[ngcles]

Hi Paddy,

Yep, very much so for small, low-contrast objects of any type -- including galaxies. When I say small, I'm talking say less than approximately 4 arc-mins in size. There are a heck of a lot of small, faint galaxies and I customarily use the 12mm or the 9mm (or both) with my 18" giving x185 or x247. Usually more power than that (ie an even smaller exit pupil) spreads the light of a small faint object over too much of an area in the eyepiece field making it harder to see. On the other hand, too low a power will make the field brighter reducing contrast and making it too small to see easily. About 2mm just seems to do it right.

For small high-contrast objects like PNe and your "average" globular you can use more magnification again to enlarge the object to make the detail that is there, easier to see. Your eyes will tell you whether you are using too much because you will say to yourself something like "that looked better one eyepiece down".

That's the conventional wisdom anyway.

Hope that helps.



Best,

Les D