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300K
I have, in the last 3 years gained more and more experience with telescopes and all fields of astronomy. Although i am hardly a professional i do have a very good working knowledge of telescope types and use as well as observing practices. I have been using all the equipment mentioned on this site along with other equipment at star parties. My reason for buying the Fringe Killer is simple and described below. Read on for the first section of my review.
Far too many numbers and words that mean nothing at all to me :), Suffice to say its green/yellow on one side and purple on the other!
300K
Having owned a long focal length Sky Watcher (1200mm X 150mm / F8) for a year or so now i have noticed, as with many cheap, mass produced refractors that bright objects are usually spoilt by a bright purple haze surrounding the subject.
One, the more expensive! Involved a Chromachor filter. This is an expensive bit of kit that is said to improve the Japanese F8 / F10 scopes to the level of some much dearer equipment. My biggest worry was the fear that an investment of greater than £200 was needed to buy a Chromachor but i could not find any reviews for the product other than the claims made by the manufacurers. This, i decided was too much of a risk(to my wallet and my relationship with my other half ;) .
Two, a far cheaper solution! Was the Baader Fringe Killer. This is a far more economical purchase than the Chromachor. It is also made by a company that is renowned for quality. I have used their solar film(as most astronomy buffs have) and found it a quality product. I ordered one from scsastro.co.uk on Monday and to my complete surprise it had arrived by the time i woke up on the Tuesday!!! It is nothing more than a filter to the eye! Some lovely colours can be reflected from the surfaces, purples and greens in varying hue's.
The F8 Sky Watcher's diagonal is set up for 2" ep's and i only have one so i mistakenly bought a 1.25" Baader Fringe Killer. Fitting it is simple, you simply screw it into the filter thread on the eye peice. This poses a problem for me and anyone else in this situation, we change ep's about a thousand times in a single observing session!!! To that end i decided to add the filter to the bottom of my Mead Barlow, this way i get better eye releif from all of my ep's and i dont have to change the filter every time i change the ep :)
I did, i must confess, have my doubts that a little bit of glass with a green/yellow (im colour blind :) side and a purple side would make any difference to the view through such a big scope. Jupiter is currently quite low by the time dusk falls and therefore a decent viewing is almost impossible. The first night i used the filter i first viewed Juptier for about 15 minutes using a Seben 20mm Plossyl. For testing purposes i simply screwed the filter into the bottom of the eyepeice and bingo, the purple *rings* of Jupiter where all but gone! I did however notice that the planet appeared a little yellow/green(whatever colour it was) i assume due to the filter doing its work!
I have been told that a moon filter can remove this yellow/green tinge but i am yet to find out. I did intend to test this theroy more thouroly on Saturday night only to get to my observing site and realise i left the Baader Fringe Killer at home, Doh!