I'm back from the ASV starBQ.
I had a great time observing with the society's 25" Obsession with Tim Williams as our guide. First the big and bright faves like 47Tuc, M42, Tarantula, then galaxies: ngc 253 (silver coin), 55 (cigar), 1365 (barred spiral in Fornax), lots more in the Fornax cluster - how good was that!!? so many galaxies and many of them showing detail! -, Grus trio + guest, some planetaries I forget where, the horsehead, and last but not least eta Carinae and friends. Wow!
There's no substitute for aperture!
Thought I'd share this photo with you featuring Tim standing next to the 25" Obsession and my very own 8" truss dob made for airline travel.
I did some observing with the 8" too and it performed very respectively considering its stature. Spiral arms of ngc 1365 NP.
Nice little preview before climbing 3 metres up to the EP of the 25" beast.
