On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 20:06:53 -0400, Bill Meyers
wrote:

Hello, all,
What in your opinion or experience is the minimum aperture necessary
for satisfying views of globular clusters and galaxies?
Thanks,
Bill Meyers

If this didn't come from an s.a.a. regular I'd swear it was a troll. ;-)
Of course, you know very well what everyone is saying, Bill, that it
depends on the definition of "satisfying". But I think there's more to it
than that because there are just so many variables. Of course, a smaller
scope with dark sky may outperform a large scope in a poor sky but I'll
assume you mean under ideal conditions. I've had very satisfying views of
M31 in binoculars and disappointing views of it in huge telescopes. There
are different types of satisfying views (e.g., wide-angle or high-power)
of the same object. And perhaps most important, what are the observer's
expectations? Do you want to see all of M31 or the globulars (or stars!)
in it? One of my most exciting observations ever was barely seeing M31
for the first time in 8x30 binos. In a dark sky with big binos I'm very
satisfied with the views I get but I don't pass up a chance to see it in a
big scope. It's just a different type of observation. So the question
itself doesn't really make sense to me.

Executive summary: It depends.

Mike Simmons