Barlow and FR good use of £200 windfall?

[Penguin]

Hi Guys,

I have an unexpected £200 to spend on myself and was thinking of buying stuff for the scope. Originally I was looking at a budget CCD but I would have to add some more for that and the reviews of the items I was looking at kept putting me off. I then thought it might be better to improve the range of fields of view for visual and photography using Barlows and Focal Reducers.

I currently have a standard Skywatcher 150P on an NEQ5-Pro. I emage using an unmodified Canon 450D and a philips SP900 webcam. The SW only has a 2x barlow and I feel sure it can get closer in to the planets if I were to get a 3x or even 4x, or would that be beyond the limits of the scope? Likewise for larger deep sky targets like M31 or the Pleiades, a focal reducer might enable me to get the whole thing onto the 450D chip and be more forgiving of alignment errors etc.

Does this seem like a good plan and is there much variety in price and quality for these components? Could anyone recommend the best combination for my kit?

Many thanks,

Alistair.

[Astroboffin]

Hi,

I would spend the money on getting your 450D modded at a cost of £80 from Juan at cheap Astrophotography, and then the remaining £120 on a second hand Televue powermate, they come up on astro buy and sell site, the new ones are only £160 so you could put a bit to it and get a new one, don't bother getting a cheap Barlow, you will regret it, while you have the money get the best one available like the powermate, it will work a great with your webcam, if you want more mag go for the 5x powermate same price as the 2.5x.

That my advice anyway, I am sure there will be people that will disagree

AB

[russ.will]

Not totally, as I have a ES 2x Tele Extender which does exactly the same thing, is indistinguishable in use, but lighter on the pocket.

However, as the OP is using a Newt, I'd check how much in-focus travel you've got before buying a Powermate, as it uses up it's own focal length in the imaging chain. A Barlow pushes the focal point out and will give you more, not less in-focus travel to play with.

Russell

[Penguin]

Thanks for the advice guys, If I get the 450 modded, will that affect non-astro use? I might give FLO a ring for advice on Barlows and FRs.