Highest Power X for C-8

Just wondering what the highest practical X is for visual observing. The Rule of apeture per inch is ; 60x per inch of APT. That would be 480x Does this seem about right to most of you C8 fans? A 5mm. EP would be about the highest EP to use at 406x a 5mm. Radian/Ortho would push to 508x Thinking about high power EP's for Mars in Aug. Also Powermates or Barlowing maybe. This of course is for Planets & or Lunar viewing. For DSO's like M-13 I am most comfortable in the 30mm. range, 68X . BTW I finally got my new C8 collimated, now the images are more like what my 102 refractor resolves..(Almost) John M

John,

My highest power viewing is often limited by seeing (and it depends on the turbulence of the air that I'm looking thru), but on the better nights I can use my 9mm Vixen LV Lanthanum eyepiece or Barlow up a longer focal length eyepiece to get to 8mm and sometimes even to 7mm. My good friend has a 7mm Nagler Type 1 and plans to sell it because it is just too rare when the seeing allows that high of power in our scopes. He has a Meade 8 inch LX10 and I have a C8 like yours (2003 mm focal length). I usually start with the Vixen 24 to 8 mm Zoom and dial in on the object (usually Saturn, Jupiter or Mars). When I notice the image clarity go beyond the "sweet spot" I read the mm setting of the zoom and pick the 9mm only if the zoom gets past the 12mm marking. The single 9mm LV eyepiece is slightly better than the zoom, so if I get to 10-11 on the zoom, I know if the 9 will work O.K. or not. We have only been able to use his 7mm Nagler in the SCTs about 30% of the time. It does a great job on those occasions when the seeing allows, but he plans to trade it or sell it and get a 9mm Nagler, which I will have trouble using because of my eyeglasses. Someday I want a set of Radians: 8mm, 10mm 12mm so I can pick the best one for a given night, but that's over $600 for three eyepieces. For now, I'm just investing in better quality Barlows to use with my 35mm Celestron Optima (best eyepiece in my case). The eyepieces I own below 10mm, are getting sold with the shorter focal length refractors.

Cheers,

Ed

P.S. Congratulations on the C8 collumation improvements. I will probably need to get those Bob's Knobs and see if I can get more out of my C8. That might be a limiting factor in the high power I can use too.