Starship Asterisk*

As a newbie to this discussion group, I hope nitpicking isn't frowned upon. In the APOD of Feb. 19, 2006, on M51 (there's a link from the April 18 APOD), it's stated you can see this Whirlpool in binoculars. Well, you can see the tiny smudge that is M51 in binoculars - You need heftier optics to see its whirlpool shape.

It is to bad that our eyes cannot resolve ALL the wonders of the universe without the aide of something to gather more light than our eyes can. That link is a fantastic image
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060219.html
But I can't help but wonder why it is that in the large version of the image http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/ ... st_big.jpg
the outer edges of the image are blury.
Unless, as the explanation states "The above image is a digital combination of a ground-based image from the 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory and a space-based image from the Hubble Space Telescope highlighting sharp features normally too red to be seen." The higher resolution is from Hubble and the lower resolution is from Kitt. "KEEP THE HUBBLE!!!"

kejibear,

Not all binoculars are created equal. Some are more powerful than others.

I haven't personally seen the whirlpool shape in my 15 x 50 binoculars, because my sky is light polluted, but I've heard from folks who have with 15x and 50mm aperture, under very good observing conditions.

Consider these, for example:

http://www.astro-physics.com/products/b ... 105x70.htm

http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=193

Or perhaps these.

http://www.rcopticalsystems.com/vafb06.html

-Noel