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Originally Posted by acropolite
Thanks Guys, that's the sort of feedback I was after. I am going to order the DGM NPB from the US, the rest I'll try to purchase locally. The reason for filters is that I don't seem to get much detail, especially with jupiter, I only seem to get the most prominent equatorial belts. I might try a mask as well.  |
Phil,
I don't know that planetary filters are going to be the answer, maybe there are issues with your scope ? SCT design are inherently not the best instruments for planetary observation due to the large central obstruction, that having been said, a good SCT is still a pretty fair planetary instrument and an 8" should show more detail than that.
A couple of things you should check with your scope before you buy planetary filters:-
1. Has it cooled properly? an 8" SCT "can" take over 2 hours to cool properly.
2. Is the scope collimated properly? Poor collimation leads to poor planetary views with a SCT.
3. Most of the detail on Jupiter is "low contrast" hence it does not take magnification that well. With an 8" SCT on most "average" nights the image will break down somewhere between 180X and 240X. It will be rare nights indeed that you can use more than 240X on it. How much power are you using on it ?
CS-John B