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Re: (IAAC) [bigdob] The Antennae in Corvus
Bob McAlister writes:
>One contest I bet I could win is that I bet my sky's are worse than yours.
Oh lord, Bob. I live in the Boston area, and don't NORMALLY travel more than
40 to 60 minutes to do my observing. So I would bet that my usual skies have
at least a fighting chance of being worse than yours! :)
Seriously, though, I believe you're emphasizing a point that I also indicated
to Amir: namely, that telescope aperture is NOT the only thing that determines
what you do or don't see in the deep sky. Conditions AND self-training can be
just as important - are generally MORE important - than Light Bucket size.
I actually do observe with a 20" f/5 scope (mine) and several others in the
16"-18" range (friends'). But most of the details I mentioned COULD be logged
by someone with a decent 4" refractor, if conditions and training were right!
(Naturally, if you are in downtown Toronto, and you've never seen M83 or M104
before, don't be too discouraged if your 20" dob won't show you the Antennae!
On the other hand, if you ever find yourself in the Australian Outback with a
Genesis, and you've logged your share of Herschel 800 objects before, you may
find those details I mentioned are too darn obvious to bother logging... :>)
Clear skies and happy eye strain to all,
Lew Gramer
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