Separate high mag EP's or Barlow the bigger numbers?

[JOC]

So if you had say a 12mm a 6mm and a 2x Barlow and you were planet watching would you use the 6mm or the 12mm and the x2 Barlow?  Same goes for similar combinations - if you can afford them are the smaller mm EP's worth buying or is it actually better always to Barlow.  I posted something recently and someone said the eye relief would be much better with the Barlowed EP's, but how about the actual clarity of the image - my gut says that surely if you add an extra layer of glass anywhere it must affect the image (I would guess it reduces brightness and clarity)?  Is this the case and therefore if you can afford to buy the extras EP's is this a better option than using a Barlow?

[billyharris72]

My view would be to go for the single eyepiece with no Barlow if I had the right focal length and the right quality, for the reasons you mention. But there is a case to just not buy the shorter ep. A good quality Barlow should not noticeably degrade the image and the better eye relief can be nice to have. I have a fairly minimalist approach, but others would disagree and they would not be wrong

Billy.

[N3ptune]

Those are observations with my EP and my 2x barlow.

I have a 24mm and a 18mm Xcel LX I both use with the 2x barlow Xcel Lx. Usually, with no Barlow I prefer the optics of the 18mm more then the 25mm.

But with the Barlow, the 25mm is far more comfortable then the 18mm. The issue I get with the 18 is not image clarity, the barlow seems to mess up the eye relief and the angle required to see the entire exit pupil. I need to put more efforts at remaining steady.

 

[jetstream]

I barlow a 12.5mm ortho all the time and with great results. This orthos eyerelief is such that it is very flexible to being pushed around by the barlow. If you get longer FL orthos with the corresponding longer eye relief it gets challenging.

[John]

I've used good quality barlows, Powermate's and Telextenders and the like in the past to good effect but I prefer now just to use a shorter focal length eyepiece. As much as anything this is to remove the need to fiddle with another componant at the scope really.

As Gerry says, with eyepieces such as plossls and orthos, which have limited eye relief in the shorter focal lengths, using a barlow is a way to get the effective shorter focal length and retain decent eye relief.

I don't find that barlows work so well with longer focal length eyepieces (eg: 20mm plus) for the same reason - the eye relief gets a bit too long then !

[Moonshane]

my main reason for not liking barlows is that the whole thing sticks out of the focuser a long way and sometimes I smack my head on it. there are ranges of eyepieces like Vixen SLV and Celestron X Cel LX which have good eye relief across the range if you prefer slightly longer eye relief.

[Stu]

It depends upon the type of eyepieces you have and the quality of the Barlow.

If you have eyepieces with good eye relief even at the short focal lengths, then probably no need to Barlow.

If you use orthos which can have very short eye relief then it can be an advantage to use a good quality Barlow with say a 12.5mm eyepiece rather than use a 6mm with short eye relief.

[JOC]

Thanks for all the thoughts, I think I'll continue to use the EP's I have and see how I get on without one.  If the eye-relief gets too much of a strain then perhaps one will be worth the investment - Is it worth extra cash to get a decently branded one, or would a bog standard Skywatcher type standard x2 be adequate for a newbie?