I use filters quite a bit when viewing planets. I like the 80A and 82A (med and pale blue) for Jupiter. I use the 82A for Saturn. I use 21 (orange) and 25 (red) on Mars. I also use the 80A on Mars for the polar caps. I have also used the Moon filter on Jupiter and Venus. Last Friday night I used #47 (Violet) on the moon. It seemed to bring out the rays from Tycho and Copernicus. I spent most of the time Friday night looking at Saturn without a filter. I used my 8" f/7. It was real steady at 143X. I had the Enke division (might have been the minima) popping in and out of focus. I was too impatient for the 284X view. I got tired of moving the scope so often. I guess I will need to make an equitorial platform. I also need to finish moving the mirror on my 10" f/10 so that I can crank up the power. I redid the mirror cell because it was difficult to collimate and now I need to move it 1/2" so that I can reach focus. Dave -----Original Message----- From: Chuck Hards [mailto:chuckhards@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 21, 2003 11:52 AM To: utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] Saturn I noticed Saturday night that the banding on Saturn was made much more visible when I used a pale-blue filter; contrast was enhanced as well. The filter is so mild that a color shift was not noticed. The crepe ring's visibility was not reduced. A couple of Mars oppositions ago, I noticed a similar effect, with a somewhat denser blue filter. Even with the filter, Mars was so red to begin with, that the filtered view was almost "natural", with contrast much enhanced to boot. Anybody else using filters for planetary viewing? Chuck __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy