Hello,

I found this intriguing forum by chance. I am a visual observer from Italy. My observing sites are in the eastern Alps, near the Austrian Border. The typical sky is 21.4/21.8 (october/april), Bortle 3 or sometimes better like this: http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/5733/dpp0002x.jpg

My scope is a 24" F/5 dobsonian (by Romano Zen, an opticial very close to me ;-). You may see the uppar cage in the picture ;-).

We observe every possible weekend with good weather and no moon. In winter often at -10°-20°C. The eypieces are 35 mm Scopos (100x w/paracorr), 21 Ethos, 13 Ethos, 9 ES 100°, ES 6.7 82° plus barlow (sometimes for planets).