Barlow Advice

[Hemsy]

Hi all,

When ordering my SW 130, there was a free 2x Barlow as part of the package - good deal I thought

Seems the Barlow is not as hot as I hoped and I am looking for another, better quality Barlow. I heard the TAL 2x Barlow is not a bad option.

Interested in any thoughts.

Thanks,

Ed

[Gina]

The Tal is very good and excellent value for money.

[M4lcs67]

I use the Celestron Ultima 2x barlow and that is a very good piece of kit. Perhaps a little bit on the pricey side, but you get what you pay for.

[Hemsy]

Cheers guys - although what are the opinions between going down the Barlow route, or just expanding my current EP set and forgetting the Barlow. Currently have the standard 10mm and 25mm EPs, and recently purchased 15mm and 8mm Vixen NPLs.

Thanks,

Ed

[JamesF]

The standard Skywatcher barlow that comes with their comes is rubbish. It's just a single plastic lens. I bought an Ultima 2x barlow and took the original barlow apart to use as an extension tube.

I do tend to use the barlow only when imaging. For visual I prefer to have just the eyepiece. In your case unless you also want it for imaging I can't see a major benefit of having the 2x barlow except for doubling the effective magnification with the 8mm EP, otherwise you have a good range with the EPs you already have. In that situation I'd be tempted to skip the barlow and buy an eyepiece with a focal length that took me to close to the theoretic maximum magnification of the 130 and perhaps a 32mm EP as well for a large field of view.

It is worth making the point that some short focal length EPs have very little eye relief and if that's important to you then it can be useful to use a barlow with a longer focal length EP with more eye relief instead.

James

[Zul]

I want to ask.

If my eyepieces field of view is 52 then with 2x barlow it will be same?

[John]

I want to ask.

If my eyepieces field of view is 52 then with 2x barlow it will be same?

Depends on the eyepiece and the barlow lens. You may loose some of that field of view with a 32mm eypiece used in some barlows for example wheras a 10mm eyepiece would not be affected.

[Hemsy]

Thanks - some food for thought there.

I may just expand my eyepiece collection: Just as side question, my 130 is F5 and have read they are not as forgiving to lesser quality eyepieces. Would the higher power Vixen NPLs or the BST's (in my price range) be good enough for my scope.

Thanks,

Eddie

[rwilkey]

Hi Eddie, they would both work well at f/5, both good quality eyepieces. Work even better in the Evostar 90!

[Brinders]

I have the TAL 2x barlow and the Skywatcher 2" ED 2x barlow. In my opinion neither is as good as the 1.25" Revelation Astro apo 2.5 x barlow, which gives superb chromatic aberration free views at only £31. This is the barlow I now use to image the planets and moon (as well as visual) with my SCT.

Revelation Astro 2.5x Barlow Lens 1.25"

Brinders

[West End Wendy]

Thanks for that recommendation Brinders. That's gone on my shopping list.

Tim