Quote:
Originally Posted by N1
Hmm. Large FOV, shortish FL, longish ER - you're asking a lot.  I think you'll find most EPs that do all this will not come cheap. An option might be to look at a barlow - that's if you are considering longer focal length EPs also.
Saturn. I have seen its rings in a Russian made 25x spotting scope years ago and had an absolute ball when I did. More power will show ever more detail until you hit the seeing limit (that usually happens before the scope is exhausted).
The fact that you could not even see the rings as such indicates extremely poor seeing, a scope that hadn't cooled properly, or was in need of collimating. Or a combination of these.
The attached pic shows Saturn near the Moon. It was taken handheld through the EP from a city location through thin high cloud and seeing conditions that were average at best. Power was 101x.
Edit: The Saturn pic was taken through a 60mm refractor. Just to give you an idea what it might look like at around 100x |
Thanks very much for the information. I bought a Cheshire collimator when I bought the scope last week I and spent a couple of hours on it. It was my first time collimating but all the rings seemed to show good collimation. I'm in my backyard and my neighbour's outdoor lights are visible and it was pretty bright to be honest. The moon was very bright two nights ago and it looked really great. It's a 10" dob and I guess I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to be able to see. I used my phone to show where Mars and Saturn were and then I used the scope. I've looked at stars and they seem to be a good, clear point so I'm hoping collimation is good. Thanks again.