A bit basic, but I have a couple questions in preparation for Mars observing (if the weather ever clears). First, I have an 8" SCT. I have Parks Gold Plossl eyepieces of 20 and 15 mm and a Parks Gold 2x barlow (which yields up to about 267x). It's always seemed that my barlow degrades the image, more than just the effect of magnification. Is it worth getting a new eyepiece to yield 200+ magnification without a barlow?
I enjoyed viewing it in its natural color, but of course it was much too bright. I tried my Meade variable polarizer but it seemed to soften the image a lot. I'm thinking of trying a regular moon filter. Would you recommend 25% or 50% light transmission? Or is there something better that doesn't give too much of an artificial appearanc
Thanks very much.
I enjoyed viewing it in its natural color, but of course it was much too bright. I tried my Meade variable polarizer but it seemed to soften the image a lot. I'm thinking of trying a regular moon filter. Would you recommend 25% or 50% light transmission? Or is there something better that doesn't give too much of an artificial appearanc
Thanks very much.
