I agree. My little 4.5" Newtonian won't get the "OOHs and the AAHs" that bigger scopes can, but it sure has a wonderfully wide angle field of view. I think that only people that do a LOT of observing can appreciate the potiential of what a scope like that can do. Imagine if Monsieur Messier had a scope of that quality? He had a crappy little 3" refractor! He would have kicked butt from the Hotel de Cluny in gay Paris! The Messier Catalog would probably been closer to 200 objects.
I got out tonight for four hours. I saw Mars on the edge of the Beehive making its exit. It was spectacular. I wish I could have seen it all three nights, but at least I saw it tonight. What a beautiful sight! I looked at it and sketched it for a full hour in both the binoculars and telescope.
Saturn wasn't real great. Seeing and transparency tonight wasn't the best. I did catch NGC 5824, a spiral galaxy in Bootes for the Herschel 400 quest before the Moon came up. That is a very nice galaxy and I thought I could see hints of structure in it. I'd like to see it in a bigger scope.
I nailed Crater Billy and Gamma Reiner for the Lunar 100 tonight. 95 down, 5 to go. I couldn't see Vallis Schoteri because the sun angle was too high. Duane is right. The Lunar 100 is a lot harder than people think. It sure has my respect. If you don't catch the features you are going after at the right time, it's an automatic two weeks (at best) to a month before you can get them again. The Lunar 100 is a VERY challenging observing program.
I finshed up with Jupiter. The two inner moons, (Io and Euopa) were right above and below each other. COOL!! All four moons were east of Jupiter. What an awesome sight, plus the Moon and Jupiter rose in tandem to the southeast.
It was a glorious night for astronomy!