Arthur Leonard of Yolo fame was a fan of apodizing masks. Some of the best planetary images I have ever seen where produced by his Yolo with and without an Apodmask.

I discovered by accident at 14, that I could place window screen over my scope and get a great improvement of planetary images at times. Nothing seemed to beat a clear aperture and steady, dry & cool 40°f air. But when low on the horizon or after a hot day, it seemed to help a lot. One could also see the spectra. The screen made the diffractions spread out and the light closest to the planet or star was well beyond visible so there was an intensly dark area around the object whereas the diffraction from the spiders crossed the object.

Cheers,
-Rick

• Re: Re: apodising screens - sloanpk - January 16, 2001 - 04:10 UTC