x80 is that it is a little heavy to hold, so using a tripod is recommended (and the binoculars come with a built-in mount for photo/video tripods).

The Orion GiantView Binoculars come with a nice padded case for protection.




The glass in this binocular are fully multi-coated to minimize light loss.




The Orion GiantView 20x80 next to my 10x50 Humvee binoculars.