I must admit, the 10" GOTO dob I used to own was my deep sky toy.
Before I sold the 10" over a year ago, I acquired a second hand 6" SW dob as a planetary grab and go so never really attempted anything deep sky with it. Replaced the joke of a finderscope on it with a 8x50 RACI for easy finding.
Being of the aperture mindset "bigger is better" I didn't expect the detail I saw in the 10", but last night I tried it and was quite impressed with it's performance.
Observing from the Sunshine Coast.
I picked the easy ones first:
Turantula Nebula: Easily observable. Green hue just as I remembered it, captured the surrounding nebula easily with the DGM NPB. (30mm GSO Superview)
Orion Nebula: Bright as always. Although I prefer this one without the DGM NPB. (30mm & 15mm GSO Superview)
In the
Trapezium of Orion I captured the 5th and 6th stars or E & F stars. Not obvious at first but afterwards easily seen. I didn't expect to but I did to my surprise! (Orion Expanse 6mm)
Flame Nebula:I was able to distinguish the haze and recognise the dark lane it harbors. Interestingly it was better without the DGM NPB filter. (30mm Superview)
C87 GC Mag 8.4: This was easily visible, although I didn't try to magnify this one any further with other eyepieces. It was a small fuzzball with a more intense centre. (30mm again)
NGC 1291 Galaxy Mag 9.4: Face on galaxy. The core of which is actually quite intense. Easily resolved the core surrounded by the haze of the rest of the galaxy. (30mmm & 15mm Superview)
NGC 1535 Cleopatra's Eye PN Mag 10.5: Was able to spot this relatively easily although it was small to spot. It appeared as a grey non intense spot without a bright core. No colour that I could see in this one. (6mm Orion Expanse)
All in all, I was really quite impressed. I didn't expect to capture the Flame Neb, nor the smaller stars of the Trapezium. I'll be more eager to hunt some more galaxies and PN's with this scope now I don't feel like I'm missing out on the deep sky stuff.
To me it shows that owning that bigger scope wasn't necessarily necessary in order to enjoy the dimmer things of space.
Thanks for reading
