G'day All
Thanks for your reply's so far.
I currently live in a medium populated area near East Maitland. I am looking over a neighbors house but don't think that will have an impact as they have no aircons or other factors that will effect. I dont get any boiling affect on the image even at the x480 mag and haven't seen any of that affect yet.
I still cant see the cassini division its just one big ring. I have heard someone say who has the same telescope as me that Saturn is very bright, which from looking at photos online it does confirm what i am seeing. Can this be a factor that could cause the loss in detail?
I believe my collimation is good, i get the laser dead center of the black ring in the Primary Mirror and back again on the target on the collimation device.
The only flair i do mainly get is off Alpha C, anything else i don't really get any. Looking at the jewl box all the stars are clear and crisp.
Even at the x480 Mag Mars is still just a very small dot. I am pretty sure it is Mars as i use it in the bright start alignment, then when the scope asks if a star is what it is says its 100% on. (it used to be slightly off but i think that was got to do with the angle that the base was on due to my back yard not being very level. Sorted it by attaching some leveling legs).
I have attached a photo for roughly what i see at x480 Mag from
http://www.risahorowitz.com/projects...gingsaturn.htm at this mag i am getting some blurring at the edges of the planet. The difference from this image to what i am seeing is, mine is way brighter and cant see cassini div. Even at lower mag i still can see much detail.
I will endeavor to take it out to my clubs next observatory night.
Also thanks Raymo for the filter reference, will be printing that one out.
Cheers,
Leigh