Favorite... Hmn, there are lots.  Bright things with lots of detail, such
as...

    M31 -- I chased down some globulars in it with the C-14 once.  It is
           always fun to see whether I can make out dust lanes, or NGC 206.

    M42/43 -- One night I was observing double stars with a four-inch
              refractor, and decided to take a look at M42 just for a break,
              and was marveling at the detail, and then realized
              I hadn't changed eyepieces; I was looking at details in
              the nebula at 250x, limited by diffraction only.

    M45 -- The Merope Nebula is not hard in decent sky, but it is always
           tough to decide whether any other fuzz I see is dew on the optics,
           or scattering in the air or eye, or really nebula.

    M8 -- Summer's Orion Nebula, full of detail.

    NGC 6822 -- I am always fond of showing off this one in small telescopes,
                particularly to folks who think you need a big Dobson to
                see it.

    The Veil Nebula -- The eastern and western arcs are bright enough not to
                       be too difficult, but there is a lot of stuff in the
                       middle that is harder to see.

    NGC 253 -- Rich and detailed.

    I could go on, I won't...

  Most difficult?  I think S147, the "other" Taurus supernova remnant.
The Fornax and Sculptor Dwarf Galaxies would be tied for second.
These are all low-surface-brightness objects, for which dark sky and a
large exit pupil matter most.  Of course, even for objects of high
surface brightness, insufficient aperture can make for difficulties
with faint ones.  However, a C-14 certainly has enough aperture for a
survey like mine; perhaps even an 8-inch would do it.

  No, though I have been looking at lots of double stars lately.  I
could always get more aperture and go for fainter stuff, but I always
seem to run out of aperture before the universe runs out of objects.
I find I can push my skills just as well by using small telescopes
instead of large ones.  Or, if I get time, money and initiative, it
would be fun to travel to more southerly latitudes and look at some of
the stuff I can't see from central California.

--

   Jay Reynolds Freeman -- free...@netcom.com -- I speak only for myself.