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George
The last 2 answers give pretty good explanations. The thing to remember is that planets are bright objects. Even a small scope will gather enough light to create a reasonable view so a long refractor with small aperture will usually work fine. But as the others have said, aperture enables smaller features to become visible so negating some of the effect of the atmosphere.
I have seen this in a very practical way. In my old 12" as I stated earlier it was a struggle to push it much beyond 150x on Saturn, but in my 20" I have already had Saturn at 317x with plenty of clarity. In the 12" the Cassini Division ( that's the main gap in the rings) was just visible most of the time but in the 20" it looks like it has been drawn with a texta it is that dark and sharp.
Malcolm
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