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Old 10-10-2014, 05:23 PM
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Steffen
Ebotec Alpeht Sicamb

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Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Toongabbie, NSW
Posts: 1,976
The highest practical magnification depends largely on what you're observing, your ability to nudge the Dob along, and your determination.

Objects move through the field of view very quickly at high magnifications, especially near the celestial equator, so you need to hone your manual tracking skills.

Seeing is never bad all the time, only most of the time. When looking at sub-arcsecond double stars (which a good 8" scope is perfectly able to split), you will need more than 400x, sometimes a lot more, and also a lot of patience. Views at high magnifications are limited by seeing most of the time, but there is the odd second out of ten (or thirty, or more) every now and then where the view stabilises and reveals what you're after. That counts as a success, once you've seen a double split it cannot be taken away from you

But as I said, this takes skill and perseverance, so for starters you're probably more comfortable with the 150x and lower magnification range.

Cheers
Steffen.
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