Quote:
Originally Posted by §AB
lol how much did you crank it up to? With my setup the maximum possible is 330x.
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In theory, I'm starting from 400x (202mm primary, f6, el-cheapo 2x barlow, Vixen LV 6mm eyepiece). At that point I should be well into the theoretical limit of around 40-60 (depending who you read) per inch of primary mirror diameter. My mirror is also a mass produced GSO so I cannot expect it to be particularly "good", unless I've been lucky.
A couple of months ago, chasing craterlets in Plato, I noted (by accident, I recall) that if I lifted the eyepiece out of the barlow and re-adjusted the focus, I saw a more magnified image. I got to holding the eyepiece by hand many cm away from the barlow, seeing this image! So Saturday night, I put a 35mm extn into the barlow and the 6mm eyepiece into that and refocused. Then I lifted the 35mm extn as far out of the barlow as I could, lifted the 6mm eyepiece as far out of the extn as I could (both so I could still catch them with the compression rings, and refocused again. I didn't try to estimate how much further the magnification had increased. Sure the image wasn't great (remember - poorish seeing, low elevation of the Moon and I'm looking through trees!
), but it wasn't a mess either. I was looking at Theophilus.
I'm sure this is nothing new for most on this forum (I have read of cameras on the end of "hoover tubes"), but it was all new to me! I plan to investigate a bit more systematically - maybe try a longer extension (the 50mm one).
Yes, I know this is all a bit silly (probably a lot silly, some of you are muttering), but I want to be ready for a night of good seeing when I can go up in magnification in this way and see what I make of it. At the end of the day, it's probably resolution that I want, and if I have that, magnification is probably not a great issue. Still, it's fun experimenting to see what I can do with what I have.
Eric
