Nice takes, Reggie! That Meade Zoom seems like a good gadget! Most of these lower-price 8 - 24mm one's are these days.

I was wondering the other day: I can't recall you you mentioning using filters before. Am I blind? Or don't you play with those? Not suggesting (or not ). Curious on your thoughts on these critters.

February - 2018. A month without a Full Moon.

D.

 

Great Moon pictures Reggie.



Despite Siberian snow and icy winds from the Urals I got some lunar observing in with my little Mak lol.

 

Too much Siberian snow for pollen here I reckon lol.



The Orion Mak is the 90mm, the 102mm and 127mm are Sky-Watcher, although they're all Synta of course. The 90mm has a Vixen style dovetail and can be mounted on this tabletop Dob' mount. I even have a heated dew shield for it as well. With my disability it is probably the fastest thing I can set up and all it needs is a garden table. Seen here with a TS Optics reflex sight and a 14mm 60° Bresser ‘Plossl’. This gives me almost a 1mm exit pupil for about 89x. On a good night 125x ~ 180x isn't impossible on the Moon.

 

While it is true I haven't had a chance to take this new Mars Filter from Orion out for a proper shakedown cruise, that can't take place until Mars is already large in the sky. And that might be too late to get your hands on one - should there be a line of people ordering them! But here's what I do know.....

My Sirius Optics 2003 Mars Filter was excellent - even if I only had one long night with it before Mars was occluded by a planet-wide dust-storm. We have clouds & rain - Mars has dust! Anywho - I do still have the 2003 Mars Filter, and, now, the Orion. I've looked at them side-by-side for their spectral-transmission - albeit by eye - and they are extremely close to each other. The quality of the Orions' construction is excellent as well. So.....

If I were you, and wanted to avoid disappointment, I'd go ahead and get one of these little beasties. And they likely do some interesting things to other planets too. As my by-now familiar refrain says: 'Experiment!'

https://www.telescope.com/Orion/Acc...ece-Filter/rc/2160/pc/-1/c/3/sc/48/p/5599.uts

 

And I'm jealous of you, too. Mars will be higher-up in the sky down in your neck-of-the-woods! They will allow you to see greater detail on the surface. The one in 2003 was truly a once-in-a-lifetime event: High-up and closest in a very long time. Made it into the mainstream media.

And the idiots crawled from the woodwork, too - telling people that Mars would be as big in the sky as a full Moon! We had to go full into 'debunking-mode.' Yet give out real education from our magic-keyboards!

 

That should be quite interesting. I hope you take some images with it - and without - and see what happens on that end!

Do keep us in-the-loop, please!

D.

 

beautiful pictures, good job @Orion25 I like the one with mare Crisium the 4th one, I would say it's ma favorite mare round and isolated with strong definition.

 

Anyone see the 'Blue Moon' article in EarthSky News the other day? It's about us have another 'Blue Moon' on March 30th. Anywho - I mention as it had some photo's of the Moon using what rather resembles the #38A <edit> Dark Blue Filter I was 'conned' into buying the other week... (Just kidding, Nebs).

NOW I see why this filter was strongly suggested! Nice! Maybe that's a good one to try, Reggie? The GSO #38A <edit> is only $13.00 delivered. And it's every bit as good (or better) than Baader, Brandon, etc.



EarthSkyNews - (PNG)

 

Baader don't do a #39. I don't think anybody does.



If it wasn't for the minus three Celsius snow and thirty kilometre per hour winds emanating from the Russian Steppes I would be able to see the Full Moon later. The Baader Dark Blue 435nm Bandpass is roughly equivalent to a #38A.

According to Baader's marketing department:

435 nm Dark blue bandpass filter. Filter for visual and photographic planetary observations
Better detection of phase design of Venus
The violet clearing on Mars can be seen better
To observe the great Red Spot on Jupiter, enhances the contrast between the belts and zones on Saturn

Personally I prefer a #47 on a bright Full Moon, although I'd recommend an exit pupil of 2.5 ~ 3mm at least.

 

Right you are, Mak! Must'a had a 'brain-fart!' A #38A is the one I got from GSO. And it's very high quality. $13.00.

 

The 'TS Optics' filters in the picture are rebadged GSO's. The glass is pretty good quality and the filter threads are good. Although paint can flake from the housings. I doubt they are the same build quality as the Baader's, but I've directly compared the GSO 82A with its Lumicon equivalent and I honestly can't see any difference when viewing with it.

 

It's snow joke!

 

And now, for no apparent reason, some Specials: