posted on Sep, 15 2011 @ 05:15 AM
it is possible, but count on doing a lot of work, lookup dobson or dobsonians
biggest obstacle (pricewise) seems to be the coating if the mirror.
cheaper/easier just to buy a classic used newton reflector (they don't seem so popular these days?)
as for magnification, focal length of telescope / focal length of eyepiece = magnification
just bought a cheap 700mm newton (±30$) and a new 8-24mm zoom eyepiece plus a 2x barlow lens (±100$)
700/8 gives me a magnification of 87.5. the barlow doubles the magnification of a lens, so that gives us 175.
175 is pushing the telescope a bit too far (can't recall the formula for effective max magnification for a given focal length), still I can fill my
view with the head of the rusty nail on the chimney on the house across the street. OR about a quarter of the moon. Nice texturing and cratering,
especially in the shadowy areas. No anomalies yet though
edit: btw if you need to go deeper into space, light becomes of the essense. since light = size of aperture (diameter of the mirror), bigger is better
here. There seems to be a consensus on that size of the aperture supersedes "max magnification", so watch out.
Personally I have a puny 3.5 inch (and dreaming of a 6"), but it has been a fun little beginners telescope so far.
edit on 15-9-2011 by khnumkhufu because: aperture addition