Telescope Reviews: Re: IC4592, a HUGE reflection neb in Scorpius, see

I'll echo Steve: Great post!

More importantly, great observation! I've seen those reflection nebulae on my star charts before, but I had thought, like you, that these particular objects, being reflection nebulae that can't have filters used effectively on them, would probably near impossible to observe visually. You make me want to get a big pair of binos!

I would argue that most likely, the reason your bigger scope failed to reveal it was, as you mentioned, you were using TWO eyes in the binos, with that purported 40% gain in contrast. I'd think that a 16" binocular scope would work as well, if not better. While you cannot frame the entire object at once with the background sky with a bigger scope(s), you CAN sweep back and forth across it rapidly and detect the change in sky brightness. That said, I've never extensively tested the rapid sweep technique directly against a smaller scope that can just barely frame an entire low surface brightness object along with background sky. I must say, however, that my 18" scope did reveal the very huge Sh2-216 (1.5 deg diameter PN) and Sh2-264 (Meissa nebulosity) better than my 4" refractor, but not by a huge amount.

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John T.
Auburn, AL
25" f/4.2 Dob
18" Obsession #701
4" Stellar Vue Achromat
8X56 Binos

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