Does light pollution really make it that bad?

[Moonshane]

Your experience of Andromeda through a 14" is interesting though. In my ignorance I would have thought that you would start to see some detail on a scope that size. Which leads to the question, 'How big an aperture do you need to start to see some detail?'

with galaxies I don't think it matters how much aperture you have (within reasonable amateur limits) if you are observing from light polluted sites.

I have easily seen dust lanes in M31 and spiral arms in M33 and M51 from dark sites with my 12" dob and suspect you probably could with a 8-10".

I know someone with a 22" f5 dob and they can just see spiral arms in M51 from a light polluted site.

[Doghouse]

I'm always in awe when I'm out in the country on a dark clear night. So many stars I can't recognize the few constellations I know. It's easy to forget they're there when living in the city.

[Space Cadet USA]

While people might call your bluff if you claimed to be a keen sailor and you lived up a mountain, almost nobody is aware that England (or other parts of the British Isles) is just as impractical from an astronomical point of view.

That training is coming in very useful right now because even here in so-called Sunny California we have been clouded out for the last couple of nights and look to be the same for the next night or so

[cervesca]

I tried for ages to try to find M101 in U Mj with a 10 inch Dob at home, never could see it due to the light pollution - was then able to see it with a 4 inch astroscan from a dark forest 6 miles away - fog rolled in and hid all the light pollution from the town!