Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyWatch
Any comparison like that is obviously subjective. However I looked at the Orion nebula and in particular the trapezium at around the same power and with the same eyepieces with both scopes over several nights in each case. In France I was in an area with "the darkest skies in Europe" according to my host. Certainly mag 6 stars were easy naked eye. Seeing was steady: could see good detail on Jupiter.
However, my subjective impression was the view was a bit "soft": and I found it very difficult to see the "E" and "F" stars in the trapezium. When I came home I saw both in late twilight with Orion lower in the sky, from a city location looking across the city, and the seeing was not particularly great... maybe as someone said the smaller aperture can cut through seeing easier- but I looked on several nights in France, and had the same problems each time.
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Darkest skies in Europe
so many places claim that, in reality you could probably do better an hours drive from Adelaide
Europe is so badly light polluted overall, although there are some decent nooks tucked in behind mountains here and there. If the host was keen to promote that, then he was probably pretty happy with his scope regardless...but if bench tested, maybe he had a duff one
All things considered, the Trapezium is at a distinct altitude advantage in Australia, barely scraping up 40 degrees altitude even in southern France (whereabouts was the site?). I don't own anything premium such as that, but for the price tag I'd want the view to be good even at that sort of (object) altitude...