Recommendation for Barlow for less than £50

[nevermore67]

Hi everyone.

I will shortly be taking delivery of a Skywatcher 127 mak for my wife's first scope but I have read that the Barlow lens that comes included is pretty unusable.

Can anyone recommend a decent Barlow for under £50?

I know a lot of people rate Tal Barlows but they seem to have been discontinued and as rare as hen's teeth - eBay can't help. Telescope House have a Revelation Astro 2x for just over £30 which seem to get fair reviews, but would I be better spending a little more on a Celestron Omni which I have heard is a good bet.

Thanks

[John]

The mak has a pretty long focal length at 1500mm - it may not need a barlow. The best I've used in that price range was the Revelation 2.5x 3 element. The Omni was pretty ordinary - I felt it was exactly the same item as the Revelation 2x but with Celestron branding and colour scheme.

With the long focal length of the scope a barlow may well not be a necessity though and you could put the money towards better quality eyepieces.

[Patbloke]

I know a lot of people rate Tal Barlows but they seem to have been discontinued and as rare as hen's teeth - eBay can't help. Telescope House have a Revelation Astro 2x for just over £30 which seem to get fair reviews, but would I be better spending a little more on a Celestron Omni which I have heard is a good bet.

Thanks

I have an Omni, it's Ok but darkens the view, and with the higher mag loses sharpness I think...

 agree with John - eye piece quality does make a difference. I managed to get two really good Meade HD eye pieces second hand which I now love to bits... at half price - each were just under £50 each! having said that I got a nice 8mm ED starguider ep for £25 recently and have found a barlow a useful addition to my EP Collection when I started not so long ago :-) 

[ronin]

You will not need a barlow on a Mak, the focal length is long enough that an eyepiece on it's own will deliver more then enough magnification.

The 127 has a focal length of 1500 so a 7mm will give 214x, if you wanted to drop a 5mm in that is 300x and you will likely never get a night good enough to allow that much to be used..

Your biggest problem could be getting the magnification low enough.

[Ruud]

hello Nev,

The telescope is an f/11.8. You can use eyepieces from about 6mm and up, but the views through the telescope will look better in eyepieces over 11.8mm.

Now, if you tried a 2x barlow on the 10mm that comes with the scope, the combination will work like a 5mm eyepiece. That's too short. The image will be dim and blurry.

So, you could use a 2x barlow only on your 25mm eyepiece, giving an effective focal length of 12.5mm which should prove useable.

I'd get a 32mm Plössl. It would give you access to the widest true view your telescope can give. And the exit pupil of about 3mm would be just fine for deep sky objects.

[Blazar]

I know a lot of people rate Tal Barlows but they seem to have been discontinued and as rare as hen's teeth 

Hi, they have not been discontinued, just no longer imported. TalTeleoptics (in the US) stock them still  (both x2 and x3). I got both from here and was pretty reasonable on cost.

[Alfian]

I can certainly second the Revelation 2.5 - great quality for the money. Someone has posted (somewhere) that its closer to 2x than 2.5 but I've never checked. That said the 127 at 1500mm will give you a lot of magnification without the barlow. A barlow will however  preserve the longer eye relief of  say a 15mm EP whilst giving the equivalent magnification of  half that or less.

[nevermore67]

Thanks guys, as ever your advice is invaluable.

I will leave the Barlow for the moment, invest in a 32mm Plossl and consider an 8mm for planetary viewing if the standard SW 10mm is no good.

As a rule of thumb, are there any brands I should look for in particular (or more importantly avoid!) when looking for sub £50 EPs? For e.g. Harrisons do a Revelation 32mm Plossl for £26.99 whereas the equivalent Celestron Omni is £49.99. Presumably it is a case of getting what I pay for?!

Thanks

[Alfian]

Hi again,  I also have the Rev 32mm and its a decent EP for the money. Bought it as the Rev. Barlow was good. In reality it is probably from the same stable as many of the budget  Plossls are so the name is not of huge significance. The Omnis' I think are a cut above that. Vixens NPLs are pretty good. There are a few specific planetary EPS that get a good press eg the TMBs but I'm sure you will get plenty of other advice. Standard EPs tend to be adequate - spending a bit usually improves matters!

[John]

.......As a rule of thumb, are there any brands I should look for in particular (or more importantly avoid!) when looking for sub £50 EPs? For e.g. Harrisons do a Revelation 32mm Plossl for £26.99 whereas the equivalent Celestron Omni is £49.99. Presumably it is a case of getting what I pay for?!

Thanks

In the sub £50 niche the ones that seem to stand out to me are:

BST Explorer / Starguider

Baader Classic Orthoscopics

Vixen NPL Plossls

On the used market you can also get William Optics SPL's, Tele Vue Plossls, Baader Genuine, Astro Hutech and Fujiyama orthos for around £50.

All the above are very good eyepieces.

[rockinrome]

Skywatcher deluxe 2x.

[nightfisher]

The Revelation 32mm plossl is a strong performer, a very good ep, my first choice for high power would be a used orthoscopic 7 or 9mm