To Barlow or not to Barlow

[LukeSkywatcher]

I'm packing for my holiday. I have my Celestron Travelscope 70. Its a very nice little widefield scope. Due to the tripod supplied it doesnt do well under high magnification.

It is VERY happy (and performs well) with any EP from 10mm-30mm. I have found that the tripod is a bit of a lightweight and while it can handle anything i can add to it, if i 2X the EP with a barlow that it sags and centering objects is that bit more difficult.

So my plan is to only take my:

Vixen NPL 30MM (man do i LOVE this EP)

Celestron 20mm (that came with the Travelscope and is a VAST improvement on the usual 20mm Kellner EP supplied with Celestron scopes).

Celestron 15mm Plossl (part of my Celestron EP kit and is very nice to use)

Celestron 10mm Plossl (part of my Celestron EP kit and is very nice to use)

So my question is.....................should i even bother packing my TAL2X?

I dont think so.

P.S.~~~the scope is apeture 70mm,400mm f/l, f5.7

What EXACTLY is a widefield refractor?. All my EP's have a FOV of 50 degrees...............does a widefield scope make that 50 degrees seem wider?

[shaunster]

The barlow is small just take it anyway, if you dont use it its no big deal..

[NGC 1502]

Hi Paul, I think I'd take the barlow, unless you are very short on space/weight.

A 50 degree aparent fov eyepiece will be 50 deg with any scope, but with your

short focal length refractor will show more sky than a longer focal length instrument,

hence it's a widefield.

Enjoy your trip, Ed.

Edit : your 30mm eyepiece will give 13x ( 400/30 = 13 ) and show 3.75 deg of sky ( 50/13 = 3.75 ) and a 5.25mm exit pupil ( 70/13 =5.25 ) Ed.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Hi Paul, I think I'd take the barlow, unless you are very short on space/weight.

A 50 degree aparent fov eyepiece will be 50 deg with any scope, but with your

short focal length refractor will show more sky than a longer focal length instrument,

hence it's a widefield.

Enjoy your trip, Ed.

Thanks Ed. So the barlow is coming with me.