Which Barlow for 14mm UWA Meade s4000

[davewaldo]

Hi everyone,

I'm just wondering which barlow would be best to use with my Meade s4000 14mm UWA (the hand grenage:D )????

I only have GSO plossls and I like the idea of an UWA 7mm.

I know this will be a heavy combo regardless but it would be alot cheaper than say a Hyperion 8mm.

I was considering the Orion Shorty plus which seems to be highly recomended.

I don't think I need a 2" barlow as most EPs which I would want to barlow would be 1.25.

What do people think? Would the Shorty plus and my EP make a good combo?

I know the UWA 14mm hasn't got the worlds best transmition so would I end up with a dim view if I then used a barlow with it?

Cheers,

Dave

[iceman]

I've got the same EP, and have used the GSO 2x (1.25") barlow with it, and it's fine, but yeh puts some strain on the focuser :)

I ended up getting a 7mm Pentax XW (GREAT eyepiece), so never need to barlow the 14mm.

[astronut]

Hi Dave,
I have the Meade shorty barlow and it works very well, BUT........
with a fast "F" ratio scope the shorty will not project the full light cone that a fast scope displays.
So basically your wasting light.
There is a way out though, there are barlows that are made specifically to work with fast (or slow) "F" ratios.
Televue is one brand, but if the $'s don't go far enough for those, I've found another small manufacturer of quality optics in the U.S. called Siebert Optics.
They make different level of optics, but their premium level is the "Ultra" range.
I recently purchased the 17mm + the Telecentic 2X barlow. The barlow comes in different mags and is made for fast scopes. The views are spectacular. They're made in 1 1/4" or 2" sizes and are half the price of the Televue. Weight is kept down by mounting the lenses in aircraft aluminium.
The barlow and e/p weigh just a little more than my Meade 2" 26mm.
Del is about 10days. www.siebertoptics.com (http://www.siebertoptics.com):)

[davewaldo]

Thanks for the info,

I'm still undecided..... At the moment I figure I should probably only buy a cheap barlow as I would rather spend "decent" money on another eyepiece.

So maybe I will get the GSO 2" barlow for the time being as it should fill the gap...

Hopefully I can test one of these at Cambroon this weekend ;) ????

Cheers

Dave.