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Best aperture for planetary viewing


Andrew*

What's the best aperture for planetary observation?  

2 members have voted

  1. 1. What's the best aperture for planetary observation?

    • Under 5 inches
      4
    • 5-6 inches
      3
    • 6-8 inches
      13
    • 8-10 inches
      33
    • More than 10 inches
      15


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IMO a good eyepiece for planetary is a UO Ortho 9mm giving 168x. :)

Fairly close to the performance it would give in my Dob (178x). Unfortunately my Megrez only has a f/l of 498mm and 55x for a 9mm or 71x for a 7 doesn't quite cut it on planets for me. I used to own a 5mm Telescope Hosue ortho but could never get a along with the tiny lens and short eye relief. I also had a 4.8mm T1 Nagler but that was before I had the Megrez and it never got used so I swapped it for a camera & lenses :) I wish foresight was as accurate as hindsight!

I think I need to look at the planetary EPs from Skys The Limit. The refractor is on a motorised EQ5 (unless it's being used a a grab and go on a camping trip when it's on a photo tripod) so FOV isn't so critical as the Dob (hence why I previously went for Naglers in the short F/Ls) but I do like big lenses and reasonable eyerelief. I've got a barlow but I'm not really a fan of them.

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Well my 14" dob gives me better planetary views than any other scope I've owned (Helios 6" reflector, Meade 6" Achromat, WO Megrez 88FD). I think the Megrez could prove better than I've seen from it but I need to get some decent very short f/l planetary EPs. My shortest, a 7mm Nagler, only gives 71x in its 498mm f/l.

I completely agree with this and genuinely feel that newts on the whole (for the average person's budget) beat fracs but that's a whole other argument.

my 12" definitely beat my 6" f11 when the seeing was good to excellent and I have high hopes for all targets in my 16" f4 (with paracorr) which has really nice optical quality. particularly as I should be able to make an off axis aperture mask to effectively create a 7" f9 'apo'. :)

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