Barlow or Powermate for planetary?

[Poita (Peter)]

To get more up close and personal to plentary imaging I need more magnification for those rare nights of good seeing. I'm a bit confused though with the whole Barlow vs Powermate thing.
Can anyone shed any light on this? I was considering the 2" Big Barlow as I have a few 2" eyepieces as well, and could use it for visual, and it can be used with 1.25" eyepieces too, but would it be useful for planetary work, or would I be better off with a powermate?

Imaging with a 10" ACF SCT and an ED80 currently.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

Powermate. Televue optics are awesome

[Stu Ward]

I just bought a 5x powermate and hope to be passing some Jovian photons through it tonight.

Will let you know the results

Stu

[Poita (Peter)]

Don't Televue make both of them?

[Poita (Peter)]

Originally Posted by Stu Ward

I just bought a 5x powermate and hope to be passing some Jovian photons through it tonight.

Will let you know the results

Stu

Excellent, I was looking at that beastie as well. I look forward to the results.

[SkyViking (Rolf)]

Powermate is the best by far IMO. While I'm in no way a seasoned planetary imager, I did notice a huge improvement when I went from a Meade 3x barlow to a TeleVue 5x Powermate. There was just no comparison!

I have attached two of my Jupiter images for illustration. The first is with the 3x barlow, and the second is with the Powermate, taken some 6 months later.

I would expect a TeleVue barlow to have better optics than the Meade I used, but I'd still choose the Powermate any time. I'm very happy with mine, and it works excellent with my eyepieces as well.

[darbyvet (Carl Darby)]

I have used a barlow and powermate image amplifier. The powermate is far superior in my limited experience.It seems like you get less loss of light and it is easier to focus with the powermate.The only issue with the powermate is that for it to work properly you need to get the camera as close to the lenses as possible.This means unscrewing the end of the powermate and attaching your camera directly to the shortened powermate.Because of the way powermates work you wont get full magnification if there is a gap between the camera and the powermate. I can post am ainge of my setup to show you how it works if you like.You may need an adapter to attach your camera to the powermate too depending on which camera you have.

[Poita (Peter)]

Originally Posted by Stu Ward

I just bought a 5x powermate and hope to be passing some Jovian photons through it tonight.

Will let you know the results

Stu

Did you get the 2" or the 1.25"?

[Cosmic (Daniel)]

I'm seconds away from also buying a Tele Vue Powermate 5.0x for my f5 8" newton after hearing and see nothing but quality.

I just want to know is this method going to result in a better or equal image compared to eyepiece projection which path do I take?

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

Hi Daniel, I in the past used a 3x Barlow with reasonable image quality, it may be possible to improve on this but with a Power Mate I don't really know

EG:
DSLR with 3 x Barlow - http://waelect.com.au/mswhin63/Jupit...2010_11_23.png

Webcam with 3 x Barlow - http://waelect.com.au/mswhin63/Jupit...tml#2010_10_03 Seq2.png

The Barlow I use is http://www.cameraconcepts.com/store2...cat=357&page=2

[Kirkus (Kirk)]

Can I butt into Peter's thread with a related question? I'm also deciding between a 3x Barlow or a 5x Powermate. Does anyone have any experience with an 8" SCT, webcam, and 5x Powermate with planetary images?

I'm curious if the 2032 FL of an 8" SCT would provide enough light to support the 5x magnification.

[Cosmic (Daniel)]

Originally Posted by mswhin63

Hi Daniel, I in the past used a 3x Barlow with reasonable image quality, it may be possible to improve on this but with a Power Mate I don't really know

EG:
DSLR with 3 x Barlow - http://waelect.com.au/mswhin63/Jupit...2010_11_23.png

Webcam with 3 x Barlow - http://waelect.com.au/mswhin63/Jupit...tml#2010_10_03 Seq2.png

The Barlow I use is http://www.cameraconcepts.com/store2...cat=357&page=2

Thanks Melcolm for the guide, nice pictures of Jupiter BTW! I'm trying my luck at eyepiece projection atm, ill post my results. Since I have a few eyepieces I never use I thought I would utilize them...for now.

[Poita (Peter)]

I'd like to know too, I have a C8 sitting here as well...

Originally Posted by Kirkus

Can I butt into Peter's thread with a related question? I'm also deciding between a 3x Barlow or a 5x Powermate. Does anyone have any experience with an 8" SCT, webcam, and 5x Powermate with planetary images?

I'm curious if the 2032 FL of an 8" SCT would provide enough light to support the 5x magnification.

[originaltrilogy (Petr)]

I think 5x be too much for C8 unless excellent seeing, because of F50 very dim. Maybe 2.5x is better?

I think of getting 5x for ED80 though.

[riklaunim]

For f/10 SCT and common planetary cams (ICX098/618 with 5,6 pixels) you need f/20-25, max 30 at very good seeing and very good cam.

[darbyvet (Carl Darby)]

I agree a 5x powermate will be too much for an 8 inch scope.I used the televue 2.5 and a 3x barlow imaging Jupiter on my C8. The optimal is f25-f30 for the c8 IME. The televue powermate gives the best results rather than the 3x barlow.

[Kirkus (Kirk)]

Thanks everyone. I thought the 5x would be too much for an 8" SCT. I appreciate the confirmation.