[Meru (Michael)]

Hey guys,

Been getting into astrophotography so much lately I’ve almost forgotten what it’s like to look up and gaze at the jewels. I sold all my old scopes which were great for visual, for new ones which are better for astrophotography. But with my RC8 (8” f/8) last night I still managed to see quite a bit (I could just make out the arms in M83, very slight variations in the dust lane of Centaurus A, the dust lane in Sombrero and faint detail on the keyhole in Carina nebula.) and found 100x to be a good magnification to sit on.

So my question is this – Is there any real difference between using, say, a 13mm with a 10” or a 16mm with a 12”? If anything the 13mm should increase contrast. I am asking because the price difference between the 10” and 12” is almost $1000 (Long story, but that is what it comes to). For that much money I could get a Ethos and Delos EP!

So what are your views? And with those sized dobs, what magnification do you IIS guys commonly find yourselves viewing at for DSOs?