I don't factor cosmetics into my appraisal of optical tools. Build construction - like retaining-rings, threads, etc. - are what I look for.

I, personally, knew it was a 're-badging' of a GSO. But it always amazes me at how most people don't. So it's always good to point out - alongside and explanation of what 're-badge' means. These fora*, after all is said & done, are designed to educate the readers (Hi, readers!).


* 'fora' is seldom-heard way of saying 'forums' in a plural-tense.

 

And TS Optics make you pay through the nose for their rebadging, sorry, I mean 'partner company'.

Don't get me started about people who say 'fora' again.

The Romans left my country in the 5th century, the English, who came later, didn't speak Latin. They spoke a Frisian-Germanic language. 'Forum' is an adopted word. English has different syntax to Latin, it doesn't need Latin pluralisations. Sorry, rant over lol.

 

And a fine rant it was!

LOL!

<geesh! what a long time to hold a grudge! tsk, tsk..>

 

Yeah, I think the snow's stressing me out lol. Paint flaking from the filter housing could contaminate eyepieces though. I'm going to drink a nice calming cup of Earl Grey tea now.

 

Pour two-fingers of Dutch Gin (Genever) in it perhaps?

 

I'd love to, but alcohol raises my blood pressure unfortunately.

 

One notable difference I've seen (in print) between the Baader, Lumicon, and GSO <& re-badges> is that both the Baader & Lumicon (& others, I'd guess) cost nearly 3X the price of the GSO.

I could easily get a Giotto's Rocket-Blower* (to blow-off any stray paint-chips) and still get several GSO-Filters for the cost of a Baader or Lumicon. It's a personal decision, me thinks.

I'm quite pleased with the GSO's.


* - already have one though. It's a red one, too! Ooh! Ooh!

 

The main difference with the Baader's is that they are not traditional Wratten colours and were designed deliberately for astronomical use.

The GSO filter housings sometimes tend to flake with use. Apart from that there's nothing really wrong with them.

The Baader's are only about a third more for me to buy and I can get Lumicons not much more than the Baader filters. I'll probably get more Lumicons eventually.

 

Make sure 'Lumicon' isn't using Krylon® Spray-Paint to 'colour' their glass with. Considering the stunts the new owners' of the name 'Lumicon' have pulled - it wouldn't surprise me.

 

The one I've got looks OK, it definitely looks and feels 'quality'. I think with their UHC filters they just priced themselves off the market. With a plethora of cheaper lookalikes flooding an already niche market they had to adapt or go the way of the dinosaurs. I think it was a fiscal necessity rather than corporate skulduggery. Lumicon invented the ultra high contrast filter but failed to predict the ever shifting market.

 

Oh it WAS 'MONEY!' - said the Lumicon-rep. when he admitted they HAD changed the recipe, after we called him out in Rowdy Fights. We had him cornered and he caved-in and admitted he was full of 'it'!

 

It kind of reminds me of all the hate on Ubuntu that's been developing over the past few years. Linux needs to get its act together, it never will though. When Shuttleworth/Canonical took Debian as a base for Ubuntu and turned it into something usable he was the toast of the internet. Shuttleworth is worth a few bob and actually paid Roscosmos to train him to be a cosmonaut. Ubuntu lost money or broke even, I still don't think it's turned a profit. Eventually he had to work with partners to fund it and its development. He's been upfront about every business decision he's had to make. The tinfoil hat freebie brigade turned on him quick enough. Especially when he made deals with Amazon, Levono and the like. The infamous Amazon Dash search was opt-out anyway and was never a privacy breach. There is now opt-out telemetry and the tinfoil brigade are whinging about this. Even though it's necessary for hardware compatibility, something most distros seriously suck at.



I don't know what happened at Lumicon Dave, but they obviously weren't making a success of the business. The overall success of a business depends on how it appeals to its key markets. Trying to sell exotic or specialist filters that cost more individually than a decent 10cm achromatic refractor costs is never going to make economic sense. Shuttleworth has the luxury of being wealthy and Canonical can run at a break even if he's lucky. I don't think Lumicon had that choice, although I must admit I don't have all the facts. Well, to be honest, I don't have any facts about Lumicon at all.

 

It was part of a rather long conversation with a representative of the new Lumicon, and a bunch of filter-nuts - including 'Yours' Truly.

The main point was "Will Lumicon keep their main-stay filters (UHC, OIII, SWAN, etc.) the same as we know & love?" The rep. swore they wouldn't change. But upon further questioning - he changed his story! After we had taken him at his (previous) word and reported back to our communities!

Then all-hell broke loose. I have screenshots of the entire debacle. I'd share these on a one-on-one basis. I don't wish to do a Public-Disclosure without obtaining permission of all the main characters first. I'm sure you understand.

<edit - correct syntax>

 

Yeah, well, what did you expect? A similar thing happened with TeleVue coatings.

 

Nice shot, Reggie. Mercury is a bear to capture - or even glimpse. There has been a post on this earlier today, and I pointed to Stellarium to show how close they were at that point. Take a look in the 'Welcome To Stellarium' thread Alex and I, then Ed (aegr), have been posting on in the last days:

https://astronomyconnect.com/forums/threads/welcome-to-stellarium.2949/page-2#post-14538

My 2nd. to the bottom at present. The other reference is from Mak in another thread. It'll jump-out at you sometime!

Thanks again for 'bagging' Mercury! It a tough one!

 

That's a beautiful shot Reggie, nicely framed with the trees. I briefly saw Venus with my Mak yesterday but I couldn't see Mercury.

They're close today, 18:28 Greenwich Mean Time.



It's warmer here slightly, and the Siberian snow is melting, but it's unlikely I'll get a break in the weather to see this.

 

I hope what we got up here in Varmint doesn't get to you - after your 'Trip To Siberia.' Steady clouds for over a week, and another week looking equally abysmal!

That last screenshot is SkySafari, right? I see it's got some detailing on Mercury. Cool! I'll bet the Brandon Salmon-Filter (through Agena) would really help! Oh - but one SMALL problem.....

I was reading-up on these Brandon Planetary-Filters: They cost $39.00 ea/US. And they only fit Brandon eyepieces! Which are close to $300.00 apiece and are - arguably - about as good as a decent Orthoscopic.

What a bargain!

<I think I'm starting to hate us amateur-astronomers!>

 

I'm so high I regularly get wind from the Steppes, but Siberian snow is extracting the urine on an industrial scale. And don't get me started about Chernobyl, parts of Worcestershire still don't need street lighting on a night as the background radiation glow is good enough lol. Seriosly though, although the government said everyone was safe, they still destroyed thousands of cattle and incinerated the carcasses. If the fall out cloud was that safe, why do that?



I've read Brandon EP's aren't so good in faster scopes anyway.



http://vernonscope.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=25_30

You can fit other filters to Brandon EP's with an adaptor. Or maybe change the Brandon drawtubes lol.



I've finally collected a set of ortho's. I doubt I'll be replacing them with Brandon EP's anytime soon.