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Celestron 6se and Magnification


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I have the Celestron 6se and bought the Baader Clickzoom 8mm-24mm...love it

The question I had is the 6SE has a highest useful magnification of 354x, which is a 4mm eyepiece

I am wondering if it is worth it to get the Baader Barlow 2.25x to get to the highest magnification, or if things like Saturn and Jupiter are just about as good as it gets with the 8mm lense I already have.

I know I'd see the planets closer up, but seeing them at this mag, not sure if there is more to see with a higher power.

Thansk!

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The telescope manufacturers always "big up" their products by saying it will give this useful magnification or that magnification. The figures that they quote in their glossy brochures and userguides are when conditions are absolutely perfect (which is only very rarely). Don't be lulled into a false sense of security otherwise you will only be dissapointed.

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If you're out in the clear, plains/mountains you should be able to eek a bit more out on a good night, if you're in the temperate (read:cloudy!) west, you might not have much more luck than those of us suffering in the UK.

You might try looking out for a TMB planetary in a 6mm (250x) or 7mm (214x), the shorter you go the better the conditions will need to be to see any more detail. Otherwise you'll just be making a blurry image bigger :(

As the other guys have said though, 354x practically impossible.

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Btw, you don't need the highest magnification to see the most detail. Use the zoom to find the crispest image and then give your eyes time to adapt and you might see more detail right there (conditions permitting!)

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Just to reinforce Malc's point above, a useful benchmark is to assume 'useful' magnification to be calculated at x40 per inch of aperture. So with your scope you would be looking at a maximum of x240 but remember that seeing conditions and the transparency of the sky will also affect what detail you are able to resolve. As you magnify the available light that your scope is able to 'capture', you are in effect stretching it and this can be seen by the image darkening and eventually degrading. There is only so much you can do with the light that is contained within the scope and your zoom eyepiece (I have one of these and they are very good!) will demonstrate that perfectly as you ramp up the magnification. There are occasional nights when the conditions in the atmosphere will permit all of us to see the maximum that are scopes are designed to show but you are looking at perhaps 3-5 nights in a year - but still worth waiting for!

James

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