What barlow and or eypeice should I get?

Question

I have a skyquest xt10 original telescope Im not even sure what a barlow is or an eyepiece. My limit for the eyepiece is 100-150 and 100-175 for a barlow maybe?? any help would be great!!

Answer 1

the research you did before buying the telesscope would have answered these questions. have you forgotten so quickly?

you can get good plossl eyepieces for that kind of money.

Answer 2

With a Barlow, you lose both light and image quality.

Your light is limited by your objective.

Your image quality by ALL your lenses.

Get better quality lower power eyepieces.

You'll be happier.

Answer 3

This is a Dobsonian type telescope I believe with a 2" focuser--

If it is well collimated you should be able to get 300X to 400X power out of it on a good stable night.

Yes you can use a barlow-- and it will maintain the field of view of the eyepiece-- I normally use a 15mm, 20mm, and 9mm eyepiece-- on good nights I will us a 2X barlow with the 9mm. Just buy a good Meade or Celestron 2x barlow selling for about $50- $80 dollars-- Televue makes a very good barlow by the way.

Check out a GSO Superview and a TMB Planetary --eyepiece.

Answer 4

I don't like barlows. Get Meade Research Grade eyepieces.

Answer 5

The xt10 comes with 10mm and 25mm eyepieces, giving 120x and 48x respectively.  I have an Epic 5.1mm eyepiece.  I hate it, but some of the club members think it's fine.  I can't focus this eyepiece for anything. (Try before you buy). I also use a 2x barlow with the 10mm, giving 240x.  This produces, for me, much better views, since they're in focus.

Orion claims that 500x is supportable with this scope - properly aligned, and with awesome weather.  That would be a 2.4 mm eyepiece.  Very short focal length eyepieces, like this, are very, very hard to make - so they are either expensive, or don't exist.  You might try a 7.2 mm eyepiece with a 3x barlow, for example.

As the magnification goes up, often, the image gets darker.  So you don't always see more detail.  And, often, i'm looking through an Oxygen 3 filter, so there's not that much light available.

My next eyepiece will likely be a nice 2" 40mm eyepiece.  This is to get wide views on large objects like the Veil and m31 - which are huge.

Answer 6

The Orion Shorty Plus is one of the best you can get, however, remember that adding more glass can and does add to distortion.  I had a Barlow and I sold mine.  I would much rather just use better eyepieces.  See if you can find one to borrow first before you spend your money.  

Added note, the guy who bought mine loves it.  I never did.