Ok, ok, okaayyy the clear sky made for an oppurtune time for observing. Set up the 10" Dob just after sundown and let it cool for 2 hours with the fan on. The collimation barely moved since the start of my previous session! Anyhoo I did tweak it abit, which re-payed in volumes as you're about to find out. Seeing was better this time round. Clouds often intervened which was irritating at best.
Began at around 11pm (27/12).
TIme: 11pm-4am
Scope: 10" GSO Dob
Seeing: 5-7/10
47 Tuc
Started at 250x, and it was wonderful. Resolved, nice packed core, you know the usual brilliance. Pumped it up to 500x and mmmmmmmmmm it was sick! The core - a delicate haze peppered with tiny tiny little pinpricks, with the whole thing surrounded by streamers of stars and apparent dark lanes. So good. Just out of curiosity, I threw at my scope all I had - 3.5mm LVW barlowed - to get 714x.......and I kid you not, the view had NOT degraded at all! The hazy core was there, the delicate points of light scattered all over it, and it's like little diamonds spilling beyond the FOV. Just awesome.
Tarantula Nebula
714x - bloody hell! MASSSIVE spider like core - with the clump of stars at the center fully resolved.
Sirius
Too bright at 714x, spotted the pup again
Orion Nebula
At 156x, could see all 6 stars of the trapezium with ease. Some mottling evident in the core. Now I threw in the 3.5mm LVW and the barlow for 714x and damn the core is blown out across the entire FOV and beyond. The detail visible in the core is staggering - shading, mottling, the whole deal. I also saw a few faint stars within the core that I don't think I picked up before. The trapezium was huge, the 6 stars seemed to be seperated by miles. But yeah the Orion Nebula at this mag is just outragous - it's as if your right there
NGC 1999
By now, the moon was up. NGC 1999 appeared as a smudge with a star involved at all magnifications.
52 Orionis
Split this 1.2" double at 250x. Much easier at 500x and at 714x the gap is actually wide!
NGC 362
Got a peak at 714x, outer stars resolved and obvious granulation towards the bright core. Best view I had of this cluster to date. I then slipped in da Meade 5.5 plossl and barlow for a 454x view and wondered why it was so fuzzy and ill-defined. Then as I pull my head away from the eyepiece I see a beautiful deck of crap. Ba-buuuummm
M46-NCG 2438
After about 2 hours of waiting for lame Melbourne cloud to clear, I decided to pass the time by checking out this neat combo. At 56x, several dozen bright and faint stars were visible, and the planetary NGC 2438 showed up with averted vision.
Ghost of Jupiter
Now quite high up, I gave this one a crack. Despite moonlight, at 250x its distintive eye shape was obvious, with a central fuzzy dot (central star?) and a faint outer shell. At 500x, the view was basically the same although the outer shell was perhaps slightly better defined.
Saturn
Using 250x, I was able to see the crepe ring and cassini division at the rings tips during moments of good seeing, with 2 obvious brownish cloud bands. If only Saturn was a bit higher up.
Yep a bloody fantastic night! I'm amazed that my scope could handle extreme magnification so well - thats 71x per inch of aperture (or almost 50% more than the theoretical limit) - in typical seeing! I was expecting a blur to be honest when going that high, but it is perfectly usable mag in good conditions
Obs Report 28/12 - what an awesome night!
Your reports of high mag, and pushing my old scope to it's limits thrills me really.
Although your descriptions do help! 
