223 replies to this topic

[tjones84]

Trevor amazing shot! Have you used this on the 8” RASA? I’m curious how it handles the speed!

Hey! No I have not, yet. But you're right that would be a great test, as this filter is said to handle faster systems. I will try it with the C11 and Hyperstar soon

[Huangdi]

I have long written these off until I tried one last weekend.....

I was dumbfounded how much of a difference they make, compared to a standard "broadband filter"...and take back any negative comments I've made about them in the past...

You should try the L-Extreme then, you'll be mute for a week if you were struck by the L-enhance

[Choncho]

Hey! No I have not, yet. But you're right that would be a great test, as this filter is said to handle faster systems. I will try it with the C11 and Hyperstar soon

Awesome, thanks! If it performs well I'll probably order one right away!

[Umasscrew39]

I'd be interested to hear what solution you use to fit the 2'' filter in the optical path, I'm trying to figure something out for my EdgeHD 8.

On my C11" EdgeHD, I use a filter wheel that holds 2" mounted filters.  On my 80mm APO triplet, the 2" filter simple threads onto the flattener.  You can get a filter drawer that holds 2" filters for just about any setup as part of the optical path as long as you calculate backfocus correctly.

[cuivienor]

I really want to get one and image under Tokyo stars. Yesterday I was on a reverse astro trip and ended up imaging right under Tokyo Tower. The ZWO Duoband didn't quite cut it But those are extreme conditions!

@tjones84: beautiful picture!

 

Cuiv

[tjones84]

I really want to get one and image under Tokyo stars. Yesterday I was on a reverse astro trip and ended up imaging right under Tokyo Tower. The ZWO Duoband didn't quite cut it But those are extreme conditions!

@tjones84: beautiful picture!

 

Cuiv

Thank you! Yes, THAT would be the ultimate test! 7nm is quite narrow (compare that to my old "full-moon" ha filter at 12nm). I would expect impressive results with the L-eXtreme even in that scenario!

 

Cheers,

 

Trevor

[PeteD]

I really want to get one and image under Tokyo stars. Yesterday I was on a reverse astro trip and ended up imaging right under Tokyo Tower. The ZWO Duoband didn't quite cut it But those are extreme conditions!

@tjones84: beautiful picture!

 

Cuiv

Having been there and looked up at the sky, I'm surprised any filter can work in those conditions! 

 

That said, I'm amazed at the images you get from your location. They are awesome, especially for a Lazy Imager! (I suspect you are not as lazy as you make out to be ).

 

I live in Bortle 5 skies and I'm thinking of getting a 533MC-Pro for my WO-GT71 with FF/FR as I'm done with my 60D DSLR. I'd be interested in your opinion of which of these filters to get, the enhance or the extreme for this camera?

 

Any advice appreciated.

[Eric Seavey]

My guess is that the stars will have more natural colors with the Enhance, compared to the extreme. Due to the lower blue sensitivity that most CMOS sensors have, to the wider band of the enhance extending into the blue will help that.  In terms of the Hbeta contribution to the signal, it may have a minor blue increase in the signal of some targets.  Honestly, I would lean towards thinking about using the Extreme to boost the Halpha/OIII signal of the target in combination with a stack of images taken with wider bands, such as the CLS-CCD.  I have both the Optolong and Astronomik versions of the CLS-CCD filters and like the Astronomik version better, as it has much less halo effects around bright stars and it passes more blue, thereby balancing out the star color better.

Instead of the Enhance I would lean towards the Skytech or Altair Quadband that captures in addition to the Halpha/OIII lines, Hbeta and SII lines that some targets have.  Although, it seems that the filter doesn't behave that much difference compared to the Astronomik CLS-CCD, other than stars having a little more red shift and sky and stars being little less bright.  Last, for capturing only the quad band and attenuating everything else, there is the Triad Ultra Quad-Band that literally has 4 narrow bands that by itself produces very attenuated stars and sky brightness, but unnatural star colors, so I would use it as an expensive version of the Optolong Extreme in combination with a stack of images with more natural star colors.

