Cloudy night turned into a lesson about lunar filters

Two weeks ago I was out in my driveway with my 6 inch Dob, and the moon was so bright it was actually hurting my eyes. I thought my scope was broken because everything looked washed out, but then my neighbor came over with his old moon filter and let me try it. Man, what a difference, I could suddenly see the craters and the maria way sharper than before. I bought a cheap one for 12 bucks on Amazon the next morning and it's been a game changer for my night sessions. Do most of you keep a lunar filter on even when you're not aiming at the moon, or does that mess up deep sky views?

1 comments

1 Comment

evanr794d ago

My dad used to swear by stacking two filters when Jupiter was low on the horizon, said it cut the glare enough to see the bands without squinting. I tried it once on the Pleiades and everything just turned blue and dull, so I stopped messing with it. Keep the lunar filter in the eyepiece case and only pop it in when the moon is full or close to it, deep sky stuff never needs it.