Barlows

[vlebo]

I have the Meade 4000 eyepiece set which I have just started using and they are ok for now but eventually I will add some quality eyepieces such as Pentax and Televue when finances allow.Anyway my query is the eyepiece set comes with a Barlow which I have not used. Is this any good or shall I invest in a better one and seeing as I also have a 2" Pentax is it worth getting a 2" one with a 1.25 adaptor.

I have not read much about Barlows on this forum and was wondering if anyone uses them regularily or do people just use higher mag eyepieces?

Thanks in advance for any responses.

Vlebo

[Ben Ritchie]

Personally I prefer not to use barlows and would rather have a set of eyepieces - especially with a dob (I see you have a 12" flextube) as they can leave a heavy eyepiece hanging a long way out of the focuser. But I suspect the Pentax would barlow very well, certainly the XWs I had (5mm, 7mm and 10mm) worked brilliantly with a 2" Astro-Physics 1.7x BARCON barlow.

[beamish]

Gotta agree with BR, if viewing avoid the barlows-more glass and weight. I have a few barlows but use them exclusively with w/cams for luna and planetary.

Karlo

[John]

I regularly use barlows to get high powers in my short focal length scopes. I've found the Celestron Ultima 2x barlow to be very good (the Orion Shorty Plus is a clone of this one so equally good) but I've now got a Tele Vue Powermate 2.5x which is superb. My eyepieces are Tele Vue Naglers so, with the addition of a Barlow / Powermate there are a lot of glass elements but the performance remains excellent - even when compared to orthoscopics and TMB Planetaries I have found.

John

[vlebo]

Thanks for your replies

As always , very helpful

[philsail1]

Sorry to "gatecrash" "vlebo's" thread, but could I just ask a quick question?

Do you lose much light when using a Powermate John?

Regards,

philsail1

[John]

Do you lose much light when using a Powermate John?

Well I've not put a meter on it but I don't think so - it's one of those barlows that just seems to "get out of the Way". It's not really a barlow though - Tele Vue call it an image amplifier and the arrangement of lenses in it is a bit different from a barlow.

TBH the performance of the Celestron Ultima 2x Barlow is pretty close to the Powermate most of the time but the Powermate does seem especially well matched (not suprisingly !) with the Nagler eyepieces which is why I bought one.

John

[philsail1]

Thanks very much for that John.

Good to hear that the Celestron Ultima Barlow is a great performer.

Regards,

philsail1

[thing]

I have an Ultima and I'm very happy with it. Sits in the case most of the time but it always does what it says on the tin when you use it.

[Lady Isabella]

I regularly use barlows to get high powers in my short focal length scopes. I've found the Celestron Ultima 2x barlow to be very good (the Orion Shorty Plus is a clone of this one so equally good) but I've now got a Tele Vue Powermate 2.5x which is superb. My eyepieces are Tele Vue Naglers so, with the addition of a Barlow / Powermate there are a lot of glass elements but the performance remains excellent - even when compared to orthoscopics and TMB Planetaries I have found.

John

Totally agree.

There are still people out there that think that Barlows somehow degrade the image.

A good Barlow is well worth having.