Hi Binastro,
Last night I was able to spend a little time with Orion using my 15x45 Canon IS binocular. Of course M42 is visible, but not particularly bright or extended given the urban light pollution viewing here from Los Angeles. Although I am looking out toward the ocean, there is very extensive light pollution surrounding me including street lamps that don't point down and that cannot be shielded from my view except by the eye cups of the binoculars. I was sitting in a lounge chair so with the IS the view was very steady.
Within the nebula, Theta2 Ori is an easy and pretty double (actually a triple, but I'm referring to the two closer and brighter components) with a separation of just less than 60 arc sec. A few arc minutes away, still within the nebula is Theta1 Ori, which I know to be the trapezium, but I am unable to make out four stars even after some effort. In fact, I could not reliably separate A and D components of Theta1 from the C component let alone view the B component. D would "blink" into resolution now and again as separated, but A and B were just an extension of C. I could call it three based on the shape, but even this may be called "averted imagination," since I know the trapezium from telescopic experience. The trapezium mostly gave the appearance of an L-shaped hard to focus star, though I checked my focus carefully with other stars in the field.
The could be a statement about my skies, my binoculars, my eyes or all of the above. I will see what it looks like in my 10x30 IS tonight and also check it with my small refractor. I think that the lowest power I will be able to get with the refractor and current eyepieces is around 18x. If the weather holds I may also try it with tripod mounted 15x70 binoculars.
The other approach I may take is to find some simple doubles in the range of 15-20 arc sec and see if I can split them or not with the 15x45. Since I was able to split Albireo (34 arc sec) at 7x hand held this seems like a reasonable place to start with a 15x binocular for me.
BTW, just to put this in perspective, the 15x45 IS has a 4.5 degree field of view, which is about 16,000 arc seconds, so we are talking about staring at 1 part of the field in 800 or 1600 depending on whether I can resolve 20 arc sec or 10 arc sec. But I suppose I shouldn't complain as the 10x42 has a 6.5 degree field of view.
Good Observing,
Alan
