[markus.a.bergh]

Hello Everybody,

In this months Sky and Telescope there's a review of a 12" Skywatcher Dob. Nice review. I compared the review to my telescope - a 12" GSO and was wondering if anyone could shed some light (ha) on one of the big differences I observed.

According to the review, the telescope gave really great views at more than 200x magnification. That surprised me. I have great views up to about 75x to 125x using a Meade 5000 20 eyepiece/2x barlow combination. Higher magnifications - using budget GSO 7mm eyepice gives really crap views (more than 200x magnification). Jupiter at 200x is fuzzy and galaxies are too dark.

So why's there such a big difference?

I live/observe in a reasonably rural area, my telescope is properly collimated and the primary mirror (/optics etc) is pretty much the same quality (although its not a Pyrex mirror).

Maybe you need really really good quality eyepieces at high magnifications? Maybe the reviewer was in a really dark, desert like place? Or maybe the optics in this scope are just better - if so it would explain the $600 price difference.

Thanks for your help, Markus.