Telescope Reviews: Re: NGC 7331

M76 is a tough one. I was just able to fish that out of a 5.5-NLM sky near Massillon, OH, when I first got my 16x80 Orions.

I'm under NO illusions it would be easy to get an object as faint as NGC 7320, stellar or not, in a pair of 100s. But after seeing NGC 6207 (mag~11.6, Sb~12.6) from a 6.2-NLM site with 25x100s, I just have to wonder if it's possible to grab another small galaxy that's a mag fainter from a NLM 7 site. The optimist in me knows I can find sites that dark within several hours, but the realist in me says that the 4mm exit pupil has already enhanced sky contrast and I'll be getting diminishing marginal rates of return.

For a swinging-for-the-fences task as insane as NGC 7320, I'm guessing either a Cherry Springs sky or better is an absolute minimum, along with 20x+ and/or 90mm+ glasses to differentiate it from background stars, at least an hour of total dark adaption (even going without the red flashlight to look at a chart) and I'm quite frankly not sure that's enough.

Clear Skies,
Phil

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"Why suffer from insanity when you can revel in it?"

Wilderness Center Astronomy Club member since 1995
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Edited by EdZ (08/10/06 06:08 AM)

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