Antares 2" 1.6x barlow

[pvaz]

The night was clear but windy and with poor seeing conditions.

First target was Saturn. 1st I used the Ethos 10mm alone on it, the overall shape of the planet was visible but the seeing didn't allow to make out the faint bands this time.

Using the Ethos with the barlow provided an image that looked the same regarding brightness and color. I didn't notice any internal reflections or other problems. Under this conditions I can't really evaluate sharpness and contrast.

Then I switched to the Nagler 31mm T5 alone and pointed at Leo's triplet. This ware much easier to observe as the view at lower magnification wasn't much affected by the conditions.

I put the barlow in with the Nagler: With this configuration the triplet almost filled the FoV. The eye position to avoid blackouts was more critical due to the increased eye relief of the combination, but not as much as when I use the Nagler + bigbarlow. Leaving that minor problem aside, the view was still sharp and pleasing. There didn't seam to be any loss in detail and overall quality of the view.

Then I picked M51 as the last target. Surprisingly, under this conditions, I was able to get a hint of the structure and the bridge was visible with averted vision. Then I put the barlow back in and the spiral structure seamed more noticeable with the increased magnification. The bridge however became slightly fainter, but it seamed to be due to the increased magnification spreading it more apart. Could also be the extra glass but it looked more like the kind of dimming you get when you switch to a smaller FL EP.

I certainly need further tests to make my mind about it, but 1st impressions are really good.

It also came highly recommended from a friend that uses it regularly, for over a year now, with his Nagler 31T5 and Ethos 13mm.

Overall, I think that 99$ for a piece of kit that "creates" a Nagler 19.37mm and an Ethos 6.25mm, without a noticeable drop in quality, was a great deal.

[GazOC]

Interesting report Paulo, I was after one of those barlows to use with my 13mm ethos but couldn't find a UK dealer with one in stock and ended up with the Skywatcher ED x2 barlow that might give a slightly too high mag of x242 in my Dob instead of the x201 that the 1.6 Antares would have given me.

Other than a quick look at the Moon I've not had chance to test the set up out yet though.

[pvaz]

Interesting report Paulo, I was after one of those barlows to use with my 13mm ethos but couldn't find a UK dealer with one in stock and ended up with the Skywatcher ED x2 barlow that might give a slightly too high mag of x242 in my Dob instead of the x201 that the 1.6 Antares would have given me.

Other than a quick look at the Moon I've not had chance to test the set up out yet though.

Yeah not many dealers in europe sell this. I got mine from agenaastro.com. It takes longer to get here but they work very well, I did 5 purchases there over the last months without any problem. Customs only taxed one of those so I been saving a lot of money too.

[pvaz]

Just been outside having another play with it.

Today the conditions ware much better. I was able to confirm the quality when used with the Nagler for DSOs. M81/82 ware great, so was M13 with the barlow + Ethos.

On Saturn the contrast and sharpness was great and the image didn't seam to suffer in that aspect. The only problem detected was a slight light scattering around Saturn, but it was subtle and didn't interfere with the views of the planet itself as the bands ware easily detected. It did make Encelado harder to spot as it stood on the added glare, close to the rings. I'm sure a 6mm ethos would be better but I can't really justify the price and this is a much cheaper solution with very good results.

[Macavity]

I see that Rother Valley Optics now sell these. I sense a recent addition...

Antares 2inch 1.6x Barlow | Telescope Accessories | Rother Valley Optics

[vlebo]

Shame it does not come with a 1.25 adapter . I have one 2" eyepiece and two 1.25 eyepieces. Does anyone know if it works well with Pentax's as I have read only good things about Antares Barlows.

[brantuk]

Yup - I have one of these - nice barlow with my radians

[John]

I had one of these for a while and I thought it worked very well. I used it with my 31mm Nagler and it was great although the combination looked a little alarming sticking out of my 8" dobsonian !.

You can always get a 3rd party 2" to 1.25" adaptor to use with it - it works just as well with 1.25" eyepieces.

My theory is that these are made in the same place that the Celestron Ultima barlows are made - the look, feel and optical quality of the Antares 1.6x is very "Ultima-like" although the 1.6x is a 2-element barlow.

The only downside I found with it is that it shifted the focus position to the extent that certain eyepieces would not come to focus with my 4" refractor. This was not an issue with the 13mm Ethos which has a focal plane farther inward than many other eyepieces (so it needs some more outward focusser travel) but it was an issue with the 22mm T4 Nagler and my Vixen 4" refractor

For that reason I'll probably use a TeleXtender / Powermate if I want to amplify the magnification of my eyepieces.

If it works with your eyepiece / scopes then it's a very nice piece of kit

[pvaz]

Shame it does not come with a 1.25 adapter

A regular 2" to 1.25" adapter works fine.

[pvaz]

If it works with your eyepiece / scopes then it's a very nice piece of kit

My Ethos never reached focus when used as a 2" EP. I bought a baader hyperion 28mm extension ring and a parfocal ring. Now the Ethos is parfocal with the nagler and I can reach focus with it, as a 2", even when using one of the barlows.

[robhal9000]

Hi,

I picked one of these up from RVO about a six weeks ago, very nice barlow.