Well, the long-considered impossible dream for astronomers has come true: cloud filters that negate the effect of clouds, thus allowing observations to be done in truly all weather conditions, have been invented.
Today, Lumicon announced the first in its new line of “H2O” filters, the Lumicom H2O Orange, H2O referring to the water vapor that makes up the star-blocking clouds and orange referring to the common cloud color in highly light polluted locations. The H2O Orange filter blocks out, in addition to clouds, both mercury and sodium light pollution. Needless to say, the marriage of a water vapor and light pollution blocking filter technology was considered, by many, to be an impossible task. However. The wizards at Lumicon have delivered the goods.
By year's end, Lumicon hopes to come out with two more cloud filters that are optimized for true dark sky through the clouds viewing and another filter for medium levels of light pollution. These filters are to be called the H2O Black (dark skies) and H2O Gray (semi-dark skies).
The current city cloud filter is expected to hit stores next month at a retail price of $399.99 for the 1.25” version and $499.99 for the 2” version.
For the complete press release, go here!
Humble requests:
If you found this informative (or at least entertaining), help me pay my bills and check out my Examiner pages for space news, photography, and astronomy for more great stuff.
If you think this was cool, why not tell a friend?
For something even better, follow this blog.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment