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Old 03-10-2018, 09:05 PM
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mental4astro (Alexander)
kids+wife+scopes=happyman

mental4astro is offline
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: sydney, australia
Posts: 4,979
Observing the Moon & Planets - the good juice, and cheats...

New comers to astronomy – WARNING!

Maxing out the magnification of your telescope is not the way to use it. And, most likely than not, you will also be exceeding the optical limits of your scope by maxing it out with the eyepieces and barlow lenses supplied with cheap telescopes.

Here’s the really bad news: your 60mm refractor IS NOT capable of 525X magnification! despite the box your scope came in having plastered on it 525 power telescope! Yes, there is a little telescope that is currently marketed by a high profile telescope company with this misleading claim on the box. Truth is, the most this little scope can ACTUALLY punch out is just 120X before the image craps itself!

Sorry for the rather dire start to this piece. It’s just that there are many misconceptions that new comers to astronomy have, and the worst one of the lot is that one of the outrageous claims of 402X, 450X and even 525X magnification from really small telescopes, accompanied by photos of Jupiter and Saturn taken by the Voyager spacecraft, deliberately misleading the ignorant beginner that this is how they will see the planets with THAT telescope.

In this article, I will describe just a few basic aspects of what a telescope is ACTUALLY capable of providing, how to maximize its efficiency regarding its optical limits, the Great Equalizer and severe task-master that is the atmosphere, and then a few tips on how to rip the most detail out of the Moon & planets. Believe it or not, there are even some cheats that can be done that cost nothing in order to improve the quality of your viewing when the atmosphere is not playing nice.

One thing I will try my utmost to do is keep the astro-techno-jargon to a minimum, and what I do use explain it as I go as some of this astro-techno-jargon is very useful shorthand and important to know. Not understand some of these aspects, and you won't know why your telescope "is not working", when in reality there may be several things working against you, some of which you have absolutely no control over.

The whole article will evolve over a few posts as I develop them, and in a way form separate "chapters", much like my earlier article on nebulae. And of course, any questions as we go are MOST WELCOME. I mean this most sincerely as I can overlook some items, and your questions will also help me develop this article. Don't be shy as the only dumb question is the one that is not asked, and we all start from knowing nothing.

Alex.
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (4 day old Moon ii, Aug 18 (2) LR.JPG)
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Click for full-size image (Jupiter, May 5 2018 (3) LR.JPG)
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Last edited by mental4astro; 03-10-2018 at 09:17 PM.
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