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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Antares 1.5X Apochromatic barlow (2 Viewers)

P

Paul Corfield

Well-known member
I picked this barlow up a couple of weeks ago but haven't played with it all that much yet. With a little bit of baffling to control stray light it's as good as, if not better than the Kenko 1.4X Pro TC. The Kenko tends to show a slight hint of CA in bright contrast where as the Antares barlow being a 3 element apo design shows zero CA. Even when viewing at 100% it can't be detected. The barlow gives around 1.7X when mounted inside the scope adapter. The barlow is different from most as it only comes supplied as the lens cell with no barlow body. This is because it's designed just to screw into the end of eyepieces.

Here's a photo I took this morning from around 35m range.

Paul.
 

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Couple more images taken with this low power barlow. Notice zero CA on any of the branches on the Magpie image.

Paul.
 

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cango said:
It really shows good ca correction. What are your speeds/iso's on these?
Click to expand...

First image of the Goldfinch was 1/500sec, the magpie was 1/640sec and the Pigeon was 1/500sec so all were quite high. I always shoot at ISO800 and very rarely change it because the 450D handles noise pretty well. One minute I might be shooting in bright sunlight and the next minute I might spot something in dark shade so I just leave it on the high iso and it's one less button to worry about.

Next barlow I have coming is an Antares 2" 1.6X which is said to be stunning, time will tell. Being a 2" there will be no mounting worries and 1.6X is a size I will use a lot.

Paul.
 
Took the scope out into the coutryside tonight and spotted this Buzzard in the distance. It was a long way off and didn't think I'd capture anything worthwhile as I only took the 1.5X barlow with me. Main reason for that was I knew the sun would be setting and light would be low so any more magnification would have been pointless. Photo was taken at ISO800 1/200sec.

Measured the distance on google maps when I got home and it was 160m, so not bad considering. Image is cropped quite a bit, at least 60% cropped off. Posted the uncropped version for comparison.

Shall be getting the 2" Antares 1.6X next week which should be even better.

Paul.
 

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A couple from my local lakes today with the Antares 1.5X and Skywatcher 80ED. The Slavonian Grebe was a nice rarity to capture although not in it's most colourful plumage yet.

Paul.
 

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Dont know how i missed these Paul - great work again.

I'm going to quit using TC's / Barlow for now. How much of this is down to my eyes, well, i'll know after the operations, but i'm not impressed with the GSO up until now
 
Just noticed that you've used both a 1.6x Antares and 1.5x Antares...was that a typing mistake or did you really try both of those, Paul ?
 
The 1.5X is a 3 element apochromatic barlow in 1.25" fitting. The 1.6X is a two element barlow in 2" fitting. Being a 2" the 1.6X is a lot easier to use as it just goes straight between the Max DSLR and the scope extension tube.

Paul.
 
Musoman said:
Whats the IQ like between these - is the 1.5 APO better IQ than the 1.6 non APO , or vice versa ?
Click to expand...

I'd say they are pretty much the same. The three element has the advantage of not introducing any chromatic aberration as it is a three element design. I'm not sure they make this exact model any more though as it's the only one I've seen anywhere.

I've not noticed any CA from the 2" barlow either and it's nicely baffled from the start where as the small barlow has a lot of shiny black paint which has to be covered up.

I suppose ideally a 2" 3 element barlow would be the way to go but there aren't many that produce one and they are mighty expensive.

Paul.
 
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