Your opinion and magn. experience....

[Astro-Nova]

What gives you the best quality image ?

Using a EP with barlow for magnification

or

only EP, using low diameter for magnification

[Capricorn]

I only use an eyepiece, many barlows seem poor and ultimately the additional glass has some detrimental effect even if not detectable by eye. They have to lose light and there has to be a degree of additional scattering.

Does mean you end up with a large selection of eyepieces.:D

What do you mean by:

only EP, using low diameter for magnification

Diameter has no effect.

[richbyers]

pure ep- then again my barlow was a freebi, the difference however is astronomical (..see what i did there haha)

[John]

I've used and enjoyed some top quality barlow lenses but I've now reverted to just using eyepieces on their own for convenience as much as anything - one less expensive optic to fumble with in the dark !. As Capricorn says, your eyepiece collection grows a bit

The best barlows don't add anything other than the magnification though so it's still a viable approach if you are prepared to invest in a top notch barlow / powermate (especially the latter, which are superb).

[sologuitarist61]

Eyepieces for me everytime (especially as the barlow I got with the scope is rubbish!), however I was looking at Skys the Limit a few minutes ago and I see Alan has some x3 ED Barlow's coming soon at £30, which might be worth a punt

[Astro-Nova]

What do you mean by:

Diameter has no effect.

Sorry I meant EP focal length

[Astro-Nova]

reason im asking is cause im debating to get an EP or barlow next

Im thinking x2 barlow with my 10mm and 25mm EP

or

4, 6 or 8mm EP

I just want magnification but good quality. My scope got bout 400x max. magnification and with my 10mm I get 120x so I should be able to get bit more magnification and still have good quality and as I said, not sure to get barlow or EP first..

budget is £30-£40

[zainraza]

I've found using the Tal 2x barlow quite useful.

Mainly because wearing glasses makes it difficult to use EPs such as 9mm due to the small eye relief and the barlow helps with viewing planets and the moon as some of the light is taken out so I see that as a plus side.

[John]

The max useful magnification will be in the 200x - 250x range, depending on the seeing conditions. The 400x is a theoretical max but not usable in practice because the conditions virtually never allow that sort of power to be useful.

[sologuitarist61]

reason im asking is cause im debating to get an EP or barlow next

Im thinking x2 barlow with my 10mm and 25mm EP

or

4, 6 or 8mm EP

I just want magnification but good quality. My scope got bout 400x max. magnification and with my 10mm I get 120x so I should be able to get bit more magnification and still have good quality and as I said, not sure to get barlow or EP first..

budget is £30-£40

If you can go to £50 the BST Explorer range from Skys the Limit are brilliant. (sorry, second plug for Skys the Limit - I have no interest in the firm at all I hasten to add !!)

[DazC]

reason im asking is cause im debating to get an EP or barlow next

Im thinking x2 barlow with my 10mm and 25mm EP

or

4, 6 or 8mm EP

I just want magnification but good quality. My scope got bout 400x max. magnification and with my 10mm I get 120x so I should be able to get bit more magnification and still have good quality and as I said, not sure to get barlow or EP first..

budget is £30-£40

I would look at a new ep personally. I have a 2x barlow lens and hardly use it because i feel i loose too much image quality.

TMB Planetary eps are good and are within your budget. I have the 7mm and use that loads.

D.C

[Marki]

I second the BST explorer types. Got a couple now (15mm and 25mm) - pretty nice and reasonably affordable.

I find that my TAL x2 Barlow works well with these (and ok with higher mag.) without unacceptable dimming. I also have the TAL x 3, but things get a bit too dim for me then (especially if I use higher mag. eps 9mm and smaller).