[DobDobDob (Ron)]

Thanks Adrian & Al, that is EXACTLY in plain English what I needed to know. As always, it was the complete opposite of what I was thinking, it seems that everything to do with astronomy is reversed and backwards.

Last night I used my first scope for the first time, and was in a lather of sweat despite it being a cold night/morning. When I wanted to go left, I lost the object, it worked out that to go left in my brain I needed to go right in reality, the same with up and down....you guys know this but think back to your first time ever, boy was it frustrating

I'll do another thread about what I eventually observed, but to support what you have told me, I can tell you that when I got Saturn in my sights, despite it being crystal clear, it was so tiny and only covered the tiniest portion of my FOV. I was thinking to myself, why isn't this larger, the other night through my giant binoculars it was massive.

With your explanation and my own observations, I am now coming to terms with the need for various eyepieces. It is more or less as I suspected, I just wanted to be sure before I lash out and start buying a whole heap of eyepieces.

This brings me to Barlow's, these from what I have read are meant to sit between the lens and the existing eyepiece and increase the magnification, because there is so much written about them, I will assume they are a must in every eyepiece collection. From your collective experience is there a nasty eyepiece manufacturer to stay clear of or should I just go to the closest shop and buy a 9mm of what ever brand name they are flogging?

In other words, is there a difference between a 9mm by company A as opposed to company B, other than a pretty box and great marketing hype, is 9mm the same regardless, or does the quality of the leading manufacturer deserve their premium because they are genuinely better.

If the latter, which are the better brands over time price not withstanding?