Poconos and the XT10i

The Orion XT10i is a marvelous performer under many skies, but during a week-long vacation I was amazed at the difference between the North East Philly sky and those found only 3 hours north around the Poconos and Greentown, PA (Promised Land State Park).

On this night the Wild Duck open cluster (M11) was incredible.

The contrast of the DSO's virtually exploded in my eyeball (in a good way), and things I had only seen faintly before (like M51 - Whirlpool Galaxy) or not at all (like C34 - Veil Nebula), were RIGHT THERE!  Clear as day! (So to speak.)  Globular clusters resolved with thousands more stars and the milky way appeared (dimly) crossing the sky.

This was around the time I decided I had to try astrophotography with a more capable set up than my Meade ETX 125.