Celestron Utilma vs Orion Shorty Plus Barlow

[pat]

I've been looking for a Celestron Utilma Barlow. I've heard that the Orion Shorty Plus is exactly the same #93506 Celestron. If so I could widen my search. I've heard that both has been discontinued. Pat

[beamish]

To be fair, I don't know the answer but I certainly hope not cos I recently found one from the US But I can't for the life of me imagine they are the same else the Ultima would never have sold since the shorty ( which I also own) is/was half the price. The Ultima is still very highly regarded and I for one look forward to trying it out.

Try looking on the Cloudy Nights forum classifieds.

[rwilkey]

Not sure whether they have been discontinued but they are certainly getting hard to get. A while back FLO were selling them cheaper but now they are out of stock, I bought a Celestron Ultima when they were discounted, glad I did now.

[John]

I've owned them both at one time and, apart from the colour scheme, they are the same. They perform the same and the Orion is less expensive than the Celestron. Strange but true !

[JamesF]

Be aware though that it isn't a true 2x barlow and if you're relying on that then you're after the wrong barlow. I've not actually sat down and measured it myself, but I've read that it's somewhere around 2.3x to 2.4x and that's certainly consistent with the images I have from a range of barlows in different powers.

James

[riklaunim]

Celestron Ultima, Orion Shorty Plus, Antares APO, Parks Gold Barlows use the same lens element. GSO 2,5x probably also.

[JamesF]

Not sure about the GSO. I get different size images from the Ultima compared with the 2.5x GSO.

James

[John]

The Ultima and it's clones are around 2.2x I reckon. I have a GSO 2.5x at the moment and I don't think it is a clone of the Ultima. It's not a bad barlow for the price though. I did have a look at an Antares APO 2x barlow a while back. I think the optics are the same as the Ultima etc but I did not think the internal light baffling was as good. I feel light scatter control in barlows is important.

[beamish]

I've owned them both at one time and, apart from the colour scheme, they are the same. They perform the same and the Orion is less expensive than the Celestron. Strange but true !

ugh sigh !!!

[pat]

Thanks to you all for the information. Maybe it will be easier to get my hands on the Orion Barlow. Pat

[beamish]

Whayhay just discovered what I thought was an Orion shorty is in fact a Meade 126.