--- David Dunn <david.dunn@albertsons.com> wrote:
I started looking for 3998 in my 10" f/4.5. I saw two fuzzy stars and since my Orion map only showed one of them I decided to go and have Doug point BOB (18.5") at them. In the BOB we saw 3 galaxies. We looked at a more detailed map (Sky Atlas 2000.0) and identified which galaxies were which.
Friday night taught me a couple of things. One, I need a bigger scope
Dave, understand that the seeming disparity between the views in the 10" and the 18.5" is due not just to aperture, but image scale. The 10" has a faily short focal length of around 45", while the larger scope must be about twice that. I'll bet that if you had bumped the magnification up on the 10", you would have noticed more detail, and possibly made a positive ID. Increasing magnification is a way to increase contrast, up to a point -and- seeing conditions permitting. It can make a telescope seem like a much larger instrument when everything clicks. I have used this technique often on galaxies, and not just the small faint ones...sometimes the detail seen in objects like M31, M33, M51, etc., is surprising, at high powers. A 10" scope will support some gawdawful magnification if the seeing will allow; give it a try. Of course, none of this is any excuse to slow-down on the big scope- get busy! ;) Chuck __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com