[sac-forum] Couple oddball questions...

OK, These two questions may seem like no-brainers, and they do actually seem 
pretty obvious to me on the surface but I just need to reach out to you guys 
out there with many more years than me before I feel real comfortable with 
accepting my first impression as truth.

First dumb question:  When I assess limiting magnitude by the faintest stars I 
can see at the zenith naked eye, should this be the faintest star I can see 
directly or the faintest star I can see with averted vision?  I would think the 
answer is averted vision but I'm just not sure and although I have read about 
using the faintest naked eye star as an assessment of transparency, (using the 
stars of Ursa Minor is a common recommendation) I've never seen it explicitly 
stated directly visible or with av.

Second bumb question: Good quality binoviewers are raved about for the "3-D" 
effect and the pleasing view, but can binoviewers help with detecting faint 
nebulae and/or faint galaxies?  Although binoviewers take the same cone of 
light and split it to two exits, it goes to two retina for brain evaluation.  
Given that the prism used to split the light to two paths must have some degree 
of transmission loss, the knee jerk answer is that one would expect bino 
viewers to make seeing faint objects harder.  But it is also a fact that the 
brain can discern more detail when it can put the info from both eyes together. 
 So what is the verdict in real life?  

Thanks for your time.  

David Hofland
Director, Student Services
College of Nursing and Health Sciences
Jacksonville State University
256.782.5276

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