BC,

May I ask how long you have been in the hobby? where are you observing from City, suburbia or rural?

All these can have a great impact on what you are able to see, and what experience will allow you to detect.

I have a 8" f/6 Newt, First year I had it I really didn't see alot of faint fuzzies especially galaxies pure because my inexperienced eye didn't know what I was looking for. Your are right not to expect Hubble style views through any ground based telescope it simply doesn't have the atmosphere to punch through, even then if you were to put an ep on the Hubble you still wouldn't see what it can pull off imaging-wise.

In my 8" newt I can easily see all the Virgo Messier objects, Infact so far I have logged another 50 odd galaxies in and around the Virgo-Coma galaxy cluster. The ep's I used were GSO 30mm SV and a Pentax 10mm XW. I used my GSO 30mm all the time to track galaxy clusters and zoom in with the 10mm XW

I should also add I live at a dark site, so the sky is up front and personal here

If your Bino's are pulling off better views than your 10" dob then there is something difinitely wrong with the setup of your scope.

These scopes have a great reputation for there price out of whats on the market today.

regards, CS