Magnification limit of the 85ED

This is a small aperture, short focus refractor... but with the help of the FCD1, let's see how much we might push it.

The test is conducted during day time with distant objects.

First up is a 20mm eyepiece, so we have 510/25 = 25.5x, image is exceptionally sharp.

And then I inserted a 5x Powermate, and it yields 128x, image remains very sharp.

Replacing it with a 4x TMB, i.e. same magnification as about, this eyepiece is sharper.

My floaters come in... I got a couple of annoying floating within this year, I'm getting old.

Insert a 2x barlows, we have 255x and image is still very sharp, but of course, it's getting dim with only 0.33mm exit pupil.

I don't expect to be able to see anything, I used a combination of 5x with the 4mm TMB... which means 638x!!!  Crazy me... I racked the focuser in and out, finally got a sharp but very dim image at 0.13mm exit pupil!

No image break-down!

With the Ranger, such a magnification was spoiled completely by the chromatic aberration.