Hi everyone,
I'm thinking of buying a Teleview Powermate x2.5 to be used on my C11. Is this the way to go?
I'm also considering the x5 version. Given the seeing is good to great would the x5 option be overkill when CCDing on the Moon & planets?
What's the focal length of your C11? Something like 2.5 or 3 metres? A 5x powermate will be really difficult to start with, and you'll need really, really good seeing to use it at those focal lengths (over 15m!!).
Definitely start with a 2.5x powermate though, which will give you 7.5m or a little more - a good magnification to start out with.
This is an image taken with my C11 and an EOS 300D. It's not very good but it gives you an idea of size at native F10 with a 6 megapixel camera. Iceman is correct, a 2.5 powermate would be heaps to start of with.
I have a C9.25 and both the x2.5 and x5 Powermates. I would not recommend the x5 for a ‘scope of this focal length. Although I have used it for double star work with my ST7, it only gets an outing approx 3 to 5 times per annum, for very short spells.
I think that Matt in Brissie may have a x4 Powermate (2”) and RobT used to use one on his C9.25 for planetary imaging, but it seems the seeing is rarely good enough to use this combo.
I have a x3 Barlow for the C9.5 and I think a x3.5 might be as far as I would like to go for consistent usage without compromising the image?
