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Hey! I'm looking at getting a new lens for my 10" Dobsonian. The 5mm lens im looking at doesn't reach the maximum magnification (by 260) i can get and with the 3x barlow lens it exceeds it (by 220) The 2.3mm lens ever so slightly exceeds the max magnification (by 23x) and obviously shouldn't be used with the 3x barlow lens. I think i will invest in a 2x barlow lens and go with the 5mm lens i just wanted an opinion on how drastic the change in image quality would be if i exceeded the magnification by 23x -Thanks so much!

I was pondering the other day, on how we could instigate a terraforming of Mars. Mildly controversial, apparently there are those who want Mars to remain red and not be greened up, and there are those who think we should fix up our own planet's ecosystem before attempting to muck around with others, but I've always had an interest in Mars and I think it's a new frontier that is likely to be developed in some way in our lifetime, so I want to talk about this. I know there are some smart scientists on here so if you can guide me back on track where I get a bit over-enthusiastic, I'd appreciate it Now there are a few basic things we need to know 1. soil (dust / whatever) which I know nothing about 2. atmosphere 3. water 4. current temperatures 5. light intensity / wavelengths 6. the plants / fungi / algae which can be mass grown with little effort in the above conditions. Transported and sown in some kind of stratum easily. A few random Q's like how the plants adapt to changing conditions or should there be a new set of introductions periodically to continue the process (ie as it gets warmer / atmospheric changes etc.) and whether we feel genetic modification is acceptable for pioneer species to help them cope with initial extreme conditions. So for the sake of argument we do want to convert the existing environment / materials into something rather Earthlike we can live in. What are your thoughts? I'd rather keep it to practicalities please no philosophy here Yeah well I'm doing some research on this I was going to post some up but I wanted to get the topic started if anyone else was interested get a yarn going