Rubbish Barlow?

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Aimed at Saturn last night I got a small image from the Toucam but I could see the Cassini division farly easily. Putting the Barlow lens in made the image considerably bigger but I couldn't resolve the division at all. Is this because the Barlow lens that comes with the Skywatcher Newts is rubbish, or is there something else going on?

If I need to get a better Barlow, then that's the way to go, but I was wondering if these are known to be poor?

Captain Chaos

[FLO]

Skywatcher's 'supplied in the box' barlows are nothing to write home about...

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Your diplomatic answer was understood.

Captain Chaos

[Caz]

If I need to get a better Barlow, then that's the way to go, but I was wondering if these are known to be poor?

CC, you may find this thread of some use...

http://stargazerslounge.co.uk/index.php?topic=9715.0

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Thanks Caz, I'd read that already, so I was interested to find out if I should be using any kind of Barlow at all, or if mine didn't work well.

It's quite difficult to put the point across, which was intended to be "am I asking too much of my setup by Barlowing it, or is the Barlow quality alone to blame", if you see what I mean?

Looks like shopping time really. There's a Powermate on Astro buy n sell for more than Telescope House sell them new for example, and the Tal is recommended but cheap, the Ultima is recommended but more expensive and the Powermates even more so. The 4X imagemate didn't get a mention interrestingly so that one's probably out of the running.

Powerwise I think I'm in the 4X region but that may be pushing too hard. Its f/56 with the Mak. or f/20 with the Newt., or f/22.4 with the Skelescope. Nice and big on the chip though.

Off to beg and plead now, then decide.

Captain Chaos

[Andrew*]

those f numbers sound rather big to me. Wouldn't you be better off with a 3x barlow? My antares 3x ( http://tinyurl.com/24sod9 ) is very nice, and I would love to keep it, but the fact is I think the power is too high for me and my eyepieces, and I should rather opt for a 2x. I would be more than happy to sell you that for around £25 delivered, which I'm sure is less than it's worth. The only thing is, I couldn't get it to focus with my 32mm the other day, but with other EPs it works a treat.

Consider it.

Andrew

[SteelRat]

I bought a x4 imagemate WAY back but only used it for visual. Pretty bright image compared to m'Talx4 - so it ain't no use for m'phone.