The shop where i purchased my teelescope from ( secondhand but looked as new and in original condition and box etc ) threw in a X 2 Barlow for me, now it has no brand name and to be honest looks cheap and is plastic, mind you it seems to work fine.
But i was wondering will there be any noticable difference if i brought a better quality barlow, and if so maybe you can give me a name to look at?
And am i right to assume that no matter how good the Barlow it is only as good as the ep that you use with it.
Not only is the barlow only as good as the EP you use in it but odds are the best barlow is still not as good as a stand alone EP.
I have only ever used Televue barlows and ended up selling both as they were never as good as just using a good eyepiece. Others disagree but that has ben my experience.
IME a Barlow never improves the optics of the eyepiece. It can however reduce any visible off-axis aberrations simply by virtue that the longer light cone produced by the Barlow makes it easier on the eyepiece. It can also make the eye relief of the eyepiece a little longer, usually arounf 20-40% longer in my tests. This can be good if the eyepiece has short ER, and bad if the eyeppiece already has too long ER that makes it difficult to use.
For poorer quality Barlows they usually add noticable scatter to the view and can commonly add lateral color also. Good quality ones can be very transparent and not take anything away from the original eyepiece's performance. I find the Baader VIP and Baader Zeiss Barlows, and the APM 2.7x ED Barlow to be in this class.
The Barlow is a pretty handy tool. I keep and use several. But rarely use them for planetary observing since that I like to keep as pure and with the least scatter possible.
Very informative, thank you, it has made me think about which way to go a new ep or a good barlow?
As i believe i will be spending most of my time on planetary viewing i am now leaning towards a good ep ( within my price range that is ) maybe even a Zoom, but i may do a little more research on that as, and i dont know why, i feel a standard ep may yeild slightly better optical quality over a zoom, im probally wrong of course.
I would get say 3 good q eyepieces (Vixen LVW/LV)
+Baader Hyperion 2.25 times Barlow which screws into the eyepiece This will give you the equivalent of 6 eyepieces if you choose the correct FL eyepieces to fit your telescope. This barlow is excellent and I cannot see any noticeable degrading- I am a visual planetary observer
I would agree that barlows will not give you the planetary clarity that a good EP will. Case in point, last night I was observing first Jupiter, and later in the am Saturn and Mars through my 16" dob. My 11mm TV Nagler was giving outstanding definition and clarity but stick a barlow in front of it (and I tried two 2x barlows, one farily expensive one) and the image deteriorated substantially. I used a Bintel 2" ED 2x barlow and an Orion Shorty 2x. So go with good EPs IMHO.
I no longer have a barlow. The ones I had were "average" brands (including those mentioned above) but all had the same effect: softer image and harder to find perfect focus. IMHO, the image will be better with a shorter f/l eyepiece (assuming it's a reasonable eyepiece).
(I'm thinking of buying one again, but only for planetary photography - probably a TeleVue Powermate).
Baader make the combo from their Hyperion Zoom eyepiece and the 2.25x Barlow designed to go with it, but you can buy the two separately (although it may be cheaper to buy together). The combination results in eyepiece focal length equivalents of 3.5mm through to about 10.
Naturally they suggest it works better with their eyepieces but I use mine with a Panoptic and a couple of ES 82s when travelling, as the scope has a short focal length.
Given your main scope has a relatively long focal length, I'd say your get practically no use from using one with your 9mm eyepiece. You might get more use out of a 7 or 8mm eyepiece, but it's a bit close to your 9 IMO.
Are your eyepieces the one that came with the scope?
As I can only buy new EP's every now and then what size mm would you suggest that I buy next, the reason I ask is because every $ counts and I dont want to make a rookie mistake and buy an ep that would not be appropriate for my telescope.
I was thinking if a zoom but after reading comments and doing a little research I feel this is not the way to go, a stand alone ep will, or should, give a slightly better image over a zoom.
Although I am new to astronomy I believe I will be doing more plantary viewing over DSO, at least to start with that is.
If planetary is your focus at the moment and if you can tolerate the relatively short eye relief, then I'd suggest something minimalist, a decent plossl or ortho would do a nice job.
The focal length isn't so simple... with your current spread, something around 200x would sit nicely in there, for the half decent nights when the 6mm is too much, but you think you might squeeze more out than the 9. Ideally a 7.5 but the market seems to be fresh out of those which leaves either a 7 or 8, depending on what your local seeing is more likely to allow you to use the most. However, I can't help thinking it'd be getting a bit too granular, and you might be better saving your money
If your 9 is the factory bundled then these tend not to be the greatest on early and it might be worth looking around for an 8 with decent glass - TV Plossl, Hutech/UHD ortho, BCO, and don't forget to keep an eye open in icetrade
Thanks, my 9mm is my CelestronX-Cel LX eyepiece, which, and I really dont have much to base my opinion upon, seems like a verygood modest ep for the price, about $100 AUD
Due to bad weather I have only used it about four times in between the clouds, the other night the Moon looked great in it but jupiter and Saturn blurry ( or to be more precise, looked a little out of focus, such as an enlarged photo, which, I hope was due to the weather conditions rather than the EP )
They're good for the price...it mostly becomes a case of diminishing returns after that. And it'll give a decent magnification for average nights seeing with your scope.
IMO magnification isn't everything...it's about contrast and detail, personally I prefer crispness over blurriness, but it's one of those things that is down to personal taste. If you go higher and all you get is a bigger blurrier image, you've gained nothing. But some nights you can take it higher and see more. You've got a bit of a gap between the 9 and the 6, and on the great nights you should get to use the 6mm for sure, but if I were you I'd probably keep my cash in my pocket and see how it goes before deciding where to go next.
Opps!
I just noticed that my diagonal has a crack, see photo, I have put some Blue Tack along the crack line. ( i did not drop it so dont know how it came about )
So now I will need to buy a new one and there are many on the market so maybe you can give me your opinion on this one, I have seen some around 50 to $70 but would rather spend a little extra for a better quality one as shown in this link.
William Optics stuff is generally good quality IMO and this diagonal is no exception - I use one on my refractor...it's well made and has a compression ring which is nice after using one with the screws shy of a TeleVue Everbrite, which is more than 2x the price, it'd probably one of the best readily available.
After looking around I think ill go for the WO 1.25 ( order it tomorrow )
I am learning a lot from everyone here and I believe the WO 1.25 will be suited to my Celestron 6 SE, it will be interesting to compare it to my present celestron 1.25 and to note what difference I can see , if any.
I have read a number of reviews which all give the thumbs up except one.
I dont know what the compression ring is but I expect it just replaces a screw and you just tighten the diagonal.
but I use mine with a Panoptic and a couple of ES 82s when travelling, as the scope has a short focal length.
shy of a TeleVue Everbrite, which is more than 2x the price, it'd probably one of the best readily available.
