5 x powermate too powerful?

[starstalker]

wonder if anyone could help me i am thinking of getting a 5xpowermate, but i am wondering if it will be to powerful for my scope, im not sure of the maths so any help would be much appreciated,thanks in advance:) (scope in sig)

[Moonshane]

if you are imaging planets etc then this should be OK.

if for visual then it depends on the eyepiece you use.

the way to work out the magnification of an eyepiece if focal length (in your case 1000) and divide by the focal length of the eyepiece - eg a 10mm eyepiece would give 1000 / 10 = 100x magnification. the seeing in the UK can take between maybe 150x and 250x. therefore in your scope you could use eyepieces of (generally) between 7mm and 4mm. This means that with the powermate you could only use an eyepiece of maximum 20mm. obviously there will be times when you can get more magnification eg on the moon and splitting close double stars.

so the answer is yes (imaging), and yes subject to magnification on visual. personally I would not say you would get as much use from a 5x as a 2.5x powermate.

I don't use barlows/powermates any more for two reasons. 1) they stick out too much from the focuser 2) you are forever changing things around in the dark, I prefer to just view for longer at the eyepiece.

[starstalker]

sorry i should have said, it would be used primarily for imaging but u have answered my question anyway, thanks for a prompt answer!

[Moonshane]

I know a lot of imagers use the powermates with webcams to great effect.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I know a lot of imagers use the powermates with webcams to great effect.

5x I think is just right for Jupiter: my 2x Meade TeleXtender (4000mm focal length on an 8") is often a bit too small, the 3x TeleXtender a bit too long (6000mm). A 2.5x Powermate would do for me what a 5x does for your scope.

[jgs001]

I used a 5x Antares barlow with my 80mm refractor for both Jupiter and the moon...