Quote:
Originally Posted by Astro_Bot
How often do you get to use 500x? I never have. The best that I've ever managed, in many years of viewing, and even then only once, is 420x. To me, 500x is unusable and it is pointless to own an eyepiece to deliver that magnification.
As always, YMMV.
|
If that's the case one of several things are going on:-
1) You must observe in areas that have poor seeing conditions
ALL THE TIME,
2) You haven't spent enough time observing to experience good enough conditions
3) The telescopes you have are not of large enough aperture to support 500X, or if they are large enough, the optics may be are not good enough, are not collimated properly or are not cooled enough.
Whilst 500X isn't a regular thing for me, it is certainly achievable on a handful of nights each year, in my 10", 14" and 18" Newtonians.
I have on a handful of occasions over the past 10 years gone to 1050X in my 18" Obsession with a 5mm Pentax XW combined with a 2.5X Televue Powermate for .45mm exit pupil. In the same scope over the same period I have also used 750X with the 7mm Pentax XW in the 2.5X Powermate on more than 6 occasions.
Cheers,
John B