TV Powermate 4x Opinions

[quattrorings]

Hi All

I have just got back into Astronomy since childhood.

I have looking at an eyepiece collection and was thing about a TV Powermate 4x (2 inch) - principally for planatery use.

How are these ? Is image brightness massively reduced.

NB. I have a Meade LX90 - focal length 2500mm f10

Comments appreciated.

Andy

[brantuk]

The powermates (imho) are about the best you can get. I don't have one yet but they are apparently totally transparent - you don't even know they're there some folks say. But of course you do get the magnification of the atmosphere along with the object. This is one of the contributing factors to "dimming" of the object. How massive that is depends on wether it's 2x, 3x, 4x etc. The higher the magnification the dimmer it's gonna get.

However - on a totally clear night with good seeing (probably mid winter) results with a webcam can be spectacular. Just don't blame the ep for poor observing though - it's magnifying the atmosphere that's doing the dimming

[Stu]

I was never a fan of barlows and always thought they degraded the image too much. However, I bought a x2 2" Power Mate and it is a totally different experience. It maintains the normal eye relief of the ep you are using and has no noticeable impact on image quality, other than the magnification obviously :-). I thoroughly enjoy using it and imagine the x4 would be much the same. Obviously you have to make sure you stay within sensible magnifications for the seeing conditions, normal rules still apply :-)

Stu

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[Stu]

Just noticed the focal length of your scope. Is this for visual or imaging use? If visual then x4 may be too high eg you would be over x300 with a 32mm ep which is too much for regular use. Obviously if it's for imaging then it makes sense.

Cheers

Stu

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