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Buying a Powermate?


wasteland

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Does adding a powermate require focus adjustment like a Barlow does?

If there is a change at all, it's really small. It retains the characteristics of the eyepiece including the focal point.

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I'm reading a lot of interesting opinions here, keep them coming, especially since it seems like there are two different leading opinions about the necessity of a Powermate/Barlow over having a number of higher-power eyepieces.

First of all, since whatever I buy at this point is likely to come from the second hand market, what would you feel would be appropriate prices for the 1.25'' 2.5x and the 2'' 2x Powermates? 

And secondly, would you say that buying instead a shorter focal length eyepiece such as http://www.apm-telescopes.de/en/explore-scientific-82-n2-eyepiece-4-7mm.html would already grant me a range of magnifications adequate for observing planets and Planetaries with some confort?

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IMO the 2.5x Powermate doesn't degrade the image at all. I use mine a lot for a 203x magnification using a 16mm T5 Nagler with my Mak. The T5 weighs around 200 grammes (7 oz) which is manageable on the Powermate which weighs around the same (204 g). It gives me an 82° AFOV with a 22.1mm field stop with the 16mm T5 Nagler. With the Powermate the T5 is essentially reduced to 6.4mm, the nearest equivalent Nagler (5mm), would only give me a field stop of 7mm. The TeleVue 32mm Plossl and 24mm Panoptic have huge field stops of 27mm, I can effectively 'reduce' them to 12.8mm and 9.6mm respectively with the 1.25" 2.5x Powermate. 

Admittedly, the Powermate isn't cheap, but it will increase your eyepiece capabilities and should last a lifetime.

http://www.televue.com/engine/TV3b_page.asp?id=53&Tab=_back

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I've just sold a 2" 2x Powermate in mint condition for around £160.00.

I sold a 1.25" 2.5x one (new style) not so long ago for around £100 but I can't recall the exact figure :icon_scratch:

My reason for selling these was purely because I've got short focal length eyepieces that cover the focal lengths that the Powermates delivered and I found myself using an eyepiece alone rather than bothering to add the Powermate into the optical train.

For what it's worth my short focal length eyepieces are:

Tele Vue Ethos 6mm

Pentax XW 5mm

Tele Vue Radian 4mm

Pentax XW 3.5mm

Tele Vue Radian 3mm

If Tele Vue produce their new Delite eyepieces in the 4mm and 3mm focal lengths I might swap the Radians out for those but otherwise I'm covered for high power views :smiley:

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All of those I'm quite sure cost more than a Powermate, especially the Ethos. Still, most of the Powermate I see are in the 225/250$ area for the 2'' and 150$ for the 1.25'', with shipping generally not included (and shipping from the US to where I am would add another good 50$ to the tally). I guess that's probably the average market value for these objects.

How about orthoscopic eyepieces? How do those factor in the equation? Everybody says they are nearly unrivalled when it comes to contrast and light transmission, whilst having a rather narrow AFOW. Are those just as good when observing planetaries? What is the average price for a good quality Ortho?

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All of those I'm quite sure cost more than a Powermate, especially the Ethos. Still, most of the Powermate I see are in the 225/250$ area for the 2'' and 150$ for the 1.25'', with shipping generally not included (and shipping from the US to where I am would add another good 50$ to the tally). I guess that's probably the average market value for these objects.

How about orthoscopic eyepieces? How do those factor in the equation? Everybody says they are nearly unrivalled when it comes to contrast and light transmission, whilst having a rather narrow AFOW. Are those just as good when observing planetaries? What is the average price for a good quality Ortho?

Couldn't you order one from here? It would only have to be shipped from the UK.

http://www.telescopehouse.com/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2etelescopehouse%2ecom%2fcgi-bin%2fsh000001%2epl%3fREFPAGE%3dhttp%253a%252f%252fwww%252etelescopehouse%252ecom%252findex%252ehtml%26WD%3dtelevue%26PN%3dTeleVue_Erecting_Prism_1_25__%252ehtml%2523aAMI_2d0011&WD=powermate%20televue&PN=TeleVue_Powermate_2_5x_1_25__%2ehtml%23aPMT_2d2513#aPMT_2d2513

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That's no second hand retailer, though, unless I'm badly mistaken (which I could very well be). Unless I determine that the game is not worth the candle because of the high shipping fees, I'm sticking to the likes of cloudynights, astrobuysell and the Italian astrosell (which would of course minimise the fees, but I've never seen a Powermate there - nor anything TV, for what it's worth).

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That's no second hand retailer, though, unless I'm badly mistaken (which I could very well be). Unless I determine that the game is not worth the candle because of the high shipping fees, I'm sticking to the likes of cloudynights, astrobuysell and the Italian astrosell (which would of course minimise the fees, but I've never seen a Powermate there - nor anything TV, for what it's worth).

Oh sorry, I thought you were having difficulty getting a new Powermate locally and were considering getting one outside the EU. I can't say that I've seen a Powermate for sale secondhand outside of eBay.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Tele-Vue-1-25-2-5x-Powermate-PMT-2513-/141725230967?hash=item20ff7b6777:g:8IAAAOSw0HVWAb-v

I don't know if this helps.

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I didn't see Johns come up for sale, so I missed that one.

Apart from someone wanting a silly amount for one a couple of months back I haven't seen a secondhand one for a very long time, they are very sort after, when I sold mine it went in minutes.

Alan

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