Televue planetary filter on Mars?

[GavStar]

With the Mars opposition coming up soon, I wondered if anyone had tried the televue planetary filter on Mars and whether it was any good? (The discussion I have seen on this filter has focuses on Jupiter)

Thanks

Gavin

[Stu]

I've got one, but never had a decent chance to use it on Mars. Hoping for better luck this opposition......

[Mak the Night]

Do you mean the Bandmate? http://www.telescopehouse.com/televue-bandmate-planetary-1-25-filter.html

'The TeleVue Bandmate Planetary 1.25" Filter is a development from TeleVue's popular Bandmate Mars A and B filters, bringing the same optical excellence and enhancement of detail to a wider range of planetary targets. This particular filter comes into its own when observing the Outer Planets, specifically Jupiter and Saturn.' ~ op cit

I've considered this, especially for when I get my bigger scope soon. I have wondered how much better it is than the Baader Neodymium. 

[John]

I had one (Bandmate Planetary) and used it on Jupiter (Mars was not conveniently placed at that time).

I didn't find it a great experience to be honest. I could have lived with the pink tint that the filter added if it had helped with the contrast of the more subtle features on Jupiter, but it didn't. The more obvious features were, perhaps, slightly enhanced in terms of contrast but more subtle features such as festoons and small white spots became harder to see which defeated the purpose of the filter for me. I returned it and got a refund.

I was a bit dissapointed, especially after the encouraging review from Neil English but there you go. Filters are quite a personal thing, I guess.

Sorry this is all about Jupiter but that was what was on show at that time.

[Dave In Vermont]

For what it's worth.....

Back in 2003, Mars put on it's best show in many decades. It was truly spectacular! It was about as big and detailed as Juoiter is quite normally. And Sirius, a rather small maker of good filters, released the Mars-Filter 2003. And it worked very well indeed! By the time the filter arrived, I only had one full night using it before a massive Martian dust-storm rolled in and wrecked the party.

I still have the filter. And I took a picture through it - and all my other filters, too - to demonstrate their views should anyone be interested. Perhaps it can give you a hint of whether the TeleVue Planetary-Filters come close. The Sirius did an excellent job. So here's the 2003 Mars Filter:

C'mon Mars!

Dave

(Taken through a Canon PowerShot A1000 IS)

[John]

Well, the pink hue is familiar.

I didn't have a planetary filter in 2003 though. Just my old TAL100R refractor. It was a very good Martian opposition

[alan potts]

The only thing I recall on Mars was a report by Joves down in Australia, he had all these filters but I think he said the Mars A was best but he had the Mars B and Planetary as well. It was about 2 years back and will be deep on site somewhere.

Alan 

[Mak the Night]

I wonder why TeleVue have discontinued the Mars A and B filters?

[alan potts]

A very good question, I think TS in Germany still have a Mars B showing or did before Christmas, I would be interested in a Mars A as I feel this is a planet where help is needed as you always have to put plenty of coal on the fire to get the disc to any size apart from very good opositions and the best ones don't come that often, I think the very best is only every 36 years or something like.

Alan

[Mak the Night]

What diameter eyepiece exit pupil would be optimum in using a Bandmate or Neodymium type filter when observing Mars do you think? In the summer I should have a much bigger scope, but I'm a bit limited at this moment with my 4" Mak. Mars can be visible in the south early in the morning at the moment. I was thinking of trying the Baader Neodymium filter (weather permitting lol). My 16mm Nagler would give me 1.26mm for an 81.25x magnification. The 10mm Delos will give me 130x for only an 0.79mm exit pupil. I think higher magnifications might be pushing it with a filter.

[Stu]

I've used a Neodymium in a 4" apo at around x230 to x250 on Mars. This is a sub 0.5mm exit pupil and didn't cause any issues, aside from floaters. The filter is not aggressive in the same way as a UHC or OIII so I think exit pupil is not as much as an issue as with these other filters.

[John]

Mars needs a lot of magnification to deliver a reasonable sized image to view so I guess it would be silly if a filter designed to view it would not work well with a small exit pupil.

I've found 200x plus needed for Mars even at opposition.

[Mak the Night]

I've used a Neodymium in a 4" apo at around x230 to x250 on Mars. This is a sub 0.5mm exit pupil and didn't cause any issues, aside from floaters. The filter is not aggressive in the same way as a UHC or OIII so I think exit pupil is not as much as an issue as with these other filters.

Thanks, I thought it was not a particularly aggressive filter. 

[DRT]

I have one, but like Stu have not had much chance to use it. I don't like it on Jupiter for the same reasons John describes above as the colour feels quite unnatural and I didn't think I was seeing any more detail through it. The colour might not be so distracting on Mars, but I have never pointed it at it yet.

[Mak the Night]

Mars needs a lot of magnification to deliver a reasonable sized image to view so I guess it would be silly if a filter designed to view it would not work well with a small exit pupil.

I've found 200x plus needed for Mars even at opposition.

Yeah, I suspected as much. The Baader Neodymium should work with Mars at 200x then. It works as a lunar contrast filter quite well but I haven't had chance to test it on anything planetary yet due to inclement weather. I can't wait until the weather starts turning a bit clementer!

[John]

.... I can't wait until the weather starts turning a bit clementer!

Neither can I !

[Mak the Night]

Neither can I !

I could see Mars in a fairly clear sky a few nights ago. It was high in the south around 4am. I had just got the tripod set up and hadn't put the combined mount/OTA on it when the clouds came. I won't repeat what I said then here as this is a family forum lol. I mean, I've got nothing against clouds personally, but they just did that on purpose.