Does anyone know much about the
'Orion Barlow Shorty-Plus 2x (1.25)' its similarity or not with the Celestron Ultima Barlow and how this Orion barlow rates in comparison to the TV 2x barlow or 2.5x Powermate?
Bintel sell these Orion shorty plus barlows alongside their TV products so I am assuming they can't be too bad, they are clearly labelled as being made in Japan and are priced well above your generic brand barlows and roughly the same price as a TV 2x Barlow.
The Orion is described by Bintel as:
"The Orion Shorty-Plus 2x Barlow features an air-spaced, three-element apochromatic optical design of 27mm clear aperture, for superior image sharpness and colour correction. The Shorty-Plus boasts fully multi-coated optics for even greater light transmission. "
Some months ago when I visited an astro store asking about barlows myself I was advised that good optics in your OTA should be matched with a good barlow.
In this context I was recommended either a TV 2.5 Powermate or a Celestron Ultima Barlow. I have never heard of the latter but earlier this week when I looked at the Astronomics website found it. See below:
http://www.astronomics.com/main/product.asp/catalog_name/Astronomics/category_name/U6SQ7CTJP98X9JKRW39JAMFHD0/product_id/720
What struck me was that aside from the orange paint labelling on the Celestron (as opposed to white paint labelling on the Orion) the physical shape and appearance of the Celestron and the Orion Shorty Plus essentially look identical to me.
Given that many OTA’s appear to be frequently made from the one factory and then just re-badged dependent on the company does anyone know whether the Orion Shorty Plus and Celestron Ultima Barlow are simply the same thing with different badges?
Another possible clue to this conundrum is that when conversion of the US to Aus dollar is taken into consideration the Celestron Ultima Barlow and Orion Shorty Plus are also roughly the same price.
Finally, does anyone know how does the Orion Shorty Plus compare with either the standard TV 2x Barlow or the TV 2.5x Powermate?