My first Messier object...

It's my second night out with my xt6 dobsonian (more info below) and I about 99% positive I was staring down the M110, looked exactly the same as in Starry Night only I couldn't seem to zoom in much with my 10mm eyepiece. I'm going to guess that this is possibly because I now live in a town with about 60,000+ ppl (it has grown like crazy in the past 10 years, being a small tourist town) but there is no city on the east end of town where i'm at the very edge of thanks to the mountains there. So possibly light polution is a factor and/or I need a barlow. I'm kinda hoping that i'll be able to see messier objects with my tele? Rather than just a blurred spot like I see in my binoculars (and even the same after I look at it with my 10 mm EP?). Can anyone clarify what might be the problem? Thanks in advance!

Actually the object would probably have looked better through your 25mm and a barlow. When you get the barlow and the 32mm you will be able to play around and figure out the sweet spot for magnification with your scope. One thing you will find with every scope there is an eyepiece or eyepiece and barlow configuration that just seems to work the best. This will be the case on a lot of nights although sometimes the seeing conditions will cause it to change most of the time there will be a sweet spot you like to observe at. I have a few scopes and quite a few eyepieces and some of the eyepieces are not very good in one scope but when I put them in another scope they are magical. You'll figure it out and make sure you let us know what you discover. Clear Skies.