The evening was clear and cold and I needed to take a trip to Seabrook for some cold medicine, so I set up the XT8i and started the cooling fan before leaving. About an hour later I returned and looked at Saturn in the 13mm Hyperion. Crisp and clear image, and I thought I could see the Cassini Division! So I went to the 5mm and the planet just popped out, totally in focus with the CD clearly visible in direct vision, for the first time for me. Bands on the planetary cloud cover were clearly visible as well.
With the 5mm EP the mag is already at 240x but I figured why not try the 2x barlow as well, so we went to 480x and amazingly the image held together well. CD still plainly visible, but of course the image only stays in the FOV for about 10 seconds.
The movements of the scope at this magnification are so tiny that I can see a real need to improve the stiction/friction properties of the dob base. Luckily there are many web sites describing upgrades to these areas (different types of surface, Pledge furniture polish, beeswax, replacing some of the UHMW plastic with teflon or Ebony Star, etc.) One of these days... and I'm definitely planning on flocking and baffling the interior of the tube to improve contrast, since there is so much artificial light in most places I'm observing from.
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