Barlow Advice

[franco]

I have the standard 25mm and 10mm EP's that came with my SW 200P

after seeing Jupiter for the first time the other night I am wanting to get a barlow to increase the magnification. I haver seen some "cheap" barlows on ebay but wasnt sure if they are any good. is there anything anyone can recommend?

[rwilkey]

a bit expensive, but the Celestron Ultima is highly regarded, also still at the old price at FLO of £89, good investment in my view.

[great_bear]

a bit expensive, but the Celestron Ultima is highly regarded, also still at the old price at FLO of £89, good investment in my view.

Or you can buy the identical Orion version here <click> for £73 plus postage - one of the very rare (only?) examples where the Orion version of a product is cheaper than the Celestron/SkyWatcher version.

Other popular low cost Barlows include the Standard Orion Shorty <click> and the Tal 2x Barlow <here> and <here>

The Standard Orion Shorty is sold under other brand names too. It has the characteristic that the front can be unscrewed and used as a 1.5x Barlow.

Sky At Night magazine liked the Sky-Watcher Deluxe Barlow at £30 <here>, which also comes free with some Sky-Watcher Telescopes.

I've found most Barlows disappointing until I used a Tele Vue Powermate - but these are rather expensive.

[Canyouguesswhoitisyet]

Hi,

I have a 130p and recently looked a Jupiter for the first time too. Amazing.

I went out and bought a smaller eyepiece. I got a Meade 6.4mm 4000 series of ebay for less than £20.

Made things a whole lot better, closer, clearer. I found that with my barlow (x2 Skywatcher supplied) that although it makes the object closer you loose so much detail + its much harder to focus.

I before I knew this bought a fairly cheap X3 barlow off ebay for £22+ shipping. Thinking this would enhance my Jupiter observing experience. However it was not really the case. Again made it much bigger in the eyepiece but so hard to focus, not much detail either. Also moves out of line of sight soo quickly due to the huge magnification I was using.

Did you not have a barlow come with your scope? I thought all Skywatchers came with their standard x2.

Get one by all means as they are good for lunar, but for Jupiter I would suggest a smaller but good quality plossl / eyepiece.

[SiriusB]

FWIW, might be cheaper to buy a decent~ish eyepiece for planetary observing rather than the barlow.

If you barlow your existing ep's you get 96x & 240x, which wont help much, 96x being a bit on the low side & 240x, err...well,i doubt you'd use it on jupiter 360days of the year due to the seeing.

I'd be looking, to start with at something that gives somewhere between 140x & 180x if i were you.(which i'm not )

[great_bear]

I thought all Skywatchers came with their standard x2.

Nope.

Some come with the "Deluxe" Barlow (not too bad)

Some come with the "Standard" Barlow (quite bad)

Some come without a Barlow

[great_bear]

FWIW, might be cheaper to buy a decent~ish eyepiece for planetary observing rather than the barlow.

For what it's worth, I'd agree with this recommendation in preference to a Barlow.

A good choice to start with, would be a "TMB Designed" 6mm eyepiece from Sky's The Limit <click here> for £36

That would give you 200x magnification, which you should be able to use on nights when the atmospheric conditions are medium to good. They are the best-value eyepieces on the market I'd say, and produce very good results.

[franco]

well i certainly do need to ad more EP's to my collection so i will probably go down that route first, thanks for all the advice people, as usual on this forum people have gone out of their way to help me out, much appreciated

[M4lcs67]

I have the Celestron Ultima 2x barlow and it is a great piece of kit. Bought it from FLO for £89. Alot of places charge £120, £130 for it, so FLO's price is excellent.