any advice for when using a 5X Barlow

[oldpink]

got my revelation 5x yesterday and tried it out last night on Jupiter and Mars
first off I set up and centered on Jupiter with my 2x easy enough then raised the exposure time up quite a bit as I knew that the 5x would need it
put the 5x in and put the camera on and nothing in the FOV slewed around a bit still nothing, took the focus right back and ramped up the gain looking for anything
focused half in searched but nothing further in on focus nothing, getting frustrated I went back to the 2x and I wasn't far off center re aligned and went again
finally I managed to catch a glimpse of  a glow and the histogram went up fiddled with the focus (the smallest fraction known to man) and finally got Jupiter

problem was to see it decent on the screen meant much longer exposures (expected) but trying to get a sharp focus proved almost impossible
Mars was a similar experience finally got it in frame and sort of focused but seemed to be getting flaring off to one edge like the focus wasn't sharp
I knew taking the focal length up would make it more tricky 

any tips to help or settings to try in firecapture or sharpcap
I really do need to get a motorized focus setup or at least a decent dual speed, the standard SW unit doesn't help matters

[Leveye]

Most times the quality of that nights seeing dictates everything. That and then the quality of the barlow and other optics. Thats a lot of magnification and pretty demanding of even the better gear.

[oldpink]

seeing was about average for me last night
got some decent Jupiter Mars & Saturn shots with the 2x, maybe I'm pushing it a bit far for the gear
F25 should be achievable I know others go even higher, but I suppose my location and LP issues don't help matters either
will be interesting to try it in a dark sky site to see if that makes a lot of difference

[BenDavis]

I have the rev x5 too and so far its been near to useless, even on the moon it's not been great so far. I have the rev x2.5 though and that seems ok but I'm now looking at buying a Televue Powermate but not sure how much they are worth it over the rev barlows for the money.... expensive things!

I'm sure someone here will have an answer to this!?

[Steve Ward]

You'll need the seeing to be absolutely perfect for the 5x to be of any use to you , so rare are those occasions in the UK in general , and especially in your neck of the woods that I suspect , nee predict ,  that it will sit unused in your EP box for all eternity ...  

[oldpink]

yeah I thought it was pushing it a bit with my conditions
still it may come in to play now & then

[Mr TamiyaCowboy]

114mm x 1000mm focal catadipotric ( sperical mirror ) , coupled with dual 2x barlow ( 4x barlow) and a MS lifecam 1280 x 720

that puts me around F35, i had 2000,0ms exposure and was just able to make out mars as a fuzzy gray blob.

brightness is locked to gain so oversaturated the whole image with noise as the camera struggled.

focus was a touch job, just touching focuser wheel had the image skewing around.

you need the finderscope and the telescope to be nigh on perfect align when going up so quick

from 2x to a 5x. .. just going from 2x to a doule 2x is bad for me.