Barlow Dilemma

[rawhead]

Initially for use with an ST80. The authors of ‘Illustrated guide to astronomical wonders’ highly recommend the Orion Ultrascopic X2 for around £70. For the same price I could get a X2 and a X3 TAL from FLO…

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Jon

[thumbless]

I am a newbie and i was recommended to go for the Celestron Ultima 2X as it is considered a good Barlow.

Someone also recommended me that the less glass the better.

Then someone recommended me that my Barlow would be my less used eyepiece.

Also informed that instead of a Barlow go for magnification in the eyepiece.

As i am still learning i will soon be corrected if i am wrong, hopefully.

I have a Barlow sitting that i have not used much due to not having clear skies.

Davey.

:moon:

[GazOC]

http://www.telescopehouse.com/acatalog/Orion_Shorty_Plus_Barlow_2x_1_25__.html

Is the same as the Celestron Ultima (great Barlow) but cheaper. As an aside a x2 Barlow will give close to x3 on a refractor if you put it before the diagonal rather than after....

[The Warthog]

There are advantages to using a Barlow, especially when achieving very high magnifications. You can use a Barlow to shortne the length of an eyepiece that has a comfortable eye relief and good FOV, and get double or triple the magnification without sacrificing FOV or Eye relief.

I was using a Barlow for years that was only 'good', not excellent and certainly not an APO, but I never had any real complaints about its performance. It was a Celestron, and its number was one different from the Ultima. I was able to see structure in the Orion nebula with that Barlow that I could not see with the ep alone.

I have an Antares apo Barlow on the way to me now, but that's because I need a barlow, and I can afford the apo.

[thumbless]

Thanks Gaz depends who you are talking to and what people prefer.

Also told that eye pieces are chosen on personal choice.

Some one recommended me to get a Baader 13mm + 21mm Hyperion and the fine tuning rings which give me 3 eyepieces in one.

A 2 X Celestron Ultima Barlow.

A 7mm Baader Orthoscopic.

I have a 5mm Baader Hyperion that is still in the box that purchased earlier this week from FLO.

Was informed that rather than buy a eyepiece kit for £100 with eyepieces that you probably will never use you are better buying a few good quality ones that you will frequently use.

The recommendations were from an other forum and i can not fault the advice given, would rather buy good kit at a fair price than buy inferior equipment that would frustrate and annoy me.

Came to this forum later on and as you will see everybody has there own preferences, ideas, bank balance LOL.

Davey.

:moon:

[GazOC]

Don't get me wrong Davey, I MUCH prefer to do it the way you suggested, using a couple more eyepieces to cover the range needed rather than use a Barlow but I was just suggesting a cheaper alternative to the original question.

[thumbless]

All i can say Gaz is i wish i had talked to you or been on this forum months ago and i would of probably bought the shorty if it does the same job.

I usually look at past threads do my research then post to find other peoples opinions before buying anything.

I now have my eyepiece set and now i need a box to put them into, Maplins was suggested and that will probably be my next purchase.

Davey. :sunny: :occasion6:

:moon:

[The Warthog]

Initially for use with an ST80. The authors of ‘Illustrated guide to astronomical wonders’ highly recommend the Orion Ultrascopic X2 for around £70. For the same price I could get a X2 and a X3 TAL from FLO…

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Jon

I don't know what your other eps are, but why not get the 2x TAL, and spend the rest of the money on something else. One of the reasons I am going with an expensive Barlow now is that I am using some eps that cost what my original kit cost. Still, I see the Barlow as an integral part of an ep kit, not as a cheap way of getting more eps, although it is that, too.

Most amateur astronomers end up with far too many eps. Most have more steps in magnification than they really need. I usually go from my 24mm to my 7.5mm for a closer look, and my 4.3mm if I want a really close up view. A Barlow will give me some additional strings for my bow, but a bow can only use so many strings. Chances are I will add a 32mm later, but I'm not in a hurry. My basic kit is three eps. I recently sold off eleven eps as I couldn't see myself using them all that much, and some were very good eps, too.

My vasic kit is just three eps, and a Barlow soon to be added.

[jgs001]

Jon, I have the TAL X2 Barlow and I'm using it with my ST80 alike and my Hyperions. It may not be able to do the Hyperions justice, and I don't have the experience to say whether it's really any good or not optically. But it works nicely for me, it's also very cheap and worked very well with the Plossls I have. I used the barlow quite a bit last month through the later phases of the moon to get the Mag up to 160x with a 5mm Ortho. I was able to get quite a number of the Lunar 100 using it.

HTH

[rawhead]

Thanks for the info guys. Plenty to thing about (as usual) The TAL is edging it at the mo...

I usually go from my 24mm to my 7.5mm for a closer look, and my 4.3mm if I want a really close up view.

Hi WH,

Like the philosophy of keeping the eyepiece count down

What mags do those three eyepieces give you?

Cheers

Jon

[The Warthog]

In the 150mm f/5 reflector, they give me about 32x, 100x, and 175x, respectively. Double that for the Barlow I received in the mail today. The 350x with the Barlow on the 4.3mm is pushing it a little, but works well on the Moon in good seeing. I have a 4.8mm Nagler that I haven't tried yet, and it will give me 156x and 312x, which isn't too much of a reach.

In the 105mm f/9.5 frac, they give me 41x, 133x, and 232x, and again, double that with the Barlow, but I won't use the Barlow with the 4.3 in that scope, and would use it in the 7.5mm only under the best of seeing conditions.

I would like to round out the collection with a 32mm, which would give me lengths of 32mm, 24mm , (16mm), (12mm), 7.5mm, 4.3mm, (3.75mm), and (2,15mm), with the bracketed lengths coming from the Barlow. I will probably put the 4.3 in reserve in favour of the Nagler, but it doesn't make much difference to the kit. Notice the lack of overlap in the powers, which was my plan.

I honestly haven't had any issues with using a Barlow with my eps, and usually the view has been very good. I prefer the Barlowed view for shorter ep lengths to squinting into the short eye relief and small eye lens that most shorter eps give you.