Hello all, I'm a relatively new person to the group. I recently (Feburary) bought an 8" dobsonian. I have a 9mm and a 32mm eyepiece. When I take my telescope out to Skull Valley (pretty dark there) and look at Messier objects that are around 8 mag, I can hardly see them. All they look like are feint smudges. I have a hard time making out crisper objects. Also, all objects are just gray. There is no color to them. When I look at planets, I do see some color. I know that I won't get color like astro images, but I would expect some hints of color in these objects. Could it be that the mirrors in my telescope need adjusting? Could I need better eyepieces? Is it just me being unrealistic? My telescope is a Zhumell, and according to their site, http://www.zhumell.com/specialty/zhumell-telescopes-dobsonian.html, I should have a useful magnification up to 479X. I assume this is with a barlow or other magnifier added. Any help would be great. Thanks. ++++++++++++++++++ Troy Davidson Am I working - http://www.istroyworking.com