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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alexis Powell" data-source="post: 1578702" data-attributes="member: 5327">Bob, as others have said, I can't tell you what you do or don't see, but for anyone reading this thread and supposing that this is entirely an open/subjective issue, please know that the question of whether a bit more mag versus a bit more exit pupil is  generally more useful for seeing details (whether daylight, sun-lit planets at night, or dimly lit terrestrial objects) was settled a long time ago by users of telescopes and large binos, and it has been my experience that the conventional wisdom on this (that magnification trumps brightness because it is generally more useful to engage more of the retina than to provide more light to a given area of the retina) is correct.    When I'm doing a big day and trying to make IDs of nearby shorebirds (that in daylight would be easily identified with 7x) at dusk and beyond, my 7x42 or 8.5x42 binos give out well before my 30x78 scope has lost its usefulness.  Having a stable image is critical for these comparisons.  --AP</blockquote>