Barlowe lenses

[Ewok]

HI,

This is kind of piggy backed onto JohnJ's earlier post.

Basically I have read a couple of articles from people stating that they do not like to use Barlowe lenses.

Is it worth investing in one as I have the standard 20mm and 10mm ep's that came with my Celestron 130 scope.

If so what would you reccomend ?

[Watcher]

Can't recommend a particular one as I only have the one that came with the 'scope, which isn't the best.

A Barlow doubles the number of magnifications available from you and if the seeing is good then it will give you a bigger disc to look at when viewing the planets, which makes spotting detail much easier.

[John]

The TAL branded ones cost £35 and are pretty good for what they cost - about the best "budget" ones. After that the price pops up to around £70 for a Celestron Ultima which is a little better.

A good barlow is a very useful accessory. A poor one is a liability !

[Ewok]

Thank you for your advice. I will take care before I buy anything. If I find one at a reasonable price I may ask for you opinion again. ( If that's OK )

[nightfisher]

your always welcome to ask,

before you part with money for a barlow, consider that if you barlow the 20mm ep it will become a 10mm, nothing gained and the 10mm in the barlow will become a 5mm and that might be to high a mag for your scope unless the conditions are really good, maybe consider a 7.5 mm ep instead of the barlow

[LukeSkywatcher]

The TAL is a very good make. However if you only have a 10 and 20mm EP then you dont REALLY need one at the moment because all it will do is add another 10mm EP to your collection and a 5mm EP which is getting a bit impossible to use. But the eye relief of the 10mm + 2x barlow should be better then if you were to just use a 5mm EP without a barlow.

[LukeSkywatcher]

your always welcome to ask,

before you part with money for a barlow, consider that if you barlow the 20mm ep it will become a 10mm, nothing gained and the 10mm in the barlow will become a 5mm and that might be to high a mag for your scope unless the conditions are really good, maybe consider a 7.5 mm ep instead of the barlow

Now that sums it up perfectly.

P.S.~~~the reason some people do not like using barlows is because it introduces more glass between your scope and your eye. This can often have the effect of dimming the image and/or blurring it. It all depends on the Barlow you use. Some are worth throwing in the bin ASAP while others are so good that they have no measured effect on the quality of the image. The TAL is really very good for its price and i have not experienced any dimming or blurring of images while using it.