[Rich_]

I am certainly not an expert and have not done much telescope observation for some years, but I remember having a book as child written by Patrick Moore, in which he stated that a pair of 10 x 50 binoculars were useful for general observation & for seeing things like nebulae, the Andromeda galaxy etc. This has been backed up by enthusiasts I know now for general star gazing.

I had a refractor which could magnify up to 275 times but only had a 65mm object lens so the planets used to zoom through the narrow field of view in a matter of seconds as you are also magnifying the Earth's rotation and a clock drive is required on the tripod so the telescope can track the planet or whatever.Also the 65mm lens was no where near up letting enough light in for the potential magnification.

I also realised early on that the colour pictures you see in books of the planets in all their colourful glory were not what I would see through my telescope. Many of these have been taken with long exposures to allow the optimum amount of light to the film with a clock drive on the telescope tripod ( which rotates your telescope in it's mount once in 24 hours )

I found the maximum practical magnification I could use with the refractor I had was about 65 times, this showed the rings round Saturn as a very small disc with a ring round it, you could see Jupiter & it's 4 moons and the phases of Venus. A reflector telescope is supposed to be be better, but I had no experience of them. Also remember that with an astronomical telescope things appear upside down. I think this is because they have to insert another lens to put things the right way up, and as this looses light reaching the eye.

It is a very interesting subject and it gave me a lot of pleasure as a youngster.