David Knisely wrote in message ...

If the 4 inch refractor is used at the proper power and under reasonably-dark
skies (ZLM 6.0 or fainter), many people (other than Steve O'Meara) can see at
least some structure or detail in a number of galaxies with averted vision.

You're absolutely right -- it's all a matter of how much detail you want.
Even a 60mm scope is big enough to classify most of the Messier galaxies
as spiral versus elliptical with a reasonably high degree of confidence,
and M31 is obviously a spiral to the naked eye. Not that you can see
the spiral arms, but no elliptical galaxy could possibly have that
shape and that kind of central condensation.

Josh Roth here at S&T told me that he recently glimpsed M33's spiral
arms using an O-III filter in his 60mm refractor, and 60mm is certainly
enough to see the emission area NGC 604 in that galaxy. I've heard of
people seeing M31's dust lanes in hand-held binoculars, although I'm
sure that feat is far beyond me.

- Tony Flanders