I took this hand held in front of my friend's 8" telescope at the house. Not terrifically sharp but he was surprised I could get anything.

ISO 3200 - 1/4s shot I think.

Not real sharp like you said, but its still awesome that you got the rings and all :thumbup:

Did you mean 8 FOOT telescope? LOL. ;) that is CLOSE to see the rings. :)

Did you mean 8 FOOT telescope? LOL. ;) that is CLOSE to see the rings. :)

Er, no, that's an 8" MIRROR inside a Newtonian telescope. The main 'tube' of the telescope is about 4' I'd guess. Telescopes are generally classified by the mirror size. ;)

That is a nice pic for what you had to work with :thumbup:

They're classified by mirror size, focal ratio and type of telescope, that is, refractor or reflector, newtonian, dobsonian, schmidt cassegrain, cassegrain, schmidt, folded optics, etc.

Saturn is a fairly easy target, and with the right t-scope and conditions, the pictures can range from good to astounding. If you're in the southern states, (florida), the sky is so steady that you can push magnifications of THOUSANDS of power, not just hundreds.

Most of the mirrors out there (meade, celestron, orion telescopes) are adequate for use on planetary. Once when you look through a very high end refractor (astro physics, takahashi, TEC), you'll be astounded. We had 3200 people viewing for Mars on August 23rd of 2003. William Hartman, one of the big guys on Mars geology, took a look through our C14 (celestron, 14 inch schmidt cassegrain) and didn't say a thing. Then he looked through my astro physics refractor and started rattling off surface features and was very surprised that a small refractor can outperform the big gun. I wasn't surprised though. F1 race car versus a chevy. :)

Inner diameter of the tube is usually the same size as the mirror. What you're probably thinking about is the focuser, which is 2 or 1.25 inches in diameter, depending on the focuser.

Nice shot of saturn.

Percy

Er, no, that's an 8" MIRROR inside a Newtonian telescope. The main 'tube' of the telescope is about 4' I'd guess. Telescopes are generally classified by the mirror size. ;)

Damn, rings and all :eek2:

That's amazing! Even though it's blurry, it's still fascinating to see. :woot:

Try this link. Ed does some fantastic work, though is he located in Texas, which is better than "jetstream chicago" anyday.

http://www.ghg.net/egrafton/

Yes, those pics are REAL and GROUND BASED.

Percy

That's amazing! Even though it's blurry, it's still fascinating to see. :woot: