Barlow lens

[andybee]

Tried using Barlow lens for first time tonight it just made the imagine impossible to see!! The one I have is a cheap plastic tube with a plastic lens inside!! Jen I look through it on its own it does nothing-please help

Andy

[John]

Sorry if you know this but you need to insert an eyepiece into the barlow lens - so it goes:

your eye - eyepiece - barlow lens - scope.

Use your lowest power eyepiece (the one with the largest number on it) to start with.

Used on it's own, a barlow lens will show nothing.

A barlow lens has the effect of doubling the magnification that an eyepiece gives so sometimes using one gives just too much magnification.

[andybee]

Cool got that I just took the Barlow apart and there is a plastic cap which narrows the tube to let only a small amount of light in!! I guess my question is have I broken it if this plastic cap is not in the same position

[John]

It's probably not broken but the cap is there for a reason, probably a light stop of some sort, so try and get it back where it was or the barlow might not work as well as it ought to.