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Colour Filters?

steve_bham

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ashenlight

ashenlight

Posted
Posted

Hi Steve,

Whilst this retailer has varied customer reviews (on this forum and many others I imagine) I can highly recommend Antares colour filters

Astronomy filters - Colour and specialist astronomy fiters

they are cheap, and do the job. I have a 80A blue filter, and found it brilliant on Saturn and Jupiter - and I imagine this view can only get better with more aperture (my scope is 5").

Alternatively, if you have a bit more money, try the Meade ones

Telescope House Lunar & Planetary

they come in a nice set and a case to keep them safe.... good choice of colour combinations too ;)

My own choice would be a yellow filter, for enhancing contrast on Jupiter Saturn the Moon and Mars - another good choice would be an orange filter, for increasing the contrast available with a yellow filter; a green filter, for the GRS on Jupiter and the polar caps on Mars; a blue filter, for Jupiter's bands. With this in mind, this set would be ideal.

Here's a primer on planetary filters from our GazOC ;)

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ashenlight

ashenlight

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try it Steve, they're only a fiver, and I did see a fair difference especially on Jupiter at high mag, when the seeing allowed. You could buy a couple of cheapies, see how you get on, and then invest in the Meade set, or another brand, when you know you want some for life ;)

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ashenlight

ashenlight

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ashenlight, does your skywatcher lprf filter make much difference??

i just bought one off here but aint had chance to use it yet

cheers

Hi superjody ;)

Yes, it does make a difference. It just darkens the sky, so if you are trying to view a faint fuzzy like a nebula or galaxy (say, M57 the Ring nebula in Lyra, or M81 and M82 a lovely pairing of galaxies in Ursa Major) their grey form stands out better against the sky - it provides that bit more contrast. It won't allow you to see more detail in an object - it'll just improve the contrast between the object and the sky (cutting out the 'orangeyness' of the sky) making it easier to view the object. As you probably know, you need more aperture to see more detail. Darkening the sky just makes it easier to spot, really ;)

I hope you have a chance to try it out soon :p

N.B. if you are particularly fond of hunting down nebulas (like me) I would recommend a nebula filter - I have the Baader UHC-S on this page. When I tested it out on M57 and M27 (ring and dumbell nebula) it really made the nebula's form 'pop' against the background of the sky. It has been a great investment for me :)

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ashenlight

ashenlight

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Posted
Would these be better than antares or would you be paying more for the name?

Telescope Accessories | Filters | Lumicon | Rother Valley Optics

Steve,

I'm not really sure to be honest, I'm not that good with knowing what brands are good/valued and which are not ;). I just went for the Antares as it was cheap enough to 'try out' - and it turned out to be worth the fiver. I'd love to get some more, but I have promised myself that I have to spot 5 new objects before I allow myself to buy any more astrogear ;)

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steve_bham

steve_bham

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Steve,

I'm not really sure to be honest, I'm not that good with knowing what brands are good/valued and which are not ;). I just went for the Antares as it was cheap enough to 'try out' - and it turned out to be worth the fiver. I'd love to get some more, but I have promised myself that I have to spot 5 new objects before I allow myself to buy any more astrogear ;)

LOL, im sure googling all five will count :p

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superjody

superjody

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Hi superjody :eek:

Yes, it does make a difference. It just darkens the sky, so if you are trying to view a faint fuzzy like a nebula or galaxy (say, M57 the Ring nebula in Lyra, or M81 and M82 a lovely pairing of galaxies in Ursa Major) their grey form stands out better against the sky - it provides that bit more contrast. It won't allow you to see more detail in an object - it'll just improve the contrast between the object and the sky (cutting out the 'orangeyness' of the sky) making it easier to view the object. As you probably know, you need more aperture to see more detail. Darkening the sky just makes it easier to spot, really :evil6:

I hope you have a chance to try it out soon :D

N.B. if you are particularly fond of hunting down nebulas (like me) I would recommend a nebula filter - I have the Baader UHC-S on this page. When I tested it out on M57 and M27 (ring and dumbell nebula) it really made the nebula's form 'pop' against the background of the sky. It has been a great investment for me :o

ah cheers, should come in handy then as living near manchester gives me plenty of orange in the sky ha ha

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russ

russ

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Nothing wrong with the Antares colour filters, i have a set of five. I had a single Lumicon #21 Orange but couldn't spot any difference with the Antares. So sold the Lumicon and that paid for two Antares.

I find #12 Yellow and #21 Orange the most useful. #12 is also a good filter for increasing contrast on lunar features. #21 Orange has proved the most useful Mars filter.

Like Amanda i have never had a problem with Scopes'n'skies. Just confirm stock first before ordering!

Russ

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