Observing Mars for the first time last night - any advice?

[MarsG76]

38 minutes ago, Franklin said:

I am intrigued. Does this stacked combo perform any different than just the Contrast Booster alone? The reason I ask is that the Contrast Booster is already a Neodymium but with added violet cut.

To me stacking both together did give me a better and more detailed/easier to see details view compared to using them separately,

 

[Franklin]

34 minutes ago, MarsG76 said:

stacking both together

I'm gonna give it a go this December 👍.

[Knighty2112]

If you can get hold of one a Celestron Mars filter works excellently on Mars. It not only gives Mars a nice red look, but does tease out details very well. Failing that a cheaper option would be a #82A blue filter which works reasonably well too. Any of the other filters mentioned will improve the view of Mars too, but as I have all these filters I can say that for Mars viewing I always use the Celestron Mars filter to give the best results, especially when Mars gets larger in the EP. Hard to find on sale in the UK, so I got mine shipped across from the US when I bought mine.

Edited July 24, 2022 by Knighty2112

[Zeta Reticulan]

5 hours ago, Giles_B said:

@Zeta Reticulan I've read about using a neodymium filter - I guess this is the same thing as the contrast filter? I've also invested in some coloured filters so I'll have a play soon. I'm on holiday with my 130mm Newtonian, and have clear skies coming up - although the reduced aperture will surely mean i don't have any revelationary connection with Mars, I think I'm going to continue my journey!

 

I think a neodymium takes out some of the yellow end of the spectrum, so can act as a light blue filter in some respects. I'm guessing the contrast effect is important as well. I use a Baader Neodymium for doubles in below average seeing. The first filter I ever used on Mars was a Wratten #11 yellow-green. The second was a neodymium. Then I stacked them.  Apparently our predominantly nitrogen atmosphere exacerbates the blue end of the spectrum, especially viewing Mars for some reason. So yellow filters can help with that. Baader have a specialist range of anti-cyan filters approximating to #8, #12 and #15 Wratten filters. These are: the Fringe Killer, Semi-APO and Contrast Booster. I'm not totally certain if these were originally intended for use with achromatic refractors of varying apertures. The intriguing aspect of the Baader yellow longpass filter is that the 495 nanometre line is virtually green. Albeit the extreme end of the green spectrum that is basically bordering yellow.

A yellow filter absorbs all coloured light except yellow. Yellow is the colour wavelength between 575-585 nm. Green is the colour between cyan and yellow in the spectrum. It has a dominant wavelength of roughly between 495–570 nm.

TBH any filter is better than none for Mars. Traditional 'Mars filters' have a purple-pink hue and are good for highlighting dark albedo features. Blue filters seem to help with white surface features. I like orange filters as well. I think I used all of the above filters during the last opposition lol. They're all good.

Edited July 24, 2022 by Zeta Reticulan

[Gonariu]

A few years ago I bought the Semiapo filter from Baader, it satisfies me with my achromatic 80/400 as it improves my vision of the Moon and Jupiter, with my other short focus achromatic 120/600 looking at the Moon I like it because I see the image less bright, however the excess of Chromatism is reduced by seeing the Moon and Venus but not canceled. I would like to buy the Contrast Booster filter this month to see what results the 120/600 that performed well on the Red Planet in 2020 gives me with it (as everyone knows, it's not a tool for planets).

[Zeta Reticulan]

3 minutes ago, Gonariu said:

A few years ago I bought the Semiapo filter from Baader, it satisfies me with my achromatic 80/400 as it improves my vision of the Moon and Jupiter, with my other short focus achromatic 120/600 looking at the Moon I like it because I see the image less bright, however the excess of Chromatism is reduced by seeing the Moon and Venus but not canceled. I would like to buy the Contrast Booster filter this month to see what results the 120/600 that performed well on the Red Planet in 2020 gives me with it (as everyone knows, it's not a tool for planets).

You might find this attachment useful:

 

 

testreview_baader_anti_fringing_filters_astronomy_technology_today.pdf

[Gonariu]

Thank you, very kind.

[Zeta Reticulan]

You're welcome.

A Wratten #8 or fringe killer/ minus-cyan filter is a longpass filter blocking visible wavelengths below 465 nm. Blue light is between 450-495 nm and cyan light is between 490-520 nm. Yellow light is between 570-590 nm and light produced from low pressure sodium lamps is around 589 nm  (589.0 ~ 589.3 nm) on average. Light pollution, Moon & Skyglow and basic contrast filters are designed to attenuate sodium light skyglow. A Wratten #8 will attenuate or block blue/cyan light below 465 nm and a contrast filter stacked behind it will further attenuate the 589 nm length of sodium light.The effect the stacked contrast filter has is to reintroduce a very slight blue tint to the image effectively slightly naturalising it. This is more or less true for Wratten #12 and #15 filters as well. A Baader Neodymium/Fringe Killer (or similar) stack is an option. A cheaper way is a Wratten #8, #12 or #15 stacked with a generic Moon & Skyglow filter.  

[Stu]

Just to add some experiences from my side on this. I find the Neodymium to be excellent on Mars and Jupiter, less so on Saturn for some reason. I did also find that at very high powers/small exit pupils, the unfiltered view was better on Mars. By that I meant x300 in my Vixen FL102S, or x360 in the 8” f8, that was based on experience at the last opposition.

[Zeta Reticulan]

At one time Tele Vue had two Mars filters. A magenta one and an orange one. These were referred to as the A and B filters. Eventually they were discontinued and replaced with one magenta coloured BPL-0125 Bandmate Plantary. 

This was also eventually discontinued. I believe it is the filter on the extreme right below. The others being the Celestron (centre) and Orion Mars filters.

I have to say that the TV is the best magenta filter I've ever used. I don't know who made it for TV (BASO maybe?) but they made a good job of it. Mind you, it wasn't cheap.