Lumicon Closes

Well looks like Lumicon decided to close its doors. No message other than the following on their web page

After 23 years of innovation, Lumicon has been
forced to close its doors due to the slowing economy, September 11th,
and other circumstances. We are very sorry.

John

Sad news indeed! I'm selfishly glad that I have a fairly complete set of their visual filters. Who fills this market niche best now that the de facto standard is gone?

Opinions, anybody?

Jim Mahon

*sigh*. To think that Lumicon was one of the inspirations for me to get into this hobby... After years of looking at faints smudges through my friend's scopes ("oh, yeah... that's exciting" I'd say as a casual observer... "now can we go back to Saturn? " )... I went to a star party where a person said "Look at this!"... the Veil through a 24" Dob with a Lumicon OIII filter. *gasp* A short while later, I saw the same sight through a 12.5" Portaball with an OIII and realized it just wasn't just the aperture... it was the filter that made the most difference. Soon thereafter I put in an order for a Lumicon OIII.

I'm sorry to hear they are gone.

Some questions... every one of Lumicon's OIIIs were made... then Measured... the wavelength throughput in %transmission were individually determined and hand written in. For example: 92%/93%... and I've seen things like 94.5%/81%... or even down to 83%/84%.

Do other vendors document these figures individually? Can anyone post sample figures ( or weblinks) for the other vendors measurements? If one were "binoviewing"... how adverse is the effect of two radically different transmission rates ( if any )?

I gotta believe that a 10% difference would be as big a difference as gained by enhanced coatings on your mirror/diagonal over stock.