Barlows, yeay, nay and which?

[beetlejuice]

I'm generally in the 'no barlow' camp. However, I do have a Meade 140 apochromatic barlow (x2 straight through, approx. x3 with a diagonal) and it is a very fine bit of kit. However, I tend to use it when I want high mag but not use a very short fl eyepiece as short fl eyepieces tend to have poor eyerelief. Using the barlow gives you high mag and retains the eyerelief. Of course the ideal solution is to buy short focus eyepieces that offer good eyerelief but these tend to very expensive, so this is a good solution and is fine for bright objects like the moon and major planets.

[The Warthog]

Most long eye relief eps get that way by incorporating a barlow element into the design. The Celestron X-Cel line is a case in point.

[part timer]

I am a confirmed Barlow user.

You MUST be prepared to shell out a bit on a good one though.

Many people shy away from Barlow's after using low quality ones.

Mine is a Meade 140 APO one and does not degrade the image at all. I use it on all targets and would be lost without it.

[beetlejuice]

Most long eye relief eps get that way by incorporating a barlow element into the design. The Celestron X-Cel line is a case in point.

Well, none of mine do so a barlow defnitely helps at short fl's. No astronomer should be without a good quality one. The Meade 140 is an excellent one at a very reasonable price.

[WayBig]

I got a super cheap 2X one by kson...hopeless...unless you like everything to look like 1970's Disco....soft focus, floods of reds and greens everywhere.

20 quid wasted (not sure what I expected for that, but it was the first add-on kit I bought)....you live and learn

[F15Rules]

Just a word in favour of decent barlows..they do offer the advantage of maintaining the eye relief of the barlowed ep (remember that higher power eps tend to have less eye relief) plus I believe they maintain a wider FOV..

I bought a second hand mint TV 2x barlow recently for £50 on UKABS, and it is just like their eps...beautifully built and high quality. I paid as much for each of my Baader Orthos. The TV works really well with my other eps, and I think it is the horrid cheapo ones supplied with scopes that get them a bad name..

do you remember the truly awful long, highly coloured barlows for 0.965" Jap refractors in the 70s?? Now they WERE bad bits of kit!

Final thought...wouldn't it be good if someone would offer a decent, affordable Unihex type multi ep holder so you could insert it into your scope loaded with 3-6 1.25" EPs? Now, that would be an accessory really worth buying!

[WayBig]

Ha ha - where can I get one of those 1970's jap barlows!

I'm sure that you can get far better barlows than my disco barlow....I'll put it in the for sale section once i'm up to 10 posts in case anyone else wants a laugh!

The multi eyepiece holder sounds like a really useful bit of kit, it would have to cater for different makes and designs, or perhaps one of the manufacturers should make one that only takes their range of eps - that would encourage brand loyalty

[AndyH]

Affordable is the word.

I would have thought the chinese would have jumped all over this. But not so far sadly.

I lusted after one of those Van Slyke jobies. God they're nice.

Andy.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I currently have four EPs I use: A 40mm Paragon, a Nagler 22mm T4, a Meade 14mm UWA, and an 8mm Radian (my 2LVs and the Plossl will shortly be sold to a colleague). I also have two Meade TeleXtenders (2x and 3x) for imaging. I did try the 2x with the UWA, which easily performed as well as the Vixen 7mm LV I have, but (very) slightly underperformed compared to the Radian. I do not see me use the barlows for visual work again.

One place where barlows have their uses is if you have Plossl or other EPs which have short eye relief at short focal length. By putting a barlow in front of a longer focal length EP, you preserve the long eye relief. Many long eye-relief EPs actually work this way internally, with a negative lens in the fron section.

[The Warthog]

Ha ha - where can I get one of those 1970's jap barlows!

I'm sure that you can get far better barlows than my disco barlow....I'll put it in the for sale section once i'm up to 10 posts in case anyone else wants a laugh!

The multi eyepiece holder sounds like a really useful bit of kit, it would have to cater for different makes and designs, or perhaps one of the manufacturers should make one that only takes their range of eps - that would encourage brand loyalty

OH, those barlows are still available. They come with the 0.965" Hyguenian and Ramsden eps supplied with most department-store scopes. I usually advise people to drill holes in them, and use them for a flute. Or a piccolo, I guess.

This is a sort of variable Barlow that I have seen demo'd. It works, but for the price I thought I"d forgo the pleasure. I'm not completely sure I haven't seen a sort of turret arrangement that allows you to change eps on the fly.

[pvaz]

Had a 20min session last night (the clouds didn't allow for a longer one) and my 1st impression of the TV Big Barlow is pretty good. I used it with a 9mm ortho VS a 5mm ortho on the moon and, during that short time, I couldn't see a difference. If there's any loss it seams to go unnoticed. However it will require longer tests to build an opinion.

Also used it with the 31 Nagler on M42 and couldn't notice any problems with the image. I'm pleased with the barlow. With the 31 Nagler not so much, the image is perfect, but the blackouts ware very awkward. This EP seams to require a special way of using it. It needs the eye to be at the right spot, if you get too close it blacks out. Anyway I used it less then 5 min so I can't make up my mind on that.