To Barlow, or not to Barlow, that is the question...

[RussellH]

Cool, a nice visual explanation. Will have to read when I have time to study in depth, thanks.

[Orville (Simon)]

I have a quetion on barlows and hope I am asking in the right place. I want to purchase a 2" x 2 Barlow. It will be used primarily for viewing, and probably in future for astro photography , My budget is around $200 , any recommendation will be appreciated .. thanks.

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by Orville

I have a quetion on barlows and hope I am asking in the right place. I want to purchase a 2" x 2 Barlow. It will be used primarily for viewing, and probably in future for astro photography , My budget is around $200 , any recommendation will be appreciated .. thanks.

Welcome Simon nice to have you here..I live in Australia also maybe we will run into each other.
Buy a cheap one and after the novelty wears off thank me for the money I saved you. Maybe later when capturing planets go for a 5x but in my view for visual perhaps think eye pieces.
That is my view and hopefully we get someone else to provide some balance.
Alex

[xelasnave]

What scope do you have?
Alex

[Orville (Simon)]

Hi Alex, I have a 8" celestron nexstar evo on back order. Havent received it yet. Its my first scope and after doing lots of homework looking forward to getting it.. ! in some of my reading i found that using a barlow can improve eye releif on a planetary eye piece, so that got me interested.. thanks for advice and i have turned down the dial on my budget.. i will probably go for a GSO I think they go for around $90.. if the story about improved eye releif is true then it will be worth it as my other half cant see without glasses , cheers Simon

Originally Posted by xelasnave

What scope do you have?
Alex

[bojan]

Please note, wearing glasses is relevant only if your other half has astigmatism.
In other cases, you can always adjust focus by means of focuser :-)