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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Matt_RTH" data-source="post: 1580218" data-attributes="member: 53715">I might take the bins out to the park tonight to get a long range view. This topic is just fascinating enough, although I risk beating a dead horse.  One thing, as an amateur astronomer (designed and built a 10" truss Dobsonian for my "fabulous" Southern Cali skies), I have a question.  Are space objects really fully lighted? Planets are one thing, but how about a faint nebula?  A lot of my experience finding these objects in a little 8x50 finder scope (now Telrad) points to lower magnification = higher contrast = easier to find.  Some objects are found by reference stars but I can also hunt down things like the Andromeda Galaxy or Double Cluster via the little finder.  Maybe it's in the relative size of the object in the finder. But here, we're not talking about a buck 500m down range but a little deep space object a few light years away.  Is there a parallel here?  Would be interesting to compare/contrast.  Is it just the size of the object?And yes, I reckon the OP has left the building, but he also posted on 24hourcampfire and the responses there are worth a look.Matt</blockquote>