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Bill Weir
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 06/01/04
Posts: 879
Loc: Metchosin (Victoria), Canada
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Dude, that's like asking which is your favorite child.
Going with that thought, I'll vote for multiple objects within one FOV like, NGC 6939 with NGC 6946, NGC 6712 with IC 1295, Galaxy clusters, conjunctions of planets with DSOs or comets with DSOs, multiple stars, etc....
Bill
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6'' Orion SkyQuest
12.5'' f/5 Custom Truss Dob
William Optics 80mm ZenithStar II ED Doublet
f/5 25" newtonian on a giant GEM, any time I want
Observing sessions grand total for 2007, 171.
So far in 2008, 108
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stevek
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 04/16/06
Posts: 1229
Loc: west michigan
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biggest thrill from galaxies -> gal clusters -> planetary nebs... but in truth... its all good.
Steve
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DSO 8" f6 DOB w/ 8x50 RACI & 2"Crayford
1958 Sears Discoverer 76mm Refractor
GSO SV 30mm 2",21mm Hyp,13mm Strat,BO/TMB ver2-6mm & 4mm
1.25"Filters: DGM-NPB, 25%ND
1.25" plossls: 25mm,20mm,15mm,9mm
Orion 2X Shorty Barlow
Garrett Gemini LW 11x56mm binocs
BTG-10 4.0mW green laser pointer
"What is that burning in the sky? Tell me y'all..." Jeff Beck/Jan Hammer
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RussL
Music Maker
Reged: 03/18/08
Posts: 1575
Loc: Cayce, SC
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I guess because my skies are so polluted, I'm looking for things that "look like something." So, other than the moon and planets, I'm into open clusters and bright double stars right now. But just wait until I get to a dark site, then anything's possible. 
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--Russell
"Akita mani yo." Observe everything as you walk. (--Lakota)
Celestron Celestar 8 Standard SCT, f10
Celestron 80mm Wide View ref., f5
Criterion RV-6 Dynascope, Newt., f8, (c. 1962)
Sears Discoverer 60mm ref., f7, (c. 1973)
Celestron Ultima DX 10x50, 6.5 TFOV
Tasco 7x35 wide
Several mediocre eyepieces
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GlennLeDrew
professor emeritus
Reged: 06/18/08
Posts: 568
Loc: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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Space dust. Meaning dark and reflection nebulae, particularly the former.
From the dark skies easily accessible just a short drive outside Ottawa, the milky way is riven with seemingly countless dark rifts and clouds. In fact, I navigate the milky way not by star-hopping, but by cloud-hopping! I don't need to look away from my binocular eyepieces to know where I'm looking, and can scan all night without getting lost.
Reflection nebulae require darker skies than as for emission types, both because of generally lower surface brightness and the fact that you can't employ nebula filters. So they present more of a challenge, observationally. But more importantly for me, there's something intriguing about starlight being scattered by gauzy agglomerations of smoke-sized particles which aeons ago spewed out of bloated, dying stars much like what our Sun will become in a few billion years.
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Home-made 11X50 right angle bino, 8.1 deg. FOV
Modified 26X100 bino, 3.5 deg. FOV
Mediocre minds discuss people. Good minds discuss events. Great minds discuss ideas.
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calan
sage
Reged: 06/16/07
Posts: 245
Loc: Oklahoma City, OK
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Anything I can actually see detail in... which in my skies is usually the 4-5 nice nebula with a UHC or O-III filter.
Globs are ok, but after a while I find myself in that "just another dim round ball/been here done this" mindset. Galaxies are about the same, because it usually takes a lot of averted imagination to actually see anything (although I'm starting to actually find an interesting one every now and then; see my recent "Bright Galaxies" post about NGC7331  ).
And then of course last night was the first time I've observed the Blue Snowball PN, and it pretty much jumped out of the EP and smacked me in the face when I first rolled over it 
My actual favorites list contains a bit of all the eye candy, but I enjoy the hunt somewhat also.
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Orion XT10 (completely rebuilt, DOB or GEM mountable)
Meade LXD75 6" Newt w/mods
Nikon 10x50 AE Extreme
Hyperion 21mm and 8-24mm Zoom
Astrotech 38mm Titan II
BO/TMB 6mm
Various Plossls
Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a bannana.
