Deja Vu All Over Again - ciciglow 2X 1.25inch Barlow Lens.

[Nightspore]

I had a feeling I was getting deja vu with this. I figured SvBony didn't actually make anything themselves. If only I could have bent space-time with some hot wired laptops and seen that these Barlows would now be sold as generics for less than a fiver.

 

Blurb:

 

ciciglow 2X 1.25inch Barlow Lens with Storage Case M28.6 * 0.6 Thread 2X Eyepiece Fully Multi Coated Glass Lens for Astronomy Lovers

 

(Lovers of cheap Barlows?) These things are now on Amazon, and others, for as little as £3.50. Less than a third of what I originally paid for the SvBony. Chinese marketing is sneaky bent space-time clever. It's natural for people to develop brand loyalty, even if the concept of branding is essentially now an illusion.

 

Generic element on right (above).

 

Ostensibly the ciciglow (who?) looks like the SvBony equivalent. I'm guessing all of these Barlows are made by the same Chinese company, or even companies, as the housings and glass parts may indeed be manufactured by different groups. I acquired a ciciglow Barlow element for the ridiculous price of £5.53. I've had space-time bent pizzas delivered for more than that lol. Plus you can only eat a space-time bent Margherita with extra basil once, and this Barlow can be looked through and kept forever. Or at least until space-time ends (or gets bent).

 

 

As I can now have my Barlow/cake and eat it I decided to compare the generic Barlow element with the SvBony in a series of daylight tests with my Altair 60mm EDF and a variety of eyepieces.

 

 

Threaded directly into the 19mm Panoptic both magnified by around 1.6x, giving me a smidgen over 30x with a tiny bit of vignetting. There was no vignetting on the Takahashi 6mm orthoscopic, basically now a 3.75mm EP. Again, if you look closely at these elements they actually are subtly coated.

 

 

With both elements the M28.6 * 0.6 thread was pretty universal and I've never had any trouble threading a filter or other into it. In fact, I didn't even need to bend space-time. If only all threads were as compatible! At the end of the day, or at least the end of bent space-time, these Barlow elements are identical. The predominant difference is the absurdly low price. My only gripe is that my ciciglow came without a plastic storage case. luckily I bent space-time and saw that coming and I have a spare case.

 

 

Edited October 11, 2023 by Nightspore

[Sojourneyer]

svbony nor amazon USa sells those halfbreed barlows.

I tried to get them with no success.

I was able to find a Celestron Omni 2x barlow for under $6 .. and that is cheap. I hope I can remove the half breed from it and use it as  you are using yours Nightspore.

Well Saturday was a lousy day. There was as dark black cloud belt covering the sun.  C'est la vie.

 

 

[Nightspore]

On 15/10/2023 at 21:32, Sojourneyer said:

svbony nor amazon USa sells those halfbreed barlows.

I tried to get them with no success.

I was able to find a Celestron Omni 2x barlow for under $6 .. and that is cheap. I hope I can remove the half breed from it and use it as  you are using yours Nightspore.

Well Saturday was a lousy day. There was as dark black cloud belt covering the sun.  C'est la vie.

 

 

 

I'm not sure why they've suddenly started marketing the 'halfbreed' elements. These are a bit odd though, and seem designed to be used as a plug-in to an eyepiece.

 

 

They work as a Barlow when threaded into a more traditional housing however.

 

 

Celestrons were predominantly Barsta, GSO's were different, with longer barrels. I believe some Celestron were GSO's at one time. The elements had different focal planes though (different length barrels), so were not directly interchangeable and still be 2x.

 

 

Not sure who make the Orion Shorties, very good quality glass though. May also have a filter thread, unlike a lot of Barsta-made elements.

 

 

The Tri-Mag almost rivals the TV 3x IMO. 

 

 

The GSO 3x is basically a spectroscope and should be avoided (unless you like pretty colours). 

 

 

The Vixen 'Shorty' is basically just Barsta (or whoever has replaced them), but the long one is Japanese made and exceptional. Neither have compression rings.

 

 

I still prefer the TV, predominantly for ergonomic reasons, although I think the element on the Vixen has a tendency for a tiny amount of CA in fast scopes.

 

 

The Antares below was a bit of a disappointment, I think I've only used it once.

 

 

 

It was heavy and the filter thread was way too large for anything.

 

 

This Barsta below is probably the finest shorty I've ever used. They are marketed under a lot of names.

 

 

Meade's are good, but weird.

 

 

If you can get your hands on a 2.5x GSO, second from left below, they are well worth it.

 

 

They have a compression ring and are three element.

 

 

Although they're more like 2.25x than 2.5x.

 

 

No filter thread.

 

 

[Nightspore]

 

The Baader 2.25x is not only optically superb, it almost weighs nothing.

[Nightspore]

Omnis are just Barstas with a makeover housing.