Telescope Reviews: Re: ZLM required to see Milky Way?

As I was reminded vividly on a recent trip to one of the relatively un-light polluted out-islands in the Bahamas, and comparing it to plainly being able to "see" the Milky Way from the beach in North Carolina -

There's an ENORMOUS difference between being able to easily, plainly see a mostly homogeneous-looking white stream of the Milky Way over roughly a 90 degree band from Sagittarius up through Cygnus (North Carolina beach site compromised by light pollution)
- versus being able to vividly see the detailed structure of the Milky Way from below Sagittarius, up through Cygnus, and continuing through Cassiopia - including well-defined individual dense strands and clouds of starlight clearly separated by well-defined dark streams and bands, especially between Ophiuchus and Sagittarius (very dark site on Bahamas out-island). There's quite a difference in what you see between partial mag 5.0 skies (mainly directly overhead and running down directly south) and mag 6-plus skies completely uncompromised by any light pollution in any direction.

I can only imagine it gets even better if you can see the Milky Way from a southerly location with a dry climate and a few thousand feet of altitude.

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Chris M., aka "First Sight"
Orion XT12i Dob with Moonlite CR-2 focuser
WO Megrez 90 refractor on UniStar Light mount
Nikon 10x50 Binoculars

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