Telescope Reviews: ?? Baader Planetarium 2.25x Q-Barlow ??

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Equipment Discussions >> Eyepieces

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precaud
sage

Reged: 12/05/12

Loc: Sunny New Mexico

?? Baader Planetarium 2.25x Q-Barlow ?? new

#5670469 - 02/09/13 10:34 AM

This is a relatively new barlow, and very competitively priced. I haven't seen any testimonials yet - has anyone tried one?

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ibase
Vendor Affilliate

Reged: 03/20/08

Loc: Manila, Philippines 121*E 14*N

Re: ?? Baader Planetarium 2.25x Q-Barlow ?? new

[Re: precaud]
#5671411 - 02/09/13 08:49 PM

FWIW have tried the Baader 2.25x barlow (which came out earlier than the Baader 2.25x Q version) and find it optically at par with my Televue 2x/3x barlows.

Best,

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John Huntley
professor emeritus

Reged: 07/16/06

Loc: South West England

Re: ?? Baader Planetarium 2.25x Q-Barlow ?? new

[Re: ibase]
#5671439 - 02/09/13 09:17 PM

I have the Baader Classic set on loan at the moment. The Baader Q-Turret 2.25x barlow is optically excellent, at least with the 3 orthos and the plossl that comprise the Classic set. It's build and finish is plain and functional so don't expect any luxuries such as compression rings, but it does the job really well.

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precaud
sage

Reged: 12/05/12

Loc: Sunny New Mexico

Re: ?? Baader Planetarium 2.25x Q-Barlow ?? new

[Re: John Huntley]
#5671447 - 02/09/13 09:22 PM

Thanks John. Despite it being marketed for the turret, it is a general-purpose barlow, yes?

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John Huntley
professor emeritus

Reged: 07/16/06

Loc: South West England

Re: ?? Baader Planetarium 2.25x Q-Barlow ?? new

[Re: precaud]
#5672428 - 02/10/13 02:11 PM

Quote:

.....Despite it being marketed for the turret, it is a general-purpose barlow, yes?

Yes, I've used it with a number of other brand eyepieces and it works well.

I believe the link with the Q-Turret is that the optical element of the barlow is designed to be removed from the barlow body and screwed into the Q-Turret barrel (the part that goes into the scope drawtube) to move the focal plane outward around 25mm which allows the Turret to be used with scopes with limited focuser travel. In this mode the optical element amplifies the magnification of a given eyepiece in the Turret by 1.3x.

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precaud
sage

Reged: 12/05/12

Loc: Sunny New Mexico

Re: ?? Baader Planetarium 2.25x Q-Barlow ?? new

[Re: John Huntley]
#5672535 - 02/10/13 03:07 PM

That's what I thought, but just wanted to make sure...

Slightly OT, are you using the BCO's in your F/5.3 dob without a coma corrector? If so, how are they?

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Ain Soph Aur
sage

Reged: 08/11/11

Loc: Tennessee

Re: ?? Baader Planetarium 2.25x Q-Barlow ?? new

[Re: John Huntley]
#5672816 - 02/10/13 06:28 PM

When the Q-Barlow nose-piece is screwed into the the Q-Turret, the 2.25x is maintained. When the nose-piece is screwed directly into the barrel of an eyepiece then it is approximately 1.3x.

I own the barlow and turret and mainly use Brandons in the setup. I agree, the barlow is an outstanding performer.

Post Extras:

John Huntley
professor emeritus

Reged: 07/16/06

Loc: South West England

Re: ?? Baader Planetarium 2.25x Q-Barlow ?? new

[Re: precaud]
#5673002 - 02/10/13 08:31 PM

Quote:

...Slightly OT, are you using the BCO's in your F/5.3 dob without a coma corrector? If so, how are they?

Yes I am and I don't find a coma corrector necessary with this scope, even when I use my Nagler and Ethos eyepieces.

The BCO's work very well with the 12" F/5.3 - the 6mm BCO showed me Sirius B a couple of nights ago and was competing well with a Baader Genuine Ortho of the same focal length that evening. The one slight negative with the BCO's (even with slower scopes) is that the outer 10% of their field of view is not sharp and has some distortion. The useable, sharp, field of view is about the same as the Baader GO's in paractice.

