Eps, powermates and barlows

[sirmetin]

For a fast-ish newtonian 250mm F4.8 I am ordering a 6mm 14mm and 24mm EP (all televue of one type or another). Other than for imaging are there any advantages to using a barlow or powermate to give any particular mags on say lunar or planets.

[John]

You do seem to me to have a "gap" in your eyepiece range around the 130x mark - say a 9mm eyepiece. A 1.6x barlow would give you something around that used with the 14mm but used with the other eyepieces you have would deliver either too much power or would more or less duplicate your 14mm. A 2.5x Powermate has the same problems as well I think. As a good quality barlow / powermate will cost as much as a decent eyepiece you might want to think about a 9mm eyepiece or something around there, to add to the others.

[MjrTom]

I would agree something around 9mm or 10mm would be ideal

[sirmetin]

I have had a think and decided that 200 120 50 will be a better 3 than 200 85 50 then I can decide the next EP whenever. So I have dropped the 14mm radian and am getting the 6 and 10 Delos and the 24 Panoptic unless I am told otherwise!!!

[ronin]

Probably a better range as you may not get to use 200x all that often. 120x is a pretty reasonable all round magnification and should useable all the time - cloud excluded.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

With my 8" I use 200x quite frequently, and even go up to 250x and 288x in good seeing. If you limit yourself to three EPs the range is sensible. At some point, you might want to consider a Nagler (22 or 26, both great EPs) to replace the 24 Panoptic, for those wide-field objects.