2x barlow or powermate

[Chrb1985]

Hi!

I hope this is the right place to ask. I own a skymax 180 and i use a celestron 2x barlow right now. this gives my scope f15 and i use a ZWO ASI 174mm . This works ok if the conditions allow it. My queston is this. Will the powermate 2x offer anything more. Will it help the quality or will it stay the same. I can seem to wrap my head around this. Please help me.

I atached a few of my latest results. I know i did Saturn wit hway to high % on the histogram..

[PeterCPC]

IMO a Powermate would be better. Have a look here

Peter

[CraigT82]

Barlows for me, modular ones. Can fine tune the power by placing the element closer or further from the camera. I use the APM 2.7x coma correcting barlow but the Baader VIP modular is also excellent. 

However don't expect changing barlows to transform your images. Seeing and atmospheric dispersion is your enemy! You can combat the dispersion by using and ADC, but there's  not much to be done about the seeing apart from getting out every possible opportunity to make sure you catch the good nights

[Chrb1985]

I use a monochrome camera so atmospheric dispertion is no problem for me. For me it would be to just get a little bit more clarity on my images. But I will read the post and I will look in to the comma corrector:)

[CraigT82]

1 hour ago, Chrb1985 said:

I use a monochrome camera so atmospheric dispertion is no problem for me. For me it would be to just get a little bit more clarity on my images. But I will read the post and I will look in to the comma corrector:)

Monochrome images still benefit from ADC usage as there is dispersion within each colour band. The moon in your second image is showing clear red/blue fringing which is atmospheric dispersion. 

[Jarvo]

This is an interesting question. I have a 2.5 x power mate and a 3 element 2x apochromatic Barlow. 
The best results I’ve had are with the Barlow which I was surprised at because I have a complete blind devotion for all that is green and black. 
 

[Chrb1985]

I decided on the Antares 2" 1.6x barlow. I hope this will do the trick.

Regarding the moon in i think that the image (at least some of the filters) were not in perfect focus. So when combining the three it is not 100% properly aligned.

But we will se when i get the new barlow and we get some good weather. I really hope it will be a good august. Maby even some good days in september