From their new website today::king:
http://www.nikonsportoptics.com/Nikon-Products/Astronomy/index.page
Bob
http://www.nikonsportoptics.com/Nikon-Products/Astronomy/index.page
Bob
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Nikon Binoculars for Comet Ison. (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter ceasar
- Start date
. The Nikon 18×70 looks very nice but clicking on that the most important thing is missing, I think, namely the weight, which is I think about 70 ounces or 2 kg.
Comets often provoke this type of thing even though they usually disappoint. Although I have seen comet Lovejoy, which is reasonably bright. I saw it in 10×40 binoculars, 18×50 and 10×25 Docter binoculars.
Comets often provoke this type of thing even though they usually disappoint. Although I have seen comet Lovejoy, which is reasonably bright. I saw it in 10×40 binoculars, 18×50 and 10×25 Docter binoculars.
This was hardly a great effort to sell binoculars. One has to go to their website to find it. I was looking for specific information on a binocular when I ran across it.
Bob
RJM
Don't Worry, Be Happy!
Guess no one has actually made the effort to see the comet yet? I think it is supposed to peak in brightness today. Problem is you have to have an unobstructed view of the ESE horizon and be up to see at 5:30am.
Though we have been lucky in Tokyo with crystal blue skies for the last week, the comet is so low in the sky just before sunrise, less than 5° that it is blurred out by the marine layer over the ocean. Will have to wait another 2 weeks to see again it higher in the sky but it will be getting dimmer. Meanwhile I will have to enjoy the pics of those more lucky in their location.
Though we have been lucky in Tokyo with crystal blue skies for the last week, the comet is so low in the sky just before sunrise, less than 5° that it is blurred out by the marine layer over the ocean. Will have to wait another 2 weeks to see again it higher in the sky but it will be getting dimmer. Meanwhile I will have to enjoy the pics of those more lucky in their location.
brocknroller
porromaniac
True enough. I bought a Japanese-made 9x63 roof with Abbe-Konig prisms for around $300 in 1986, because it was advertized as being great for comet watching. Halley's Comet turned out to be a dud that year, but I'm holding on to the bins for the next apparition in 2061, by which time Ray Kurzweil will have downloaded my engrams into a robot body.
The weather has been rainy/cloudy all week, no chance at see the comet, and since it's supposed to be a sungrazer, it might not survive it's trip around the sun to see in on its return voyage.
<B>
The Singularity is near.
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. There are actually five reasonably bright comets at the moment. Many people have seen Ison.
Comet Halley was quite good for me in 1986 when I saw it regularly without optical aid but also in telescopes up to 14 inch aperture.
Best for me was Comet Bennett in 1969. My photograph was shown on the television. I probably used high-speed Ektachrome. This was quite grainy and over the years the slides have faded.
Comet Halley was quite good for me in 1986 when I saw it regularly without optical aid but also in telescopes up to 14 inch aperture.
Best for me was Comet Bennett in 1969. My photograph was shown on the television. I probably used high-speed Ektachrome. This was quite grainy and over the years the slides have faded.
I think ISON is probably a bit too close to the sun to be easily spotted right now. Just as well, since I've got tall trees to the east. I'm actually hoping that it breaks up; maybe that will brighten it up a bit.
I finally got around to looking for Lovejoy about a week and a half ago. I was surprised at how easy is was to spot with 10x30s. Saw it again a few nights ago with 7x50s. About mag 5 with a bit of tail visible, even through the strong moonlight.
I finally got around to looking for Lovejoy about a week and a half ago. I was surprised at how easy is was to spot with 10x30s. Saw it again a few nights ago with 7x50s. About mag 5 with a bit of tail visible, even through the strong moonlight.
brocknroller
porromaniac
Cool that your comet photo was shown on TV. Comet Halley's 1986 apparition was kind to you and others with large telescopes, but a bust to everyone in my club who looked at it naked eye or with binoculars.
My great grandmother saw Haley's during its 1910 apparition, spanning the sky over NYC, and from the drawings I've seen, even Hale-Bopp paled in comparison. It was such a spectacle that she locked herself in the bathroom, fearing the end was nigh.
All I could see through my "comet catcher" 9x63 binoculars was a fuzzy spot that looked like a globular cluster, but that was through the suburban haze. Had I been at a dark site, it probably would have looked better. The important discovery to come out of Halley's 1986 apparition (besides me discovering that roofs were inferior to porros!) was spacecraft observations that confirmed Fred Whipple's "Dirty Snowball" hypothesis and also Carl Sagan's wonderfully illustrated book on comets.
Hale-Bopp looked more like what I expect a comet to look like, particularly because its steep trajectory into the solar system kept it visible in the western sky for a long time..
Comet Hyakutake was the longest comet I'd ever seen, but the coma was very small, only the ion tail was prominent from my location, and it was only visible for a few days.
Comet West looked "comet-like" in 1976 and could be viewed telescopically in daylight.
