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Eyepieces even those made by the same company are not created equal. Eye relief, types of coatings and field of view have to be considered. The Orion Shorty Barlow is pretty much junk, I know because I owned one. Save your money and get just a few premium eyepieces. Quite often you can pick up used ones on Astromart: http://www.astromart.com/ (there is a small fee to use it) and Cloudy Nights which is free: http://www.cloudynights.com/

Excellent used eyepieces I have picked up are Televue Panoptics , Naglers and Radians Your eyepieces will remain with you forever and don't forget an eyepiece is half the scope so you don't want to scrimp on the optics. Right now Cloudy Nights has an ad for a William Optics 16mm UWAN 82 degree eyepiece for $150. That is a really nice eyepiece. Save your $$ and keep an eye on the ads.

Well, obviously you cannot get a 'closer' look at the planets - however, you can get more magnification (so the planet in question looks larger)

Keep in mind, that due to limitations because of the atmosphere, you usually can't get much above 200 X as a useful magnification, and only in extremely good (and rare) conditions can you get above 300 X.

With your current set up, you have a couple of reasonably good options.

You can get a 6 mm Plossl (Expect a good 'brand' to cost around $100 or even more)

or a 2X Barlow lens (A good 'brand' will be over $50 and can easily be over $100)

A larger mm eyepiece can be useful for seeing a more 'panoramic' view - which can be very helpful for detecting the large-but-very-faint DSOs.

There are several 36 and even 42 mm eyepieces available. How much you are willing to spend will determine a good deal of how high the quality is.

You might also consider investing in an H II filter or one of the other 'nebula filters'.

1. These are not called "lenses." They are called "eyepieces." Calling them "lenses" shows you to be the veriest newbie.

2. For close up views of planets, a 6mm eyepiece is a good choice. This will give you a magnification of 200x, which is the magnification I use most often for the planets. Plössl eyepieces are inexpensive, but have very short eye relief, so that you have to cram your eye into them. Modern designs, like the Orion Edge-On Planetary, give you more "eye relief," similar to using a long focal length eyepiece. I tested this one and really liked it:

http://www.telescope.com/60mm-Orion-Edge-On-Planet...

3. No eyepiece can let you see farther into space. Longer focal length eyepieces show you a wider field of view, which lets you see larger objects like star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies, in context. The 25mm you already have is a good eyepiece and should do this job well.

4. These eyepiece kits are a real waste of money. The eyepieces in them are poor quality, and often poor choices of focal length. Colour filters are a total waste of money. The "Shorty" Barlow is a second-rate piece of glass. The case you can buy at Lowes or Home Depot for ten bucks. Better to spend your money on one or two quality eyepieces, and an UltraBlock filter, the only one I recommend.

An eyepiece with a 6mm focal length would be a good choice, giving 200x. With any more in a Dobsonian it gets hard to follow the object as it moves.

Orthoscopic eyepieces are highly regarded for planetary viewing, they're a simple design that minimises light scatter for high contrast. Various brands are available, try a Baader Classic for a well-priced option. However, the narrow field of view of an ortho means you'll have to nudge the scope regularly, so you might consider a wide angle design instead. Remember to get a design that works well in a "fast" scope (one with a short focal length relative to its aperture).

Get expanse eyepieces