I have the Shorty plus, for 3 years now, and it is fine. I see no
image degradation from using it as long a s seeing permits. I've
barlowed my 6.3mm Orion Highlight plossl for Saturn with my
XT4.5-that's right at 290x, seeing was exceptional, and Saturn looked
great. not so with Jupiter that same night, as it was way too
bright-April 1, 2004-and about 8pm. But with the 10mm Highlight
barlowed that was fine-I saw festoons (a first) on Jupiters bands, and
my first GRS sighting-very nice.

I've seen excellent detail with my Sirius 10 ep barlowed with the
XT4.5, one of the best Jupiter sightings I had was the first, 3 years
ago, at about 4am. Amazed at the color and banding that showed on the
globe.

The TV barlows, even the 1.25" I believe have filter threads where as
the shorty plus does not, and are supposed to be better because they
are not as short-something to do with aberration or the optics. I
don't feel the need to get a TV because it has the threads, and have
read where the Shorty plus gives similar results in the views as TVs,
never had a problem with aberration, but I've never compared. All in
all, I think it is a great apo barlow. I've had excellent, knock your
socks off results with mine, and my scopes are not high end-just Orion,
Celestron and a newly aquired Apogee 90mm f10 (used), which turns out
to be an excellent little scope.

Get it on sale, I paid full price for mine, you will enjoy it. I
should get another one, mine needs a cleaning....just kidding...and
let us know what you think.

Regards,
Kerry