Jupiter viewing using filters

[bomberbaz]

Well tonight the only option was planetary viewing due to the full moon but I had already made the conscious decision to experiment a little. I have a range of filters and I planned to try these out and see what kind or results I achieved after researching which filter is supposed to do what: http://www.scopecity.com/how-to/select-telescope-filters.cfm?pn=How+to+select+telescope+filters

Equipment: 12" Skywatcher goto 300 and a Pentax XW 7mm.

Other than the wispy cloud seeing conditions were actually very good and i quickly got to 214x (no filter/naked eye) on the dob and views were very good indeed. Easily able to make out cloud belts even with a full moon glaring in the night sky and some pretty good contrast in there too. ( It should be noted I am in a very light polluted location also)

I only have tested red, yellow, blue, and light pollution filter, so in that order here goes.

Red: Almost killed it completely, waste of time for me despite what the guide above says.

Yellow: Slight improvement in belt detail over naked eye although nothing else that I could see but I still preferred naked eye as it was more contrasty.

Blue: Great improvement in belt detail and lots more of it to, also festoons in the lighter area between the two main belts showing themselves. Strange looking at it in blue for the first time but the detail was excellent.

LP filter: Lovely viewing with this. slightly less detail than with the blue but noticeable improvement in contrast and probably my favourite view.

Finally I decided to have a bit of a play and stuck the blue on while the LP filter was still on, great result in that it seemed to my eyes to give a combination of detail with contrast. I viewed with and without the blue several times over and it was difficult to say which was best. In the end without won but for me it was a close run thing.

Cant remember where i got the filters from but neither were expensive, I think the colours ones were a set of 4 bought off ebay or similar (all 1.25) for not a lot and the LP (2") was about 20 quid. 

Hope this helps some of you but play around, you might get different results from mine.

Baz aka Steve

PS. I intend running this test again under less light polluted skies and see what the results are then. I shall update this thread at that point.

[Stu]

Interesting write up Steve, and a useful web link too. I do have some coloured filters hanging around somewhere, must give them a go, particularly the blue by the sounds of your report.

Cheers,

Stu

[bomberbaz]

The yellow is very good for the moon in bringing out crater detail but I have used that in conjunction with a 25%ND filter when its quite full or its just too bright...

[Northern Soul man]

Hi Bomber, great report, I think that the light pollution issue affects a lot of us on here, but I find that even a heavily light polluted sky whilst viewing the planets is, to a certain extent, a help in that it gives a slightly lighter background sky and helps as if we were looking at a darker background sky, Jupiter would look a much "brighter" object, giving higher contrast, but also "washing" out the finer detail when looking at the "glare" against a darker sky.

I think that this helps us a little more when viewing under really light polluted skies, I've always experimented with filters and find that the more subtle shades of blue, green and red really help to take the edge off a really bright object and using the blue, makes the greens and reds stand out - as with the others, the opposite colours stand out a little more.  I use a variable polarising filter as well just to take the edge off the glare, as the minutes tick by, the image just gets better and better.  nice one mate and regards.   Paul.

[Mad Taff]

Thanks for that report. I haven't bought any coloured filters yet. You have given me some ideas what to look out for. Cheers Phil

[Astro Imp]

Hi Steve, great to see you fully back in action.

That's an interesting post, it shows that we all need to experiment and find what works for us.

Look forward to hearing your further thoughts.

Clear skies.

[ccfcbob]

Do the filters make much of a difference on the lower powered scopes as well?

Also, again on lower powered scope is a LP filter worth bothering with or wait until I upgrade the scope?

[Moonshane]

nice one. I use the Baader Neodymium filter on Jupiter (and Mars/Moon) as it reveals to my eyes at least, a little more detail/contrast and provides a natural colour whatever that means

I never really got on with coloured filters.

[bomberbaz]

Do the filters make much of a difference on the lower powered scopes as well?

Also, again on lower powered scope is a LP filter worth bothering with or wait until I upgrade the scope?

Can't tell you that right now myself ccfcbob but I now have my evostar 90 set up as from yesterday so as soon as I get chance (read we get some clear skies) I shalla give it a go and reprt back. However I would have thought there would be something gained but again have to wait and see. :-)