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A most severe test for "extreme averted vision" or , more properly, "extreme averted imagination", is undoubtedly the galaxy NGC 253.
The integrated V-band magnitude of this galaxy is near to 7.
Steven James O'Meara has claimed that he has seen this galaxy with the naked eye, but I am cynical about his observation, as it is usually only just possible to glimpse a magn. 7 star.....
and NGC 253 is spread over many square arcminutes of sky.
cheers,
Robert
Another hard test of naked eye performance on vanishingly-faint diffuse objects is the brightest part of Barnard's Loop; that part which is north-following of Orion's belt. This section of the Loop used to be relatively easy to see in binos, when I had young eyes, if the sky was extremely dark.
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