Quote:
Originally Posted by BilliGoatsGruff
I do remember reading that  I'm not interested in astrophotography, just viewing is enough for me. It would be nice to have something that can give me better views of the planets. Probably the max I would go with a barlow is 2x to keep as much image quality as possible. Would the scope be able to handle a 2x barlow with a 10mm eyepiece, do you think? |
Only when the weather conditions are good... I did use a 2x Barlow a couple of times with the 10mm EP, particularly in my early days (which were just over a year ago...
). I now have a 6mm EP, so I usually use it on good days. But the Barlow should be OK too on good days (well, nights).
I find this resource very useful by the way:
http://www.stargazing.net/naa/scopemath.htm
You can enter the specs of your scope and it gives you all values as well as recommendations towards the end of the page. It says that the "optimum" magnification for our scope is 33 to 65, corresponding to 20 to 10mm eyepieces, but this would be the optimum magnification on any day. On very good days you can go a bit higher.
(With the Barlow and the 10mm eyepiece the magnification would be 130. The 260 maximum magnification SW mentions only happens when the weather conditions are ideal, which only happens once or twice a year they say, so it is better to forget about it.)
