Telescope Reviews: viewing for pleasure

past few nights some PM some AM

Garrett Optical 22x85, I've had two of these for a while and recently put one up for sale. It sold in less than 24 hours. This was the last observing session with this binocular before I packed it up to ship to Greece.

Also had my TV85 with a few eyepieces. Used mostly 24mm Tak LE (25x) 18mmTakLE(33x), 12.5mm TakLE(48x) and 10mmRadian(60x).

M31, M32 and M110 all visible at once in the 22x85. M31 extension grew with time, seemed to encompas both other small galaxies. Length appeared to extend to or at least near edges of fov.

tried Almach with the binocs and couldn't see it. So I put the scope on it (reversed L-R) at 33x and found the secondary, beautiful blue. When I went back to the binoculars, in brief moments I could see it. nearby M76 was seen, pretty faint, but quite obvious.

7789 in Cas in the 22x85 was a broad diffuse glow, but not resolved. In the scope at 33x, I could resolved about 20 stars, although the glow was not quite the same in the scope.

22x85 - In the double cluster, the preceeding cluster can be seen to have a small curved asterism I call the cup, almost dead center. At the open end of the cup is a single bright star. The cup can be seen clearly in the 22x85s made up of 5 stars in a curve. this made me think of the Barry Simon project to develop photos depicting what cluster look like through various binoculars. At 22x, the central core of the preceeding cluster shows this cup.

I stuck with the 22x85s for a while and took a tour down thru Cassiopiea-Perseus-into Camelopardalis.

In Cas, M103 to the three nearby clusters, 659, 663, and 654. The faintest 659 showed up very well. Then from the double cluster, over to the runnng man, Stock 2, then to the double OSS??, it's 64" and could easily be seen anywhere within the entire fov. Mrk6 showed its little straight line. Two cluster involved in IC1805, ??? and 1027, both seen fairly large. Then I saw just a spot of stars that I could call 1848. Tr3 was easy to find.

A drop further east and kemble's cascade came into view. very nice, ending at cluster 1502 with an 18" double in the center. From there, almost due north, to a small grouping of four stars that cradle the extremely faint galaxy IC342. This is one of those nights that at best all I can say is, I thought I saw it.

M33 stood out easily in the 22x85, very large.

Mesartim was split. A nice pair for this binocular, even and only 7.8" close.

In the AM
The Trapezium was beautiful! The extension glow of the nebula fanned out to make the bird shape that I see, with the little circular spot of M43 as the head. All four members of the Trap clearly resolved in the 22x85. In the scope at 48x, I could see the E component, but not F.

M78 - could barely just make out that there are stars invloved. In the scope at 48x, I could easily see two stars in M78.

In Sigma Orionis, in the scope I saw 8 stars that make up "the little Sagitta" arrow asterism. In the 22x85s, I could only see 6 of those stars.

The binoculars could not resolve Castor, but the scope did easily at 48x.

I finished off the late morning with a view of M44' The Beehive, in each. in the binoculars at 22x, I counted about 80-90 stars in the hive. With the scope, I think at 33x, I counted between 100-110 stars.

A very nice last session with these before I send them on their way. Good luck to their new owner.

edz

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