To Powermate or not to powermate

[PeterEde (Peter)]

Pros and cons?

Tossing up buying a 2x televue powermate

[Joshua Bunn (Joshua)]

Peter, It depends on what you want to use it for. Visual or photographic? And then whether the quality of your eyepieces will do justice to a Powermate or whether the quality of your images will push a Powermate to its potential. I don't know the answer to these, but just putting it out there...

[multiweb (Marc)]

To Baader FFC. Measure twice, cut once. Best thing I ever bought.

[rustigsmed (Russell)]

i'm with Joshua you will need some good quality eyepieces to make full use of the quality. but if you're planning on slowly doing up the collection you have to start somewhere. I have the 5x for planetary and find it very good.

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

I have and love the 2 inch 2x Powremate and I find it just disappares in use then using my 5 inch iStar refractor , one of the best things I have ever bought , expensive tho .
As Russell says good eyepieces help and I am visual only and mainly use TV Radians , Panoptics and a few Naglesr , no these are the best .
Brian.

[PeterEde (Peter)]

Seems my best option then is to save up for a bigger and better scope

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

I have a Tele Vue PM 2.5, Peter, and I think it is terrific. I use it for both visual and for planetary imaging. BUT... my eyepieces are all Naglers. So it's premium matched to premium. If you've got lower-cost EPs, then a cheaper Barlow will probably be the most sensible option, and still yield good results.

[Renato1 (Renato)]

When I put an eyepiece into one of my 7 or 8 Barlows and look into it, I know that I am looking at an eyepiece in a Barlow.

When I put an eyepiece into my 2.5X 1.25" Powermate, I think I am looking into only an eyepiece.

Regards,
Renato

[Amaranthus (Barry)]

Perfect summary Renato! I feel like I have 6 Naglers and 2 Panoptics (instead of half that) and I my shortest FL eyepiece need only be 9mm