G Money wrote: > My wife bought me a telescope a few years ago, and I've been using it from > time to time, usually just to look at the moon. Supposedly Saturn is > currently at opposition, with it's rings visible if your telescope has a > magnification of 30. I have no idea what that means. I found Saturn the > other night, and it just looked like another star. How can I tell if my > telescope has a magnification of 30?? > > My telescope came with 3 different eyepieces: One says 20H, one says 6M, the > other says 4SR. I know that the lower the number, the higher the > magnification...but beyond that, I have no idea what these numbers mean. Can > anyone on here educate me? > > If i wanted to get greater magnification, can I just buy an eyepiece? I'm > sure there is a maximum magnification setting for my telescope, but how can > I tell what that is?? I want to be able to see some planets. > > TIA! > BG > > Magnification is the ratio of the primary lens/mirror and the focal lens. This might help [http://www.csgnetwork.com/telescopemagcalc.html]. The maximum magnification is going to depend on the size of the telescope. Basically the higher the magnification the more the light to the eye is reduced so the brighter the source must be. The larger the telescope the more light from a source it can collect. Secondly the maximum will be determined by the quality of the telescope i.e. how clear and well aligned the optics are.
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