[Gert]

Hello All,

 

So the common 'trick' in these multi band filters is to have two separated pass bands of varying width so that one include H-A and/or S and the other OIII and/or H-B. For true color this creates difficulties to map one band pass to red and then being stuck what to do with the other. (Blue or Green??). Where is technology in creating really multi pass filters where wavelengths of true Red, Green, Blue range of the color spectrum are mapped to nebula lines (and non-mapped to light pollution lines) such that a OSC exposure replicates a true color reproduction of the object without Green / Blue ambiguity? What's the trick missing in the arsenal of the manufacturers to achieve the true multi pass narrow band filter?

 

Clear Skies,

Gert

[cuivienor]

@tjones84 : absolutely, the 7nm bandpasses are what is attracting me, in theory it should be amazing! On top of that, the absence of useless bandpasses like H-Beta (which the OPT Triad Ultra has) is a big positive. The ZWO duoband actually gave a result right from the foot of Tokyo tower, so the L-extreme should perform amazingly.

 

My main worry is that the last set of 6.5nm narrowband filters from Optolong I had were a bit "meh" (A fellow CNer measured them via spectrometer, and OIII in particular had a real FWHM of 8.9nm along with a peak light transmission of around 69% compared to the specs of 6.5nm and 80%). H-Alpha was closer to spec, but OIII is the "weak link" in terms of letting in light pollution, as the blue end of the spectrum is where a lot of LP is. I had bought them because their nominal bandpasses were narrower than my set of Baader SHO filters, but they ended up performing worse, which was a big bummer for me, as I was expecting an upgrade...

 

I'm kind of hoping that 5nm or even 3nm versions come out, because even narrower bandpasses make an incredibly big difference from Tokyo (Astrodon filters have spoiled me!)...

 

@PeteD: a Bortle 5 sounds like paradise to me! In such a zone, I'm not sure what I'd choose! I would probably likely start with a CLS-CCD filter to just avoid having to deal with difficult color calibration!

 

@Gert: I think you'd need a Bayer matrix made from narrowband filters! I don't think it is possible to do what you are mentioning with the current RGGB Bayer matrices!

 

Cheers,

 

Cuiv

[Lancelot365]

Took my first batches of deep space images ever with the ZWO duo band filter last week and they look great! Although I cant get a lot of usable signals from blue and green channels.

Just received my L-extreme from UK, and of course there are some thunder outside now...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Lancelot365, 17 August 2020 - 10:57 AM.

[David-LR]

Oh it wasn't mine, I'd never buy a Canon it was modded though.

That is a nice image, however replicating this with an uncooled DSLR will be a different story.

I think that one point, that I forgot to mention, is the fact that Narrowband filters and Light Pollution Filters are mostly used in Light polluted areas. And with a bandwidth as wide as the L-enhance has, you don't really gain that much in my opinion. Is it better than unfiltered shooting for emission nebulae? Of course. But is it worth the money? I don't think so.

Here is my result with an uncooled DSLR, Nikon D5300 modified for HA.  I have had excellent results as well with my L enHance filter.  Frankly, I don't see how the filter would cause banding, but I can see the camera doing so.  

 

https://www.astrobin.../full/266650/E/

 

Here is just .5 hours with the L enHance...

 

https://www.astrobin...7430/F/?nc=user

Edited by David-LR, 17 August 2020 - 10:29 AM.

[carathir]

Here is mine.. Just got my L-Extreme a few days ago. 

 

https://www.astrobin.com/qzlzb7/0/

 

This is 38 images @ 180 secs each. 

19 were L-Extreme @ 100 Gain ASI2600

19 were normal RGB  NO FILTER @ 0 Gain ASI2600

 

Image is cropped because I had to put my filter drawer in which cause a rotation / cropping :-(

 

I am thoroughly impressed. These rival the pictures I was able to get on my QHY163 narrow band. I am under Bortle 5/6 skies. Processing was a bit of a pain but huge advantage in collecting data. 

