Hello John.

Yes light pollution is a real pain, but bear in mind it's spring/summer the sky does not get really dark, when I'm imaging I have to start at 00:00 to allow long exposures and end about 02:30 after that the sky tends to lighten. The larger aperture does help. I image with my 120mm refractor and visual with my 200mm reflector, M51 under dark skies is very good, but still a struggle in the 200mm, can you travel? I have to! I live in a town and the only thing I can image from here is the Moon. To view or image DSO's I have to go to my dark sky site. In autumn things will improve for you darker skies and crisper seeing conditions. Don't give up! Try M13 the Great globular cluster in Hercules and M57 the smoke ring in Lyra, your larger aperture should bring out the detail.

Ray

I agree with Ray here. At this time of year it is hard to find inky black skies. At my latitude, this can;t happen till midnight! I therefore take a nice cup of coffee and stay up. Keep looking up and trust me,.. you'll be rewarded!

Furthermore, the greatest wonder about looking through a telescope is not really what you see but what you know about it!

I wish you clear skies!

Isabelle

That's very profound Isabella :-)