(gswork) wrote in message . com...

What is the highest magnification realistically available to amateurs
and the best amatuer scope in realistic seeing.

Hard to say; it depends partly on aperture, partly on optical quality,
but mostly on seeing and on how high *you* want to push the magnification --
or to put it another way, how fuzzy an image you are willing to deal with.

I don't think I've ever gone above 400X with my 12.5-inch scope,
but the seeing here in New England is not especially good. I've
heard of amateurs in Florida, Arizona, or California using well over
1000X on big Dobs. I've recently been reading reports of amateurs
getting spells of incredible seeing while using pro equipment, like
Thomas Cave viewing Mars at 3000X during the 1956 apparition on
a night of perfect seeing at the eyepiece of the 100-inch Mt. Wilson
reflector (http://www.mars.dti.ne.jp/~cmo/198/cave.html).

A really huge mirror
in space, or an even bigger one built on the moon, would perhaps get
to the point of being able to see nearby stars as discs.

Imaging star disks is getting to be almost routine with adaptative
optics on the big new telescopes.

btw, i hadn't appreciated how big in the sky andromedia is - i guess
it's because we generally only see the smaller central part.

Probably because you haven't seen it under a dark sky. Yes, it spills
way out of the field of view of most eyepieces in most telescopes.

- Tony Flanders