The other day I was coming home late from work (mid). peaking through the cloudbanks was some crisp clear skys at the horizon. I drove through little bumpy roads here in PA, and pulled over on the side of an endless abondoned field. I found stars and figured I was looking deep in the puppis sky.
I found myself right at the open cluster ngc 2451 which had a prominent red star 4-5 others and suggestions of some fainter. I've a hunch all that atmosphere combined with some lingering clouds done in my view, but I was impressed to see to -38°.

some rough calculations while sirius was hanging near meridian convinced me that you can still go further down, perhaps to -50°. anyone have good or bad experiences looking far south. what about objects look the Vela SNR or centurus A? How badly will declination affect southerly objects in a humble setup such as 15*70 binocs...