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Went to Bintel today. Bought a 2 inch ED barlow and discussed my requirements with Don Whiteman who I have a lot of respect for. He directed me away from the Orion Expanse (he didn't think much of them) and towards the Orion Edge On Planetary, which I was able to take a look at. More coin and also not as wide, but good quality eyepieces from what I could tell in the shop. Not what I'm looking for, so I passed for now. If I did buy I'd be more tempted by the 9mm than the 5. They're suppose to have similar eye relief etc. but I just found the 9mm easier to look through against a bright light.
Put my name down to get a call when they get their next shipment of dobs. Their price is more competitive than it use to be. Last time it was a choice of spending a lot more or going with the GSO from Andrews. This time the 12" just $50 more than Andrews with more features. Not sure about the quality of the optics but mechanical quality looked good. My scopes are about 10 and 12 years old and it's getting time to think about resilvering the mirrors. I'd rather sell them and make that someone else's problem, and best to do so before they are in dire need.
So though I spent just $79 on a 2" ED 2x barlow it might be a more expensive trip than I'd planned on ;-)
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