Best Magnification for Mars Observation Now?

Post #1by **t00fri** » 27.06.2003, 19:38

Suppose you own a 4" quality refractor like e.g. a Takahashi FS-102....

What would be the best magnification for observing mars at this time with this telescope?

Anybody has an opinion?;-)

Bye Fridger

ElPelado · Post #2by **ElPelado** » 27.06.2003, 21:53

what i have read many times is that not always the biggest magnification is the best to see something.
so if you own that telescope, try and see for your self, but i think that you dont have that telescope, cause if you had it, you wouldnt been asking right?

Post #3by **t00fri** » 27.06.2003, 22:16

ElPelado wrote:what i have read many times is that not always the biggest magnification is the best to see something.
so if you own that telescope, try and see for your self, but i think that you dont have that telescope, cause if you had it, you wouldnt been asking right?

Right. I do have another telescope that has twice the diameter (a Celestron 8") but I know 'someone' who has a FS-102. The latter is of high quality and very well suited for planetary observations, since it lacks a central obstruction. So I am just curious what magnification gives the best images. The trade off is smaller diameter [hence less (theoretical) resolution] versus better optics than the C8.

Bye Fridger

ElPelado · Post #4by **ElPelado** » 27.06.2003, 22:24

his telescope is also reflector? or refractor?

Post #5by **chris** » 27.06.2003, 22:53

t00fri wrote:Suppose you own a 4" quality refractor like e.g. a Takahashi FS-102....

What would be the best magnification for observing mars at this time with this telescope?

Anybody has an opinion?;-)

The best magnification is certainly higher than what I've been using . . . The focal length of the FS-102 is 820mm and the highest power eyepiece I have is a 6mm Televue Radian, so that's about 135x. I'm waiting for my Powermate 2x so I can get some nice Mars viewing at 270x. A night of very good seeing would help, too . . . Though the transparency was good while I was out of the city, there was too much turbulence for high-magnification viewing.

Any recommendations a good low-power 2" eyepiece? I'd like to get the 35mm Panoptic, but I'd like it even better if I could get something less expensive with equivalent performance.

--Chris

Post #6by **t00fri** » 27.06.2003, 23:03

chris wrote:
t00fri wrote:Suppose you own a 4" quality refractor like e.g. a Takahashi FS-102....

What would be the best magnification for observing mars at this time with this telescope?

Anybody has an opinion?;-)
The best magnification is certainly higher than what I've been using . . . The focal length of the FS-102 is 820mm and the highest power eyepiece I have is a 6mm Televue Radian, so that's about 135x. I'm waiting for my Powermate 2x so I can get some nice Mars viewing at 270x. A night of very good seeing would help, too . . . Though the transparency was good while I was out of the city, there was too much turbulence for high-magnification viewing.

Any recommendations a good low-power 2" eyepiece? I'd like to get the 35mm Panoptic, but I'd like it even better if I could get something less expensive with equivalent performance.

--Chris

It is again a good sign for the quality of your optics that you seem to see many details of Mars already at mags as low as 135! The rule of thumb is that under excellent seeing and /with excellent refractor optics/ one can go as high as 3x the diameter in mm. For Reflectors with a central obstruction one usually should stop around 2 - 2.5x the diameter in mm. In my case this gets me up to 500 times, say.

Somewhat surprisingly, the best nights for planetary observations are not those super crisp ones, but rather nights with a little haze in the air. Usually gives the highest amount of steadyness.

Since my focal length is 2050 mm (!) I am not interested in 2" eyepieces of only 35mm focal length. My 2"es have 50 and 70 mm. They are not so critical optically, except you want 80degrees apparent field;-).
Mine have 60 degrees and are of Erfle design (6 lenses).
They are quite good, but old and costed a fraction of the Televue 'giants'...

