Any recommendations on 2” barlow?

[lnlarxg]

Am looking for 2” barlows, heard televue powermate is best but way out of my budget

Any recommendations outside of TeleVue?

i saw a 2” revelation ed 2x and a 2” Celestron Luminos 2.5x , are they good?

thanks a lot

[Ricochet]

Firstly, are you sure you need a 2" barlow? 2" eyepieces tend to be big heavy lumps and 2" barlows are also big heavy lumps. Unless you're using several ultrawides that all have 2" barrels you're probably better off with 1.25" eyepieces instead of the barlow.

If you do need a 2" barlow the Explore Scientific Focal Extender has the same style lens design as a Powermate.

[Ben the Ignorant]

This one is a clone of the four-lenses Celestron Luminos for 70% of the price.

https://www.365astronomy.com/365Astronomy-2-inch-2.5x-4-Element-Deluxe-Barlow-Lens.html

A friend has the Luminos, we used it many times without noticing the slightest hint of aberration or loss of sharpness. Without the fancy external finish and famous namebrand, quality optics can be had with that kind of heavy discount.

[lnlarxg]

12 minutes ago, Ben the Ignorant said:

This one is a clone of the four-lenses Celestron Luminos for 70% of the price.

https://www.365astronomy.com/365Astronomy-2-inch-2.5x-4-Element-Deluxe-Barlow-Lens.html

A friend has the Luminos, we used it many times without noticing the slightest hint of aberration or loss of sharpness. Without the fancy external finish and famous namebrand, quality optics can be had with that kind of heavy discount.

Thanks for the tip, FLO is doing Luminos 2” 2.5x for £99 so am very interested, great to hear you have used this Luminos barlow before and found it good

[lnlarxg]

24 minutes ago, Ricochet said:

Firstly, are you sure you need a 2" barlow? 2" eyepieces tend to be big heavy lumps and 2" barlows are also big heavy lumps. Unless you're using several ultrawides that all have 2" barrels you're probably better off with 1.25" eyepieces instead of the barlow.

If you do need a 2" barlow the Explore Scientific Focal Extender has the same style lens design as a Powermate.

Yeah the ES 2” barlow looks really good. I have a few very good 2” eyepieces, but my 1.25” ones are mediocre. Am just thinking bout selling all my 1.25” and keep the 2” and mix it with a 2” barlow to fill in the high power gap

[Ben the Ignorant]

I forgot that my 365astronomy page is set for euros. 95€ is 84£.

[rwilkey]

17 hours ago, lnlarxg said:

Yeah the ES 2” barlow looks really good. I have a few very good 2” eyepieces, but my 1.25” ones are mediocre. Am just thinking bout selling all my 1.25” and keep the 2” and mix it with a 2” barlow to fill in the high power gap

Hi there, it will be a mistake to go to just 2" ep's, they are meant for widefield studies basically and really there is no need to barlow them. I would look at improving your 1.25" ep's if they are mediochre, there are a lot of good 1.25" ep's out these such as the BST StarGuiders, the Pentax XF and the William Optics SPL.  You will regret ditching your 1.25" choices, esp. on Moon, planets and double stars

[Louis D]

Be aware that most widefield 2" eyepieces of focal lengths longer than the low 20mm range will vignette when using an ordinary barlow lens.  You'll want to make sure to get a telecentric design like the Powermate or ES focal extender.  I use a 2" GSO ED 2X barlow with a Televue Panoptic Barlow Interface to make a poor man's Powermate.  Unfortunately, the TV PBI is only available used.  Together, though, they are very sharp edge to edge even with a 70 degree 40mm eyepiece like the 40mm Meade 5000 SWA (same as the 40mm Maxvision).  Without the PBI, there appears to be a new field stop a few degrees inside the physical field stop.  It's not subtle or gradual.  It's a hard edge.

[Silvien]

On 14/05/2018 at 11:12, rwilkey said:

Hi there, it will be a mistake to go to just 2" ep's, they are meant for widefield studies basically and really there is no need to barlow them. I would look at improving your 1.25" ep's if they are mediochre, there are a lot of good 1.25" ep's out these such as the BST StarGuiders, the Pentax XF and the William Optics SPL.  You will regret ditching your 1.25" choices, esp. on Moon, planets and double stars

Hi! I can also highly recommend BST Starguiders from Sky's the limit. I've just bought 2 of them last week(8mm 60 degrees, 9mm 56 or 58 degrees) and I'm quite impressed of the quality and Alan was really helpful when I was between choices. It definitely worth a try as these eyepieces aren't expensive. However don't expect miracle if your telescope isn't suitable for showing miracle. Also try to find out if your scope has a built in barlow as it might mean that you don't really need barlow after all.