Quote:
Originally Posted by Atmos
Hell, for the price of your CDK and mount you could probably by something on the order of a 25" tracking dob which could achieve the same result  |
Actually - you'd buy several 25" dobs for the price of a properly mounted CDK17. The best planetary images I have seen are through a variety of scopes - Anthony Wesley uses a reasonably fast 16" newt, Thierry Legault, Damien Peach, these guys use 14-16" Schmidt Cassegrains.
The key is getting everything right, local seeing, which includes thermal effects around the primary, good seeing, and the patience and discpiline to spend the whole night waiting for that magic 10 minute window.
the processing is not trivial either, it's a different world to deep sky.
Rarely does the seeing approach the resolution capability of a 16", and I can only remember a handful of nights that a 25" could be wound right out to its maximum.
However, here's what a 25" driven dob can deliver with minimal talent on a night of reasonable seeing. It's nowhere as good as the visual experience on the same night, the brain and eye is still better than a camera for moving objects.
On Greg's question, I would have thought that a well collimated CDK17 on a night of good seeing would be capable of going with the best.
cheers,
Andrew.