Which filter for moon?

[northcanadian]

Hi folks:

I am just trying out my new asi 120mm cam and filterwheel/filters.  Could you please advise me which filter (or none) wouild be best for imaging the moon with this camera?  Thank you for any suggestions on this

Cheers and clear skies

Roger

[ronin]

Canot help directly as I know you can image the moon happily with a DSLR and whatever zoom lens it came with. The moon is so bright that something like ISO 100 and 1/200 second gives a fair image, which even then can still be over exposed.

For visual people use a 30% ND filter, all that should do on a camera is increase the exposure by 30% however.

Not sure a polariser would aid contrast, it might do so.

[nightfisher]

I once heard a red filter and image in black mono works well but never tried it, i would go for an IR/UV or an ND96/06 

[Luke]

Which telescope would you be using, Roger?

[northcanadian]

Which telescope would you be using, Roger?

Thanks guys.

I am using a 9.25 SCT

Cheers

[riklaunim]

Red visual filter, Baader IR-Pass or Astronomik ProPlanet 742 (I recommend the first one) - for the Moon you use infrared/red passing filters that cut short (blue/green) wavelengths. IR/UV cut are bad for this (atmospheric dispersion degrades image), as well ND files are pointless for mono cameras as they just make image dimmer and that's what you don't want to do. It's not a DSLR with limited exposures control.

Also to avoid negative effect of light diffraction on Moon surface features (crater edges, high contrast lines) Moon is often imaged slightly below telescope resolving power (like planets would use f/20 with ASI but Moon would look clean and sharp at f/10-15).

[Luke]

Rik's the expert. I use a red filter mostly with my 8 inch SCT. Mine has a UV/IR cut, but I would think I would be better off with a red longpass filter instead (it's on the very long astro wish list!) to pass the infrared light as well, as the SCT will handle the IR fine (unlike my refractors). That would give me a brighter image, which would be handy for Barlow shots especially when the image can really start to dim unless I make compromises like using a long exposure, resulting is a slower frame rate, or using more gain, causing more noise.

The problem of using no filter and passing all the light, while creating a bright image, would be that the shorter wavelengths like blue and green are more affected by the seeing, so you tend to get a better image by using a filter that cuts them out.

Sorry if that was all obvious/known.