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I can sort of get what they are getting at with this chart, but it is a bit misleading as it implies that a 3.5" Mak Cas gives higher resolution than a 15" dob, which is quite simply crap of the highest order!
A 90mm Mak like the one you mention certainly portable, buts its relatively tiny aperture will make almost all DSOs invisible except in really dark skies, and even then will still be very limited.
As you say you want to see DSO as more than faint blobs there is only one solution and that is aperture and more aperture. As you have a constrained budget of $600 a dob is the ONLY way to go.
Bintels 10" solid tube is $699 and if you shop around (say Andrews) you may get similar a bit cheaper (but I can highly recommend Bintels customer service).
A 10" will give a fair bit of detail in DSOs for the brighter ones, M42, Eta Car, the Trantula Neb, Omega Cen and the brighter Messiers will all look spectacular through this scope.
My 2 cents worth!
Malcolm
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