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Old 12-04-2008, 12:01 PM
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acropolite (Phil)
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Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Launceston Tasmania
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Hermas, anything that is advertised at high magnifications isn't going to be suitable, as the others have already stated, manufacturers who use such figures only do so to catch the unwary.

There is a rule of thumb which says the maximum useable magnification is around 40 to 50 times the aperture in inches.

For example an 8 inch diameter telescope will be useable up to around 320-400 x... IF... and it's a big if, the atmospheric conditions are suitable at the time. For average conditions 150x or less will be the maximum magnification that's useable, only on rare occasions will any higher magnification be useable.

Often the best views are low magnifications giving wider fields of view. So when Paul is telling you that the 60mm refractor will be useable to a maximum magnification of 120x it's a limitation that is determined by the physics of the apparatus, not by a simple multiplication that doesn't take in to account any limiting factors.

The 60mm refractor works out to 2.36 inches, multiply that by 50 and you have around 120x which is the figure Paul quoted you. Finally there is no substitute for aperture, the old addage, size matters, is applicable to telescopes.

An 8 inch will gather 4 times more light than a 4 inch and around 11 times more light than the 60mm, so the 8 inch dob Paul has recommended would allow you to see far more and as time goes on you will realise that you have lost nothing by not having go-to capabilities.
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