Sharing the Bins, some Moon shots and reprocessed M42

Had some friends around last night, so, whilst it was clear, crisp and cold, I didn't get out for a proper session. However, I did manage to persuade them to come out and have a look through the bins. I set the 15x70's on a tripod, (that way I could aim it, much better for them to view), and pointed them at M45. Then I had each person look, and find the cluster naked eye and see what could be seen like that, then through the bins. Each person was amazed at the extra detail that could be seen.

At their request I then pointed the bins at the moon and again exclamations of astonishment ensued as they looked and could clearly make out some crater detail (not as much as you would at 160x on the scope, but hey...)

And finally I turned the bins on Jupiter. The Planet became a clear disk, as opposed to a point and a couple of moons were visible. Again some astonishment ensued that you could make out the moons.

No one was dressed for the conditions, the floor was really quite icy, so at that point we went inside, with a promise that we would get together again with the scope out for a better view of the moon and sky.

I managed to get some moon shots earlier yesterday.





I can't decide which of these I prefer... I think probably the landscape one.





And finally, I've had a bash at reprocessing my image of M42 from the original stack. I tried to get the core detail from the short subs, but the Konus isn't able to resolve the stars, I don't think the optics are quite up to it, but the overall image is much better with more detail.



I'm not going to spend any more time on trying to get more out of this. I'm happy with it as it stands.