You will likely not see color in any deep sky objects. Galaxies will all pretty much just look like faint smudges with that aperture. But you should be able to see some nebulae, and get some nice views of globular clusters. Don't plan on using 479x very often; a barlow with the 9mm will give you 267x which is as high as you will be able to go most of the time. It will also give you 75x with the 32mm. I would get some other eyepieces though; probably something between 12 and 16 mm, and if you don't get a barlow something lower than the 9. Welcome to the hobby! Craig -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Troy Davidson Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 10:35 AM To: Utah Astronomy Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Telescope and Eyepiece Help Hello all, I'm a relatively new person to the group. I recently (Feburary) bought an 8" dobsonian. I have a 9mm and a 32mm eyepiece. When I take my telescope out to Skull Valley (pretty dark there) and look at Messier objects that are around 8 mag, I can hardly see them. All they look like are feint smudges. I have a hard time making out crisper objects. Also, all objects are just gray. There is no color to them. When I look at planets, I do see some color. I know that I won't get color like astro images, but I would expect some hints of color in these objects. Could it be that the mirrors in my telescope need adjusting? Could I need better eyepieces? Is it just me being unrealistic? My telescope is a Zhumell, and according to their site, http://www.zhumell.com/specialty/zhumell-telescopes-dobsonian.html, I should have a useful magnification up to 479X. I assume this is with a barlow or other magnifier added. Any help would be great. Thanks. ++++++++++++++++++ Troy Davidson Am I working - http://www.istroyworking.com _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php Visit the Wiki: http://www.utahastronomy.com