Perhaps this might better have been titled "The Questar Effect."
There is a school of thought that small instruments provide advantage over larger apertures when the seeing is poor. I live in upstate New York, where we are certainly not blessed by fine seeing. Since two of us enjoy amateur astronomy, we often have more than one telescope out, especially if a planet is well placed for viewing. I've had frequent chances to compare views of the planets through fine instruments of 90mm to 10" aperture, with a 14.5" in the mix at times.
I have yet to see a night where the smaller aperture revealed more planetary detail. There were always moments to minutes when the larger showed more detail than the smaller.
Over a few nights when Saturn and Jupiter were well placed, I did some experiments with my wife's 14.5" f/6 equatorial. I used it at full aperture, and with a 6.5" off-axis mask. After the trial, the mask went in the trash. I am sure that the 14.5" was seeing limited, but the color rendition and larger exit pupil (same power) were very much appreciated, and detail was often visible that I couldn't seen with the mask.
Anyway, I wouldn't consider seeing as an "excuse" for something smaller than eight to ten inches for planetary viewing. If I lived down in the Florida Keys, I'd consider eight to ten inches insufficient.
Clear skies, Alan
There is a school of thought that small instruments provide advantage over larger apertures when the seeing is poor. I live in upstate New York, where we are certainly not blessed by fine seeing. Since two of us enjoy amateur astronomy, we often have more than one telescope out, especially if a planet is well placed for viewing. I've had frequent chances to compare views of the planets through fine instruments of 90mm to 10" aperture, with a 14.5" in the mix at times.
I have yet to see a night where the smaller aperture revealed more planetary detail. There were always moments to minutes when the larger showed more detail than the smaller.
Over a few nights when Saturn and Jupiter were well placed, I did some experiments with my wife's 14.5" f/6 equatorial. I used it at full aperture, and with a 6.5" off-axis mask. After the trial, the mask went in the trash. I am sure that the 14.5" was seeing limited, but the color rendition and larger exit pupil (same power) were very much appreciated, and detail was often visible that I couldn't seen with the mask.
Anyway, I wouldn't consider seeing as an "excuse" for something smaller than eight to ten inches for planetary viewing. If I lived down in the Florida Keys, I'd consider eight to ten inches insufficient.
Clear skies, Alan
