Quote:
Originally Posted by trickybilly
First I would like to say a big thank you for this community who have helped me to start my hobby some weeks ago and see many beautiful objects so far: Mars, Venus, the Andromeda and Whirlpool galaxy, M42, M35, M36, M38, M41, M45, M57, Hyades and a satellite.
Question: my Skywatcher 200/1200 telescope with 10mm eyepiece gives 120X magnification. What do you recommend to buy next a) a 6mm Goldline eyepiece b) a 2 or 3x Barlow? or something else? I see there are achromatic, apochromatic and "polychromatic" Barlow available... can you please say in short what they mean, and which is the best? Is there any loss of quality using Barlow compared to an eyepiece? My eyepieces are Plössl and I have read on the internet that they have problems with Barlow lenses - is this true?
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I honestly don't think you even need a barlow to be honest. A 2X barlow will effectively turn your 10mm into a 5mm eyepiece which is way to much magnification to see anything at all. You'll have a big blurry blob in your eyepiece! I would look at getting something around the 25mm mark if anything (if you haven't already) so you can start to enjoy other night time wonders). Even if you do fork out $150 for a TeleVue barlow (second hand ones can be had on here for $100) you are still limited by the quality of your plossl.
If anything I would be purchasing a 7mm-8mm TMB Planetary (about $50) if you really want higher magnification before I purchased a barlow but as stated above anything under 10mm really gets very little use unless conditions are excellent. I also try to limit the amount of glass between my eye and what I am viewing so I steer well clear of barlows.