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heath 66

By heath 66
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heath 66

heath 66

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Hello every one i live in worksop and im new to this hobby and am a bit confused about a few things so im hoping people will guide me in the right direction, after wanting a telescope for 23 years i finally got one, i bought a good second hand helios 6" reflector scope, i read the reviews and this as far as i can tell is a reasonable starter scope??, im confused about the magnification, obviously this scope with the correct eye pieces has a maximum magnification of x300, if i enjoy this hobby as im sure i will, if i eventually update to say a skywatcher 8-10" which has a higher magnification, will the bigger scopes give better quality images at say x100 even though the helios will easily attain this magnification, i know its not all about size (a male thing) and lower magnifications say around x50, are better for studying star clusters etc, but at what magnification or size of scope would i need to see the rings of saturn clearly, or mars, only been out for 1 hour up to yet and getting used to the scope, also im a little confused as to working out the magnification, i have a 10mm a 25mm lense and a barlow x2 lense, the focal length of the scope is 750 to work out magnification do i use the focul length 750 divided by the lense x10 this equals x75 and using the barlow x2 gives x150 or is this wrong, if this scope works upto x300 using the equation above, does this mean that i would require a x2.5 lense without the x2 barlow, or a x5 lense with the x2 barlow, all very confusing to a newbe but im hoping someone will point me in the right direction, it may be a case of the scope i have is more than adaquate power wise, but maybe a better quality scope would yield a lot more detail:icon_scratch: regards heath

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Bizibilder

Bizibilder

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Hello Heath and welcome to SGL!!

You have worked out magnification correctly BUT (and I wrote a big BUT!!) magnification is not that important in Astronomy! It is necessary to magnify the Moon and Planets to see the detail but it is often the atmosphere that determines how "high" you can go NOT the telescope!! Don't get taken in by manufaturers saying "max mag is x450" or whatever - this is a theoretical maximum for the scope under perfect conditions in perfect skies and probably on top of a mountain where the atmosphere is at its thinnest. With your 6" reflector x150 - x200 is probably as far as you could use under most circumstances although x300 is "the theory" which you might be able to use on maybe one night a year if you are lucky!

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heath 66

heath 66

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I would like to thank every one for the warm reception, and the advice i was given on magnification, i would ask can someone answer my other querry. Does an 8-10" reflector at say x100 magnification, give a better quality image than a 6" of the same quality at the same magnification.

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mdstuart

mdstuart

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The larger the aperture the brighter the object will appear. So a faint galaxy in a 6 inch scope will be slightly brighter in a 10 inch scope.

You have a very good scope there that will allow you to see 100's of objects. I would recommend getting illustrated astronomical wonders and using that to look at your first few hundred objects to get a feel for things.

Start with Jupiter, the moon and M42 in Orion and then work your way around the constellations.

Make a log of what you can see, drawings etc as it is amazing to look back over things as you get more experienced.

Enjoy

Mark

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