Yeah, I think it's a bit specialist. The Expanse won't Barlow well anyway, not sure about the Starguiders. If they have a Smyth lens in the drawtube odds are they won't. The Q-Turret solves some problems for me but you shouldn't need to Barlow the ST80 much with the EP's you have.

 

They have a very good reputation. Not sure what 'like new' actually means. If it's old stock it's worth getting. If it's second hand it's caveat emptor I reckon lol.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/celestron_ultima_barlow.htm

Either way, it's a bit of a collectors item I think.

 

Ray -

I'd 'shelved' that you v. Agena are at war!

Well the GSO Crayford from ScopeStuff you initially were thinking of likely also comes with other 'shoes' in-the-box.' This as GSO includes them in the packaging. I only suggested the Agena as I "KNOW" the Agena does. But I "THINK" the ScopeStuff does as well!

Just my way of sifting my suggestions - Jim at ScopeStuff will take good care of you!

Dave

 

It was milder out and between 04:00 and 06:00 the sky was fairly clear. I got first light on the 12.5mm Fujiyama, I wasn't disappointed, it was superb.



At around 06:15 I got to see a hazy and very low rising Saturn!



No sign of Titan though.

 

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the whole range were Japanese made. I think my Antares MC 'Plossl' was also sold by Celestron as an Ultima. They were highly regarded, probably discontinued as they became expensive compared to cheaper Chinese built units. I think you've dropped on a bargain there Ray. I'll bet money it's well built, although I don't know how light it is. Could be a tad weighty. Either way, it's worth having I reckon.

 

I’ve been further daylight testing the ‘Q’ Barlow. As far as I can tell there is no real difference with using an 18mm BCO, an 18mm AH ortho’ and a 17mm Celestron Plossl. I couldn’t perceive any vignetting or aberrations. The real surprise was the 25mm Orion Sirius Plossl. I tried the TeleVue and Vixen NPL 25mm Plossls and they worked perfectly as well. The Sirius is the lightest of them though and its undercut has no problems with the Q. I couldn’t see any noticeable vignetting and the image was as sharp and bright as can be on an overcast day.



The Q essentially turns the ST80 into f/11 (11.25) with a f/l of 900mm. Which makes the Sirius 25mm now about 11mm giving 36x for nearly one and a half arc degrees. That’s about three Full Moons. Its light aluminium drawtube and decent sized eye lens and field stop make it useful combined with the Q Barlow on the ST80.

 

I'm pretty sure the TV 2x is 136 grammes, so yeah, it's not light. But the Ultima is short.

 

They really are collecter's items. My Antares Plossl is the same thing in a way. Rarer than rocking horse fertiliser lol. I've read where some have stated that the Celestron Ultima was the finest shorty ever made. The weather can only get better Ray and we can really start testing this gear.

 

I'm pretty sure these Antares MC 'Plossls' were also marketed as Celestron Ultimas. They were marketed under other names as well including Parks Optical I believe. They were all made in Japan probably from the same OEM.



It's almost certainly a Masuyama clone, probably similar to a lot of five element modified Erfle or Astroplanokular type designs. It's the best 15mm 'Plossl' I've ever used. I rate it more highly than the TeleVue and Vixen NPL. Although it's close between those three. The Antares is the nearest I've seen to a true 50° orthoscopic.

 

The Q-Turret barlow was designed and optimized for use with the BCO and turret use. So people have found that it softens the view with wider field eyepieces.
If using it with eyepieces 60* and less I imagine it would work fairly well.

I agree with your evaluation of the Antares Elites, very fine and hard to beat.

 

I thought the Q Barlow would be just the job for use on my ST80 with small Plossls/ortho's of around 50° AFOV. It's light in the diagonal and sits low. I was actually surprised it dealt with 25mm and 30mm Plossls well though. I'm not expecting to use it for anything more than 60-70x at the very most, and most of the time 50x and under. I like its Zen-like simplicity with no undercut or compression ring.

I've just acquired a 12.5mm Fujiyama ortho' which I got first light with early this morning and I've ordered a 9mm GSO Plossl. I'm curious how good they are for what they cost.

 

The Fujiyama is an outstanding eyepiece and the GSO Plossls have been known to be as good as the TV Plossls.
I think you will enjoy both quite a bit.
Sterling Plossls are another excellent and inexpensive choice.

 

I have two Fujiyamas now (7 & 12.5mm), and Astro Hutech 6mm, 18mm and 25mm ortho's. They're all superb. I've heard a lot about the GSO Plossls including their 'Revelation' incarnation. It will be interesting to compare it to Plossls twice and three times the price.

 

If you search around there have been a few blind reviews of the new GSO vs TV and the GSO has been a very surprising performer.

 

I've read a few things here and there, they all seem to highly rate the GSO's.