Greetings to everyone from Pakistan. Newbie here...

[DanyalAG]

Hi everyone. I'm an amateur astronomer from Pakistan, currently the owner of a starblast 6, and a pair of 8X40 binoculars. The light pollution in Pakistan is severe, with only a few places in the southwest ( Baloxhistani wildernesses ) that are truly Bortle 1-2. Everywhere else in Pakistan is at max; Bortle 5-6. Much more reasonable and easily available locations ( including where I live ) is probably Bortle 8; if not worse. The LP here is so severe that NELM near the zenith is only about 3.8 to 4.2; and that is on nights of excellent conditions. So far, I've only been able to view the planets, plus a few DSOs ( mostly the bright ones. )

My question is, can all of the messiers be seen with a 6 inch telescope under such skies?!? And if not, then what can be seen?

Also, could anyone give me an idea of what I'd be able to see with a 6incher under truly dark skies?

Any help at all would be appreciated.

[Mr niall]

Well, I think somewhere on this forum a few months ago, I read a quote attributed to Patrick Moore that suggested something along the lines of "with the right skies all you'd ever need is a 6 inch reflector"... or something!

i suppose when you consider what Messier was using then I'd guess that it should be possible to easily see them all with your scope if you can get to a reasonably dark site but others on here have decades of experience in such matters so can probably advise you!

Im reasonably new and live in what I would call "average" suburban skies, using a 5 inch scope I find  some of the messiers are easy, some I haven't found at all yet - it seems that no two "clear" skies are equal! On the few occasions I've been in darker spots, the difference is incredible.

welcome by the way! 

[harrym]

Welcome to the forum! Light pollution affects objects with low surface brightness, such as galaxies, much more than it affects stars, because if the surface brightness of the sky is much brighter than the surface brightness of the object, you won't be able to see the object. So all the Messier open clusters should be visible with your scope, and most if not all of the globulars, but some of the galaxies will likely be invisible - M33 and M101 are very susceptible to light pollution, for example. Some of the nebulae, such as M20, might also be wiped out by the pollution, though a UHC filter will help with some of those.

What you can see with a particular scope depends not only on the sky but also on your own eyes and how much experience you've had, but I reckon a NELM of 5 to 5.5 should be enough to see all the Messiers with your scope. The toughest is probably M74 which is a galaxy with very low surface brightness. There are 9 Messiers I haven't seen but that's more to do with poor southern horizons than light pollution.

From a truly dark site (NELM 7 or better) you would probably be able to see almost all the Messiers with your 8x40 binoculars, and thousands of NGC objects with your scope.

[Merlin]

A six-inch reflector should show objects down to about 13.5 mag, although this will depend on sky conditions.

[harrym]

6 hours ago, Merlin said:

A six-inch reflector should show objects down to about 13.5 mag, although this will depend on sky conditions.

Stars, yes. But deep-sky objects like galaxies and clusters are more spread out so are more difficult to observe than a star of the same magnitude. For example M33 is around magnitude 6 and can be seen with the naked eye from very dark sites, but from an inner city sky it will likely be invisible in any scope because the light pollution has a much higher surface brightness than the galaxy.

[DanyalAG]

Thanks everybody. Another question is will the UHC filter improve my views? Or should I get a new TV plossl( long FL wide field c. 32 mm ) to aid in my viewing of DSOs. Will the increased contrast help?

Thanks again for the nice replies and information