David,
I went out Friday night for the meteor shower and had a chance to view Mars with a TV85. Although the planet is small, we bumped up the magnification and tried some filters. Using a 6mm Radian and a 2x Powermate at 200x, here's what we came up with....
We tried both the Televue Mars type A and B and found the type A showed the most surface detail of the two. With very little to no light scatter through the eyepiece. I was quite impressed with how this filter preformed. Really nice view.
Then we used a Hoya #21 orange. The problem with this filter was light scatter at the eyepiece. I have no other way of explaining the view except for saying the planet looked like it had a spider web of light around it. This made it very difficult to see any features on the surface of the planet because of the glare. We tried stacking a polarizing filter, but unfortunately it needed to be cleaned. Had we used a 25% or 50% neutral density filter, I think it would have drastically reduced the amount of light scatter. Even the polarizing filter would have helped with the glare. But when your talking about price, we're comparing apples to oranges. A good color filter will cost around $20. The ND filter.... $30. $50 is a far cry from $115.
Conclusion:
The Mars type A filter was excellent, but at $115......ouch! Thats a lot of $$$ to spend on a planetary filter. In my opinion, what makes the Mars type A and B filters superior is quality and coatings. Any filter will be more unforgiving at higher magnifications because of the flatness of the glass and coatings. Read about the Televue filters. Dielectric coatings and quality of glass make it a winner.
On a budget (which I am), I would say a ND filter or polarizer in combination with a #21 orange to show surface details. Although the #21 will scatter light, the combination two is nice.
Here's a question......Has anyone done a color filter comparison? Who makes the best color filters? I have always heard Lumicon are the best, but they use Hoya glass which I saw scatter light in a big way. Do they use different coatings?
I went out Friday night for the meteor shower and had a chance to view Mars with a TV85. Although the planet is small, we bumped up the magnification and tried some filters. Using a 6mm Radian and a 2x Powermate at 200x, here's what we came up with....
We tried both the Televue Mars type A and B and found the type A showed the most surface detail of the two. With very little to no light scatter through the eyepiece. I was quite impressed with how this filter preformed. Really nice view.
Then we used a Hoya #21 orange. The problem with this filter was light scatter at the eyepiece. I have no other way of explaining the view except for saying the planet looked like it had a spider web of light around it. This made it very difficult to see any features on the surface of the planet because of the glare. We tried stacking a polarizing filter, but unfortunately it needed to be cleaned. Had we used a 25% or 50% neutral density filter, I think it would have drastically reduced the amount of light scatter. Even the polarizing filter would have helped with the glare. But when your talking about price, we're comparing apples to oranges. A good color filter will cost around $20. The ND filter.... $30. $50 is a far cry from $115.
Conclusion:
The Mars type A filter was excellent, but at $115......ouch! Thats a lot of $$$ to spend on a planetary filter. In my opinion, what makes the Mars type A and B filters superior is quality and coatings. Any filter will be more unforgiving at higher magnifications because of the flatness of the glass and coatings. Read about the Televue filters. Dielectric coatings and quality of glass make it a winner.
On a budget (which I am), I would say a ND filter or polarizer in combination with a #21 orange to show surface details. Although the #21 will scatter light, the combination two is nice.
Here's a question......Has anyone done a color filter comparison? Who makes the best color filters? I have always heard Lumicon are the best, but they use Hoya glass which I saw scatter light in a big way. Do they use different coatings?