Bye Fridger

ElPelado · Post #7by **ElPelado** » 27.06.2003, 23:21

with a 7x50 or 10x50 binocular, is it possible to see more than a red-yellow circle??

julesstoop · Post #8by **julesstoop** » 28.06.2003, 17:13

I think your brain would still interpret it as a dot with such low magnifications. I my experience, with simple binoculars, you can see some phases of venus (when it's nearby the earth, and thus crescent). The egg shape of saturn + ringsystem; and Jupiter is clearly a small disc, not a dot.

ElPelado · Post #9by **ElPelado** » 28.06.2003, 20:41

can i see the 4 galilean moons also??

Post #10by **t00fri** » 28.06.2003, 20:55

ElPelado wrote:can i see the 4 galilean moons also??

With a /good/ quality 10x50 binocular and /steady/ support of your arms you can! I have a 10x50 which was not even expensive, but it /happens/ to be excellent (sometimes it even happens with cheap binos;-))

Also it will depend on the distance of the Galileans from Jupi at the time of observation! The further they are from Jupi's disk, the better you can see them.

Bye Fridger

ElPelado · Post #11by **ElPelado** » 28.06.2003, 21:08

how much did they cost??

why the distance is important??

Guest · Post #12by **Guest** » 28.06.2003, 21:34

With a 10x50 binocular, last autumn I succeeded in identifying Uranus and Neptun (even though I am living in the north of Frankfurt am Main

). RedShift helped me a lot to locate both planets.
Volker

ElPelado · Post #13by **ElPelado** » 28.06.2003, 21:52

what is RedShift??

Guest · Post #14by **Guest** » 29.06.2003, 12:36

RedShift is a desktop planetarium software. See http://www.maris.com/content/index.php3?id=20
Volker

Post #15by **t00fri** » 29.06.2003, 18:33

Guest wrote:RedShift is a desktop planetarium software. See http://www.maris.com/content/index.php3?id=20
Volker

But that's definitely not the only meaning of that word!

The redshift of stellar spectra allows us to find out that in accord with the big bang (BB) hypothesis, we are collectively 'moving outward' from the virtual point where the BB took place. How are you Mr. Doppler...?

It is absurd that the fame of commercial software is meanwhile 'covering up' such fundamental concepts by adopting these as trade names;-)

Bye Fridger

Guest · Post #16by **Guest** » 29.06.2003, 20:14

t00fri wrote:But that's definitely not the only meaning of that word!

Sure. But regardless of the original and uncovered meaning of red shift, in my case it was the (quite powerful) astronomy program that helped me observing the sky and not the Doppler effect :wink:

.
Volker

Post #17by **t00fri** » 29.06.2003, 21:04

Anonymous wrote:
t00fri wrote:But that's definitely not the only meaning of that word!

Sure. But regardless of the original and uncovered meaning of red shift, in my case it was the (quite powerful) astronomy program that helped me observing the sky and not the Doppler effect .
Volker

Right, but ElPelado asked "What is RedShift"?

Bye Fridger

ElPelado · Post #18by **ElPelado** » 29.06.2003, 22:35

Fridger, I was asking about the program :wink:

but its good to know what it is in physics. so thanks for the info!

Borg Collective · Post #19by **Borg Collective** » 30.06.2003, 14:46

t00fri wrote:
Guest wrote:RedShift is a desktop planetarium software. See http://www.maris.com/content/index.php3?id=20
Volker

But that's definitely not the only meaning of that word!

The redshift of stellar spectra allows us to find out that in accord with the big bang (BB) hypothesis, we are collectively 'moving outward' from the virtual point where the BB took place. How are you Mr. Doppler...?

It is absurd that the fame of commercial software is meanwhile 'covering up' such fundamental concepts by adopting these as trade names;-)

Bye Fridger

You are right. Immature individuals of your society to which you refer as "kids" watched an entertainment programme you refer as "Cartoon".
Mathematicly enhanced Sound, to which you refer as "Music", used was designated as "Hungarian Dances 5" of Brahms. On the second encounter with the same "music", the "kids" stated the music as one from "cartoon" rather tham original Author.

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