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Better Barlow

johnfosteruk

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johnfosteruk

johnfosteruk

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I'm considering a better barlow, mainly for my poor man's imaging but also for occasional obs too.

I've read various comments around the board in favour of numerous options. The two favourites being the revelation at the lower price end and the Tal from Talteleoptics in the U.S at the upper end.

So before I take the plunge I'd be interested in hearing people's views on a few points.

1. Will these Barlows be significantly better than the plastic thing bundles with my skywatcher reflector? I seem to have a harder time focussing with the barlow, lots of what I'm calling CA or perhaps colour misalignment (same thing???) on occasions etc. I'm pretty sure this isn't simply due to the increased mag being to much for my OTA to resolve as I've compared 10mm on it's own with 2xbarlowed 25mm and the effect is definitely there.

2. Will I see the benefit (having the better option in case of future OTA upgrades not withstanding) of the Tal over the revelation?

 

That's it really, and any other productive thoughts will be considered as well..

thanks all

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John

John

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The TAL's are not made anymore so you will need to find a used one. They are pretty good for their price - quite a bit better than the plastic one that came with your scope. They were Russian though and a budget model so I'm wondering if you mean Tele Vue from the USA at the upper end ?

Tele Vue barlows are pretty much as good as the barlow lens gets but have prices to match - nearly £100 for the 2x one.

The Revelation 2.5x 3 element barlow is a pretty good performer for it's price. Not quite in the Tele Vue league but it's a lot better than the "stock" ones that come with scopes.

 

 

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johnfosteruk

johnfosteruk

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Thanks John, it's definitely not the TV I'm referring too. I came across a link to this site: talteleoptics in a thread here a little while ago. The site shows it in stock and they've quoted me delivery to the UK. So I guess either they're a scam or they still have stock from when they were in production, or perhaps they're used.

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John

John

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12 minutes ago, johnfosteruk said:

Thanks John, it's definitely not the TV I'm referring too. I came across a link to this site: talteleoptics in a thread here a little while ago. The site shows it in stock and they've quoted me delivery to the UK. So I guess either they're a scam or they still have stock from when they were in production, or perhaps they're used.

That's the TAL 2x barlow. It used to cost around £35 when it was sold new here. As I said, it's a good quality barlow for it's price but I don't feel it's worth the price that that company are asking.

It seems to be a USA based site although all the TAL stuff was made in the USSR. You would probably end up paying import duty on anything ordered from the site.

 

 

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John

John

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The Baader Classic Q 2.25x barlow is excellent optically despite it's simple exterior finish:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/barlows/baader-classic-q-225x-barlow.html

Otherwise I'd be looking out for a used Celestron Ultima 2x barlow or an Orion "Shorty Plus" 2x barlow. You can get these for less than £50 on the used market but they have excellent Japanese optics in them. They are bascially the same item under different brandings and are, alas, out of production now which is why the used market is worth watching.

 

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johnfosteruk

johnfosteruk

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2 minutes ago, John said:

The Baader Classic Q 2.25x barlow is excellent optically despite it's simple exterior finish:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/barlows/baader-classic-q-225x-barlow.html

Otherwise I'd be looking out for a used Celestron Ultima 2x barlow or an Orion "Shorty Plus" 2x barlow. You can get these for less than £50 on the used market but they have excellent Japanese optics in them. They are bascially the same item under different brandings and are, alas, out of production now which is why the used market is worth watching.

 

Thanks John, top notch advice.

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spaceboy

spaceboy

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21 hours ago, John said:

The TAL's are not made anymore so you will need to find a used one. They are pretty good for their price - quite a bit better than the plastic one that came with your scope. They were Russian though and a budget model so I'm wondering if you mean Tele Vue from the USA at the upper end ?

Tele Vue barlows are pretty much as good as the barlow lens gets but have prices to match - nearly £100 for the 2x one.

The Revelation 2.5x 3 element barlow is a pretty good performer for it's price. Not quite in the Tele Vue league but it's a lot better than the "stock" ones that come with scopes.

 

 

It's not often I find something to disagree with John over as his wealth of knowledge far exceeds mine but on this occasion I would say the Revelation x2.5 barlow is pretty darn close to the TV barlow. I say this because I sold both my x2 & x3 TV barlows after getting a x2.5 revelation barlow as I was that impressed with its performance. At only £30 something I feel it is an absolute steal. While I have nothing but praise for the Revelation barlow it is not with out it's short comings. I have found it gobbles up inward focus and depending on your scope and eyepiece selection you may struggle to reach focus or have very little to play with.

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Dave In Vermont

Dave In Vermont

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Over here in the US, the TeleVue 2X and 3X go for about £73($105US) each - new. If they're going for £100 over there, I can see how this could be cost-prohibitive to many. But I do recommend them to folks over here. The increased price from others is worth it - over here. This as otherwise a lot of people end up buying a truckload of cheaper Barlow's first - and then, finally, spring for the TV-Barlow(s). And this is why the used-market here is full of lower-priced ones to sift through.

My latest acquisition in the Barlow-family is a GSO 2" 2X model I paid $75.00 for. I am very impressed in both the view it's giving me, as well as the build. More than worth the price in my book.