Comet Kohoutek in 1973 was over hyped like Halley's.
Never saw Comet Bennett in 1969, I was too busy watching the stars at Woodstock.
I have seen many comets over the years, usually very low in western horizon where the thick atmosphere and mountain ridges made them a bit difficult to see, and they never last very long. I hope ISON lives up to expectations. We might get clear skies on Thursday, but hopefully, it will be warmer than it's supposed to be early this morning (15* F).
<B>
Howard220
Well-known member
Comet Bennett was in 1970, April (or was it March?), and was spectacular in the pre-dawn sky. I got a nice slide of it on, yes, High-speed Ektachrome. I saw ISON last week, not naked-eye, but decent in my 8.5x44's. I got up too late, really, as the sky was already lightening in the east. But I saw a bright coma and something of a tail. Just one morning later it had dropped considerably lower to the horizon, and could be seen only in twilight. Lovejoy, overhead, looked like a large globular cluster (as one would be seen in binoculars). Thursday at around 2 PM EST, if you're extremely careful to block the sun with a building or lamppost or any fixed structure, ISON, if it survived its pass around the sun, might be visible naked-eye about one solar diameter away from the sun. I think it will be to the south of the sun, which, if I understand correctly, would mean on a line from the sun to the south point on your horizon. DO NOT USE BINOCULARS OR A TELESCOPE.
Any of the 50mm would work fine. This is a sungrazing comet it may not survive it's trip around the Sun.
Mike
If it survives I'll pull out the Celestron 15x80 once it is safely past the sun and closer to earth. They worked well with Hale Bopp and others. I'm surprised Nikon didn't warn against viewing when it is close to the sun.
. As a dedicated solar observer I would not advise anybody to look for anything one solar diameter away from the sun even with the unaided eyes.
This is extremely dangerous and I don't think the most experienced observer would attempt it without taking extreme precautions.
A lamppost is definitely not enough.
It might be possible from somewhere like Antarctica where the sun can be viewed sometimes without any glare at all or may be a high mountain top and extremely transparent air without moisture..
You risk permanent eye damage. unless of course a long tail stretches away from the sun. I certainly will not try it.
This is extremely dangerous and I don't think the most experienced observer would attempt it without taking extreme precautions.
A lamppost is definitely not enough.
It might be possible from somewhere like Antarctica where the sun can be viewed sometimes without any glare at all or may be a high mountain top and extremely transparent air without moisture..
You risk permanent eye damage. unless of course a long tail stretches away from the sun. I certainly will not try it.
Woodstock was in August 1969. I wasn't there but was nearby, about 30 miles Northwest around Hancock, NY fishing for trout in the Upper Delaware River. There weren't any traffic problems there. I had a friend who went there on his Motorcycle and was arrested for speeding on the way there. He spent a day in jail and was fined $100.00 and allowed to keep about $20.00 to get back home. He never saw the festival.
Bob
Bob
Howard220
Well-known member
I brought it up because a senior editor at Sky & Telescope magazine suggested exactly what I described. (He cautioned not to use your finger!)I've done this sort of thing without issue, but you are correct that others, who don't know any better, may screw up. In any case, the air must be very clear and dry so that the sky remains quite blue close to the disk of the sun. Otherwise, searching for ISON will not be worth the effort.
As for Comet Bennett, you are probably correct about the year 1969, which must have been the year of its discovery.
As for Comet Bennett, you are probably correct about the year 1969, which must have been the year of its discovery.
brocknroller
porromaniac
I have solar viewing glasses for looking at sun spots (came with an issue of S&T), which surprisingly, I could see naked eye during the last solar maxima (some spots were huge).
Would the comet be bright enough to be seen with the solar glasses?
Brock
henry link
Well-known member
Brock,
Things are not looking too good for ISON today. See here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/comets-ml/conversations/topics/22461
But, since the death certificate hasn't been officially signed it might pull through yet.
If there's still a comet to see on Thanksgiving Day the finder chart below should be useful. For those of us in the eastern US the 1 PM PST position will be at 4 PM EST and I think the chart should be tilted clockwise for us (maybe 20-30º), so the comet should be N to NNW of the sun. If it's there it might be shining at about magnitude -5 or -6, so much too dim to be seen with a solar filter. I plan to take my chances standing just inside the sun's shadow from a nw corner of a building.
Henry
Things are not looking too good for ISON today. See here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/comets-ml/conversations/topics/22461
But, since the death certificate hasn't been officially signed it might pull through yet.
If there's still a comet to see on Thanksgiving Day the finder chart below should be useful. For those of us in the eastern US the 1 PM PST position will be at 4 PM EST and I think the chart should be tilted clockwise for us (maybe 20-30º), so the comet should be N to NNW of the sun. If it's there it might be shining at about magnitude -5 or -6, so much too dim to be seen with a solar filter. I plan to take my chances standing just inside the sun's shadow from a nw corner of a building.
Henry
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