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I am a purely visual observer and currently own a 2.5X TV powermate, a 2X Orion Shorty Plus and a 2" 1.6X Antares APO barlow. I previously owned a 1.25" 1.8X Televue barlow and I have also used numerous other barlows going back over a lot of years. The 2.5X TV powermate is the best barlow I have ever used. Its not an enormous deal better than the TV 1.8X and the 2X Orion Shorty Plus but its better, possibly by 5% to 15% or so depending on your eyepieces and telescopes. With "ALL" other barlows you have the feeling that something else is in the optical path, even though image quality is superb, with the powermate you don't even know its there and you think you are just using a native eyepiece. Since I have owned the powermate I haven't used the Orion Shorty Plus and its a very good barlow in its own right.
Considering that all your eyepieces are top quality as are your scopes, I think its worth spending the extra on the powermate.
CS-John B
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