My 2¢ -

Dave

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spaceboy

spaceboy

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That you did John :D:D 

I'm sure at only £30 odd pound the quality consistency may well not be to the standard of Televue so there is a higher chance you get good and bad ones but I'm blown away by the performance I get out of mine. Put it this way there are two items in my hoard of astronomy gear that really stand out to me, the revelation x2.5 barlow and my ED120, both of which far exceeded my expectations.

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johnfosteruk

johnfosteruk

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You're not helping lads :smile: Spaceboy - I read your post and I'm getting the Revelation, then I read your next one and I'm not - don't want to take the risk on the QC.

I think I'm going to hunt for some 2nd hand Japanware. Or I might just venture into the crazy addictive world of TV

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spaceboy

spaceboy

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6 hours ago, johnfosteruk said:

You're not helping lads :smile: Spaceboy - I read your post and I'm getting the Revelation, then I read your next one and I'm not - don't want to take the risk on the QC.

I think I'm going to hunt for some 2nd hand Japanware. Or I might just venture into the crazy addictive world of TV

Totally understand where your coming from but TBH if your buying new and from a reputable dealer then there is no risk with QC. It's when you buy used and you can't return it for another you take the risk. This isn't just the case with buying used revelation barlows but buying anything used including Televue. With this in mind your looking at £70 for a used x2 TV barlow or £34 for a new x2.5 revelation barlow. I'm not knocking the TV barlows as both my x2 & x3 were excellent and served me well for years both visually and for planetary imaging but at £93 each, new, I personally didn't see an overwhelming £59 advantage over the revelation.

As said though inward focus (not so much an issue with newts, sct & mak's) has to be taken into account along with x2.5 amplification over x2.

FYI I'm not a sales rep for revelation :angel9: Joking aside it's your decision at the end of the day but be it a x2.5 revelation, x2/x3 TV or x2 celestron ultiima you will be getting a significant improvement over you current barlow.  Others rave about TAL barlows but the x2 (came with my Tal 200K) and x3 ( bought the x3 TV soon after) never stood out for me.

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Mak the Night

Mak the Night

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18 hours ago, spaceboy said:

It's not often I find something to disagree with John over as his wealth of knowledge far exceeds mine but on this occasion I would say the Revelation x2.5 barlow is pretty darn close to the TV barlow. I say this because I sold both my x2 & x3 TV barlows after getting a x2.5 revelation barlow as I was that impressed with its performance. At only £30 something I feel it is an absolute steal. While I have nothing but praise for the Revelation barlow it is not with out it's short comings. I have found it gobbles up inward focus and depending on your scope and eyepiece selection you may struggle to reach focus or have very little to play with.

Yes, I tend to agree, I was very surprised with just how good the GSO 2.5 apochromatic Barlow is even compared to the TeleVue Barlows or Powermate. I have the TS Optics version.

TS mine.jpg

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John

John

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The GSO 2.5x is very good for it's price but you can tell that it's in the optical train because it introduces a little additional light statter around bright objects and a little ghosting from time to time, depending on the target. All quite acceptable for the price and I'd certainly be happy to use one.

With a Powermate however, you get no indication at all that it's in use - just the additional amplification and nothing else. Thats tough to achieve and you pay a good deal more for it.

 

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Mak the Night

Mak the Night

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9 minutes ago, John said:

The GSO 2.5x is very good for it's price but you can tell that it's in the optical train because it introduces a little additional light statter around bright objects and a little ghosting from time to time, depending on the target. All quite acceptable for the price and I'd certainly be happy to use one.

With a Powermate however, you get no indication at all that it's in use - just the additional amplification and nothing else. Thats tough to achieve and you pay a good deal more for it.

 

That's interesting John. I've only used mine on planetary targets, so I haven't really noticed anything too detrimental compared to the TV Powermate. I've been using the GSO recently as it makes it more physically convenient for me when I'm observing with a Newtonian scope.

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spaceboy

spaceboy

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1 hour ago, johnfosteruk said:

I've been looking at the power mates and I think bargain hunting aside one will be a worthwhile investment, just to know that it's flawless. Especially as they're on sale right now.

 

This thread has made me realize just how many barlows I have been through in my time. So I guess I should list them and give them scores out of 10 based on my experiences using them for both visual and webcam imaging to see if that helps any .......

Tal x2 barlow  3/10

Sky watcher deluxe x2 barlow 3.5/10

Antares x2 & x1.5 barlow 5/10

Revelation X5 barlow (unusable in my scope due to too much magnification) -/-

TV x2 balow 9/10

Sky watcher POS plastic x2 barlow 0.3/10

Antares Japan x3 balrow 6/10

TV x2.5 powermate 10/10

Revelation x2 & x1.5 barlow 5/10

Antares 2" x1.6XB (with filter thread) barlow 6/10

Tal x3 barlow 6/10

TV x3 barlow 9/10

Revelation x2.5 Barlow 8/10

While the TV x2.5 powermate is no doubt the Rolls Royce of multiplying magnification I personally found barlows far more flexible when it came to imaging as you cannot use extensions to increase magnification with powermates where as you can with barlows. This aside it was superb for imaging but was sold in favour of a TV x3 barlow. It is worth noting that if you have both the x2 & x3 TV barlows the barrels can be swapped to give you a third magnification of x2.5 http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/452738-15x-vs-2x-vs-3x-barlow-for-visual-observations/

 

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