Which Barlow?

[Peter Reader]

Hi all,

Determined to get some nice large and detailed images of Saturn this year. I used a 2x barlow for jupiter which was fine, and now I have motors I think I can go higher.

I used a FOV calculator online and 5x looks fine. Can anyone confirm? [sW 200P and Philips Toucam Pro II]

The big question: which make/model barlow?

Thanks

Pete

[johnh]

Anything by Televue like 3xTV Barlow will work at 4.5x with an extension tube and 5xPowermate.

Regards, John.

[Pete Presland]

you can also get excellant results with cheaper brands like the meade 4000,tal,orion shorty,ect it all depends on your budget!

[brianb]

Just be aware that Saturn's surface brightness is much lower than Jupiter, you will nedd 3-4 times the exposure with the same rig. Going from 2x to 3x barlow will double that again ... seeing quality then becomes a real issue as you need to keep exposures reasonably short if you're going to have any sharp frames to work on.

I'd try Saturn with the 2x barlow before you get carried away with image scale.

If you're operating in the zone where seeing issues dominate (and/or inaccurate focussing, which is increasingly likely with large, blurry images) then scaling up a small image in post processing will work as well as capturing at at larger scale, and is much easier to do.

[Peter Reader]

Great thanks for the advice chaps!

IS 5x too much? 3x would be much easier to focus?

I live in North Devon, in an area where seeing is excellent