great we need more binocular posting. I happen to have oberworks 15*70 and they are pretty impressive-particularly for the $$$.

5195 seems a real feat with binocs. M51 is hard enough alone. On my most recent gaze I saw M51 and it was faint. I could barely sense its shape, although I did not have to resort to averted vision to see the grey smudge. could you tell me more about what you saw?

This was early AM during a clear day with those thin upper level clouds that seems to drain the sky of contrast.

Its interesting that you saw ngc 5195 on a day when you had problem seeing M82. I've had easy luck with the pair- well, (that is except finding them in the sparse star patterns of upper ursa magor/camelopolis), but M51 is probably the hardest galaxy that I've yet bagged with binocs (although ngc 6946 is cepheus was pretty tough...)

As a last note I highly recommend M11. It is very beautiful in my glass, just on the edge of resolvability into a concentrated mass of fine stars. It's probably the prettiest in the area with my binocs.

I'd love to hear more observations from the 50-80 aperature binocs of the world. I'm new enough to have not bought a telescope yet and I finding that binocs and scopes find different things challenging.