Quote:
Originally Posted by Crow
I just had that exact same moment but a little jealous now! Saturn only looked like a dot and I had to focus really carefully to see the rings! Im not sure how to work out the magnifications I was using?? I want to see Titan too! (whiney voice inserted) can anyone help?
I was using a reflector 130mm telescope. 9mm focus and from the specs a magnification of x72?? not really sure what it all means! How do I get my scope to see what you did??? Im soooo jealous now!!
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Hi, I once had a 130mm reflector and I found that if I used an eyepiece somewhere between 8-10mm with a 2x barlow this would be threshold for this scope in terms of clarity of the subject and magnification. An 8mm eyepiece and barlow combination provides x162.5 mag and will make saturn larger in the eyepiece. When you say 9mm focus do you mean you were using a 9mm eyepiece? If you used a x2 barlow and a 9mm eyepiece this would provide x144.4 magnification (I'm assuming your reflector has a focal length of 650 mm). The barlow effectively doubles the power of the eyepiece when you use it in conjunction with your eyepiece. Barlows start in price around $40-50 for a 2X and increase in price with quality.
Anything more powerful (e.g. 6mm) than a 8mm-10mm eyepiece with the barlow and the image started to blur. Collimation shouldn't be too much of a bother for you looking at Saturn, as long as your mirrors are pretty close it should be a pleasing view.
Cheers.
Hook, line and sinker. 
