Paul Manuell

38 minutes ago, John said:

I've no connection to this advert but here is one:

U.K. Astronomy Buy & Sell (astrobuysell.com)

Thanks for that. The write-up says screw top design. Are you familiar with how that works, as in what part of it screws in where, in respect of the focussing barrel and main eyepiece?

Anyone know where I can get one, please? Seen plenty of 2, 3 and 5× Barlows advertised, but no 1.5× ones

On 13/01/2023 at 20:14, markse68 said:

Did you re-focus when you tried the filter Paul? You will need to if you didn't as the thickness of the glass shifts the focus outwards a little. And you need to get Jupiter early in the evening now as it gets too low and mushy later

Mark

Yes, refocussed. 

An update now though; I managed to use my highest power  (6.5mm/153x) eyepiece on Jupiter just now as it's the first clear, windless night I've had since buying the filter.

View without the filter was exceptional - 2 bands clearly visible. View with the filter and refocussed- 2 bands still clearly visible but stood out a fair bit less than without, so the total opposite of why I bought the filter in the first place. Really disappointed.

PS., anyone want to buy a hardly used neodymium filter at a bargain price? Are sales even allowed on this site?

1 hour ago, JeremyS said:

Suggest you wait until better conditions, and certainly when you can employ much higher mags, Paul, before drawing any conclusions. Any improvement you might see will be subtle  and won’t be discernible until you can up the magnification 

1 hour ago, Neil_104 said:

Second that - definitely not a good evening for high mags with this wind (in the UK). I have the Neodymium myself and I find it useful but as Jeremy suggests, it's not transformative. It helps the GRS to stand out, which is handy given it's shrinking size currently. The filter does give quite a blue cast overall to the image, which isn't too overpowering but can be a little off-putting if you like the warm, brownish-yellow tint of the planet. It does make the image v cold looking.

Stick with it though - it's a handy filter to bring out specific features, e.g. to aid with sketching 👍

Ok, maybe my expectations were too high

Well that was a waste of 80 odd quid. Finally had the chance to try out the new neodymium filter on Jupiter tonight, but too windy for high magnification so only went to 50x

Without filter: 2 bands clearly visible

With filter: No bands visible, just a bright, featureless disc

Gutted!

Ok, FLO are still saying 1-2 days for the contrast booster to be available - 2 days after I first read it on their site, and 1-2 weeks for the neodymium filter - nearly 4 weeks after I first read it on their site. So rather than wait for the 1-2 days or 1-2 weeks to materialise, I found a neodymium filter in stock on Harrison's Telescopes and have just ordered one

On 05/12/2022 at 19:25, vlaiv said:

I've found that Baader Contrast Booster works best for achromats.

It is "cross" between Neodymium and Semi APO, and reduces CA nicely while boosting contrast.

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/baader-filters/baader-contrast-booster-filter.html

Here is interesting read for those Baader filters:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/reviews/baader-contrast-filters_US-ATT_review_0414.pdf

I second use of Wratten #8 to reduce chromatic aberration - however, it does impart distinct yellow cast on the image.

Thank you, and the review you tagged was an excellent read. It made my mind up to buy the contrast booster... but it's out of stock! It says on their site that stock is due in 1-2 days so I'll try again then

1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

FLO lists it being in stock in two weeks:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/baader-filters/baader-neodymium-filter.html

 

Ah, they're one of the shops I looked at that listed it as out of stock. Never noticed they were getting some in 2 weeks, so thanks for that

47 minutes ago, Franklin said:

What scope do you use?

Celestron Astromaster 90AZ

Damn it, all your replies have convinced me I want one of those Baader Neodymium filters but it seems to be out of stock (which usually means discontinued) in most places except Amazon, which is charging an extortionate amount over the price that shops (which are out of stock) are  advertising it for

1 hour ago, vlaiv said:

Only if you want to observe very faint objects.

For planetary viewing you actually want to avoid getting dark adapted.

Dark adaptation reduces sharpness and color perception.

Have a look here for more detail:

 

Thank you, you learn something new every day

On 04/12/2022 at 09:21, Franklin said:

If you do try out some of the Wratten colour filters, go for the lighter ones, #8 light yellow, #82 light blue, #11 light green (yellow/green) and #21 orange are usable without dimming too much. They do have an effect though it is quite subtle. As others have said above, Neodymium and Contrast Booster from Baader work as well, the latter is the more aggressive. A lot depends on the size of the scope being used. Best thing to do is pick a few up secondhand and experiment, I used a filter wheel for quick comparisons when I was on the filter path. Nowadays the only filters that I use are the Baader Neodymium (for general contrast enhancement), Neutral Density 0.9 (for very bright objects), UHC-S and OIII (for deep-sky contrast enhancement) and Solar Continuum (for use with the Lunt solar wedge).

For 'very bright objects', do you mean the Moon or the likes of Jupiter and Venus as well?

On 04/12/2022 at 07:57, vlaiv said:

Observe next to a bright light - like under street lamp or on your balcony with the lights turned on.

That's really strange,  I've always assumed astronomy's best when done in as dark conditions as possible. 

On 04/12/2022 at 08:38, Stu said:

I’ve found the Baader Neodymium filter to be pretty handy for improving contrast. It works well on Jupiter and Mars at powers up to say x200, but I found at very high powers in my 8” (x300 or more on Mars), going without the filter was best. Jupiter is normally better at around x150 to x180 anyway.

Perfect, my telescope/eyepiece combo's maximum power is 153x

10 hours ago, vlaiv said:

First recommendation for planetary observation is not to get dark adapted.

As soon as you get dark adapted - changes happen to your vision and what is very faint starts to look very bright (think car headlights during night and during the day).

For filter performance and usability - check this:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/flo-guides-colour-filters-to-improve-lunar-and-planetary-visual-observing.html

Must be impossible to not get get dark adapted when observing at night, surely? 

Recommendations, please,  for best filters for bringing details out on Jupiter, whose brightness often overwhelms them. Also, would a filter enhance Mars's details too? I've often read about filtering Jupiter but never anything with regards to Mars

Thanks

😃

Very difficult taking shots this way and took many attempts, but really pleased with this one

With no actual astrophotography setup, this is the best I could manage...

Celestron Astromaster 90az 

20mm eyepiece (50x magnification)

Thousand Oaks filter

Tablet hand held close to eyepiece