Edited by John Huntley (02/10/13 09:18 PM)

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precaud
sage

Reged: 12/05/12

Loc: Sunny New Mexico

Re: ?? Baader Planetarium 2.25x Q-Barlow ?? new

[Re: John Huntley]
#5673038 - 02/10/13 08:47 PM

Thanks Ain and John, great feedback. I'm thinking of starting with the barlow and 10mm, and we'll see from there. Those should play well in both of my scopes. My first step into the Land of the Orthos.

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precaud
sage

Reged: 12/05/12

Loc: Sunny New Mexico

Re: ?? Baader Planetarium 2.25x Q-Barlow ?? new

[Re: precaud]
#5680493 - 02/15/13 12:36 AM

I got the 10mm BCO today and did some informal daylight viewing comparisons in the XT6 to two Plossls (Orion 10mm, GSO 9mm) and a Meade 9mm HD-60. Transparency, clarity, contrast-wise it's no contest, the BCO is far superior. Barlowing them with a 1.25" GSO, they became much more alike, suggesting that the barlow's "signature" was dominant. Which made me wonder about the Q barlow... if it were more transparent than the GSO, that would be very interesting, indeed...

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russell23
Post Laureate

Reged: 05/31/09

Loc: Upstate NY

Re: ?? Baader Planetarium 2.25x Q-Barlow ?? new

[Re: precaud]
#5681066 - 02/15/13 10:16 AM

Quote:

I got the 10mm BCO today and did some informal daylight viewing comparisons in the XT6 to two Plossls (Orion 10mm, GSO 9mm) and a Meade 9mm HD-60. Transparency, clarity, contrast-wise it's no contest, the BCO is far superior. Barlowing them with a 1.25" GSO, they became much more alike, suggesting that the barlow's "signature" was dominant. Which made me wonder about the Q barlow... if it were more transparent than the GSO, that would be very interesting, indeed...

This might explain why there are the mixed reports on the GSO barlows. Frankly, I was not at all impressed with the 2" 2x GSO ED barlow that gets great reviews. But as you're seeing when you combine an outstanding quality eyepiece with a so-so barlow - the fact that the barlow is just so-so becomes quite apparent.

Dave

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precaud
sage

Reged: 12/05/12

Loc: Sunny New Mexico

Re: ?? Baader Planetarium 2.25x Q-Barlow ?? new

[Re: russell23]
#5681093 - 02/15/13 10:31 AM

My thoughts exactly, Dave.

So, is the Q-Barlow the best value in 1.25" barlows with good transparency, then?

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John Huntley
professor emeritus

Reged: 07/16/06

Loc: South West England

Re: ?? Baader Planetarium 2.25x Q-Barlow ?? new

[Re: precaud]
#5682106 - 02/15/13 06:21 PM

I was comparing the views of Jupiter, Rigel and Eta Orionis using my Vixen ED102SS and i) the Baader Classic Ortho + the Baader Q-Turret 2.25x for 4.44mm and ii) the 5mm Baader Genuine Ortho.

I was really surprised how close the quality of the views were, with the exception of the difference in magnification.

I believe the Q-Turret 2.25x barlow has excellent optics within it's rather plain exterior.

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DRodrigues
member

Reged: 08/08/11

Q-Barlow - minimum 1.3x with complex eps ?? [Re: John Huntley]
#5682175 - 02/15/13 07:03 PM

Can someone please confirm me the minimum magnification increase of the Q-Barlow with complex eps that have lens near the 1.25" end tube?
I use the Baader Hyperion zoom with the barlow lens module of the BS modular barlow http://www.pt-ducks.com/cr-telescopes.htm#Test_of_a_1.6x_magnifier (it seems a GSO clone), for my daylight cr-birding. I thought of using the Q-Barlow lens module with the Baader zoom to achieve an equivalent to a Pentax XF zoom but with better ER and wider AFOV. The question is if the minimum increase would be only 1.3X? I know there is a barlow for the zoom but has too much magnification increase for what I want. I know that I would have to use a 1.25" tube to use the Q-barlow on the Hyperion...

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DRodrigues
member

Reged: 08/08/11

Re: Q-Barlow - minimum 1.3x with complex eps ?? new

[Re: DRodrigues]
#5705926 - 02/28/13 06:32 PM

Got one Q-barlow and using only the barlow lens cell it increases about 2x in the Baader zoom Mark1(using the 1.25" barrel ep looses to accept the barlow cell), at 24mm and about 1.7x at 8mm position...
Tested in a Vixen NLV40 and the resulting increase is about 2.1x...

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