Astromaster 130EQ and 2x Barlow

[Ukuser34]

So I managed to find Jupiter (horray) with my Astromaster 130EQ (non motorised), I can see the belts through a 10mm lens (horray) so I purchased the Celestron lens kit (this one http://www.picstop.co.uk/celestron-astromaster-accessory-kit) and put my barlow lens in and for some reason I simply cannot focus - the planet starts large, I then focus the tube moving the focuser towards the tube and I then can't go any further and I'm not in focus!! Its brand new kit (although the scope was second hand on ebay) and I'm rather disappointed that it didn't work!

What on earth (or in space) am I doing wrong?

Thanks

Antony

[Mak the Night]

25 minutes ago, Ukuser34 said:

So I managed to find Jupiter (horray) with my Astromaster 130EQ (non motorised), I can see the belts through a 10mm lens (horray) so I purchased the Celestron lens kit (this one http://www.picstop.co.uk/celestron-astromaster-accessory-kit) and put my barlow lens in and for some reason I simply cannot focus - the planet starts large, I then focus the tube moving the focuser towards the tube and I then can't go any further and I'm not in focus!! Its brand new kit (although the scope was second hand on ebay) and I'm rather disappointed that it didn't work!

What on earth (or in space) am I doing wrong?

Thanks

Antony

Difficult to say what's wrong. I have the AstroMaster Kit and the Barlow (Synta made) is quite good quality, better than the GSO Barlows usually included in Celestron kits. I believe your scope has a 650mm f/l so the 6mm EP included in the kit will give around 108x, twice that with the Barlow. Perhaps you need to back focus more. The Barlow in that kit also has a removable element and it can be unthreaded to give you a plain T-Adaptor. It can be very useful on its own and the Barlow can be also separately threaded into an eyepiece to give 1.6x.

[rockystar]

have you got an extension tube in your focuser? If, so, try removing it when using the Barlow. As you say, it sounds like you don't have enough inward travel to reach the focus point.