OK thanks Bill. I thought I might get a chance at the golden nuggets Sunday evening but the clouds had other ideas. I was all geared up for lunar viewing so I could have made 100x with the EP's I took out with me. I try and keep EP's to a minimum these days as well, it really simplifies things in the dark. lol

 

Same here - 3 eyepieces in a row. Low to high. Save on batteries for my red-flashlight. But filters are a bit more problematic.

 

I decided to be selective with those too. I figured a yellow, orange, single polarising and ND would be all I needed for the session.



These four are all I took.

 

Hmmm... A four-way tray just went on my shopping-list.

Thanks, Mak!

 

It simplified things down a bit. I often carry all eight Baader filters out in two containers. I knew I'd just be using orange or yellow for twilight. The clouds came at around transit so I never got to switch to the Baader Single Polarising filter which is my main general lunar filter these days. It all depends on phase and conditions though, a very bright Full Moon can require an indigo/purple filter.

 

Yeah. I tend to avoid the "Searchlight" Moon. But if it has a sliver unlit, it's fair game! But my favorite is when it's only a sliver. You can watch the light do a slow march. Fun!

 

If you keep the exit pupil wide enough a violet/purple filter can reveal a lot on a searchlight Moon, particularly ray systems.

 

And now for something completely different ... some Mediaeval Baebes!

 

I tried violet (47) filter on the moon 2 days ago with 3.x mm exit pupil and a moon at approximately 60% illumination. Unfortunately the filter was overkill, way to dark to help on anything.

I think it was with my 18mm eyepiece which is around 3.4 exit pupil.. but it could be with my 9mm too which was 1.8mm exit pupil. Can't remember clearly now.

 

It depends on conditions, lunar altitude, phase and brightness I find. A bright near or Full Moon will respond to a #47, although you have to remember there's only about 5% transmission.

 

I hope to get a good observation one day with the #47, it should happen because I had a good experience with the 38a dark blue in the past but tried a few times after with absolutely no positive results.

Like you say the favorable conditions have to be there at the right moment.

You have an indigo/purple filter @Mak the Night?

 

I have this TS Optics/GSO #47 Indigo one and I've ordered a Lumicon #47 Purple.

 

Try the #47 on Venus sometime. At very least it'll make it's phase nice & sharply delineated. And who knows - you might see the base the Zeta's have there!

 

Venus is the other thing I use it for!

 

I can't wait to try it.. that's why it's good to have the gear.. already. Violet 47 is on standby for Venus. I want to see against 38a too, both are very very similar.

 

I just looked at the colored wheel of GIMP and.. both 38a and 47 have the same effect on the same colors, violet is more aggressive and will do a bit more hiding certain similar colors has the filter / darkening on other colors.

 

It will also drift further into the UV. This makes it a candidate for imaging the Venusian atmoshere and the wedge-shaped cloud formation - which remains un-explained at present.

 

Venus is a very mysterious place, perhaps it has some interesting elements not found on earth. A very different unexplored world. Is there a link between the #47 and UV ?

 

I looked at Algieba last night through my Mak and you're right, they are beautiful. The Mak (127mm) easily made the split even with a wide-field eyepiece (20mm). They looked more whitish than golden yellow to me but nonetheless gorgeous. Thanks for the heads-up on this one!

 

If you look at a scientific representation of the full colour-spectrum, you'll see that red fades from visibility as it continues into the infra-red. And violet (purple) fades off into the ultraviolet.

Does that answer your query?