The higher the magnification the better, right?
Wrong! A lot of telescope manufactures would like you to believe this, but it is far from the truth. A good general rule of thumb is that any magnification above 50 per inch of aperture is useless. Even 50 per inch is seldom useful. The optimum magnification for a telescope varies from object to object. For planets higher magnification is to be preferred, but for nebulae and galaxies lower magnifications often yield the nicest views. The highest useful magnification is also a function of such things as the quality of the optics, the stability of the mounting, and the weather conditions at the time of observing.