The trouble with most jobs is the job holder's resemblence to being one of a sled dog team. No one gets a change of scenery except the lead dog.
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Mr. Bill
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 02/09/05
Posts: 2741
Loc: Just passing through.....
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Dark nebulae....
I like the contrast of the dark nebulae against the background starfields in the MW galactic arms.
This requires the darkest skies and the best contrast optics to fully appreciate.
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10x50 Fujinon FMT-SX binos
15x70 AP binos + Paragon p-mount
Oberwerk 100BT 45 degree + Hercules fork mount
120mm f/5 Orion achromat + Moonlite focuser
140mm f/5.7 Vixen NeoAchro Petzvel refractor
150mm f/6.5 Antares achromat
150mm f/8 homemade achromat....EE Barnard MW Sweeper
8 inch newt with f/5 Swayze mirror
10 inch f/4.7 Orion newt + Paracorr
15 inch f/5 Discovery split tube
35mm Pan, 26mm Nagler, 17mm Nagler, 13mm Ethos, 8mm Ethos
Member IDA
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diggy
sage
Reged: 05/09/04
Posts: 278
Loc: Vancouver Island, Canada
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The ones I can find 
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WO 110mm Megrez doublet on an HEQ-5 mount
Nikon 10x50 binocs
"Beyond here be there"
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Dave Mitsky
Postmaster
Reged: 04/08/02
Posts: 6114
Loc: Pennsylvania, USA
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Quote:
Dark nebulae....
I like the contrast of the dark nebulae against the background starfields in the MW galactic arms.
This requires the darkest skies and the best contrast optics to fully appreciate.
I also particularly enjoy looking at the dark side. The Ink Spot, Barnard's E, the Pipe Nebula, and the Coal Sack are among my favorites.
Dave Mitsky
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Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
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Luis.E
sage
Reged: 01/30/04
Posts: 217
Loc: Portugal
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Planetary nebulas, no discussion for me.
Regards
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Lightbridge 10"
Skywatcher 80ED Pro
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moron392
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 08/20/07
Posts: 808
Loc: Charlotte, NC
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open and globular clusters. i also like some nebulae.......
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"If you've done something right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."
http://www.freewebs.com/moron392/index.htm
60mm meade ngc60 refractor.
Meade 70AZ-TR (short one)
50mm homemade refractor (occasionally with a solar filter)
starblast4.5EQ
6mm,15mm expanse eyepieces
9mm meade Mh eyepiece,17.5mm Meade MA
nikon 7x35's
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Mta472
member
Reged: 02/28/06
Posts: 83
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If you're hoping that buying a big light bucket will enable you to see many more galaxies under your light polluted skies, save your money or move first. Light bucket size scopes do not discriminate in the light they gather, whteher its from a distant galaxy or light pollution. I live in CT and learned this the expensive way. Mike 
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pdfermat
super member
Reged: 11/12/07
Posts: 141
Loc: Wisconsin
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Quote:
If you're hoping that buying a big light bucket will enable you to see many more galaxies under your light polluted skies, save your money or move first. Light bucket size scopes do not discriminate in the light they gather, whteher its from a distant galaxy or light pollution. I live in CT and learned this the expensive way. Mike
I must be right on the lucky side of the suburban LP (on a good clear night, I think my skies are about mag 4), because I'm getting a lot of enjoyment out of some of the "easier" galaxy targets. I can see a dark lane splitting M82 in half, a little whisping around M51, M81 and M63, and a hint of the black eye in M64. (However, the detail that I do see in galaxies all comes from averted vision).
On a second note, the math geek in me is tracking the results of this thread on an Excel spreadsheet (yeah, I know). Depending upon how each post is interpreted, the numbers can vary a bit, but here are the results so far (and I'm including my favorites - galaxies and planetary nebula):
In first place, we have nebulae at 31% (with 15 of those percentage points specifically planetary).
A close second, galaxies at 27%.
Globs are next, at 19%.
Open clusters are closely trailing globs at 17%.
Doubles weigh in at 6%.
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Pat
Orion XT8i
TV 32mm, 20mm, 15mm Plossls
9mm Planetary
Orion Shorty-Plus Barlow
DGM NPB Filter
Lumicon Deep Sky Filter
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