[elmiko]

L-eNhance filter from Bortle 7-8 . Lots of other examples on my Astrobin link. The L-eNhance filter is a game changer for osc imagers! I've been using one for over a year now. It does lack the band pass of Oiii though. But does a great job on Ha rich targets. And keeps the stars from bloating even with 10 min. Subs at f5.5. The L-xtreme looks very interesting., Being that it will allow the blue Oiii data to come through.

[Huangdi]

@tjones84 : absolutely, the 7nm bandpasses are what is attracting me, in theory it should be amazing! On top of that, the absence of useless bandpasses like H-Beta (which the OPT Triad Ultra has) is a big positive. The ZWO duoband actually gave a result right from the foot of Tokyo tower, so the L-extreme should perform amazingly.

 

My main worry is that the last set of 6.5nm narrowband filters from Optolong I had were a bit "meh" (A fellow CNer measured them via spectrometer, and OIII in particular had a real FWHM of 8.9nm along with a peak light transmission of around 69% compared to the specs of 6.5nm and 80%). H-Alpha was closer to spec, but OIII is the "weak link" in terms of letting in light pollution, as the blue end of the spectrum is where a lot of LP is. I had bought them because their nominal bandpasses were narrower than my set of Baader SHO filters, but they ended up performing worse, which was a big bummer for me, as I was expecting an upgrade...

 

I'm kind of hoping that 5nm or even 3nm versions come out, because even narrower bandpasses make an incredibly big difference from Tokyo (Astrodon filters have spoiled me!)...

 

@PeteD: a Bortle 5 sounds like paradise to me! In such a zone, I'm not sure what I'd choose! I would probably likely start with a CLS-CCD filter to just avoid having to deal with difficult color calibration!

 

@Gert: I think you'd need a Bayer matrix made from narrowband filters! I don't think it is possible to do what you are mentioning with the current RGGB Bayer matrices!

 

Cheers,

 

Cuiv

I've attached a stack of Oiii of the gamma cygni nebula (I trust that noone will use my data without consent, it's bad quality anyway ha!) shot through a Nikon D3300 with the L-Extreme. https://drive.google...iew?usp=sharing

 

I think it's really clean and I doubt the L-Enhance could get anywhere close to that amount of SNR/conrast/detail

 

Here is my result with an uncooled DSLR, Nikon D5300 modified for HA.  I have had excellent results as well with my L enHance filter.  Frankly, I don't see how the filter would cause banding, but I can see the camera doing so.  

 

https://www.astrobin.../full/266650/E/

 

Here is just .5 hours with the L enHance...

 

https://www.astrobin...7430/F/?nc=user

You misunderstood. When talking about banding, I referred to canon cameras.

 

Edit: I also attached the final image I got from that set of data. It's 3 hrs of H-Alpha(different filter) and 6ish hours of L-Extreme Data 

Attached Thumbnails

• 

Edited by Huangdi, 17 August 2020 - 05:54 PM.

[tjones84]

I've attached a stack of Oiii of the gamma cygni nebula (I trust that noone will use my data without consent, it's bad quality anyway ha!) shot through a Nikon D3300 with the L-Extreme. https://drive.google...iew?usp=sharing

 

I think it's really clean and I doubt the L-Enhance could get anywhere close to that amount of SNR/conrast/detail

 

You misunderstood. When talking about banding, I referred to canon cameras.

 

Edit: I also attached the final image I got from that set of data. It's 3 hrs of H-Alpha(different filter) and 6ish hours of L-Extreme Data 

This is INCREDIBLE. Absolutely love this look, very ghostly! I am inspired:D Following you back on IG now!

[Huangdi]

This is INCREDIBLE. Absolutely love this look, very ghostly! I am inspired:D Following you back on IG now!

Thanks! 💪

[RogueZero]

Edit: I also attached the final image I got from that set of data. It's 3 hrs of H-Alpha(different filter) and 6ish hours of L-Extreme Data 

 

When I saw your image on Reddit it inspired me to get 9 hours of L-Extreme data on the same target. But I've been unable to replicate the effect of your processing and cannot get a clear blue to appear using variations of HOO in PI. What's the trick!? 

[crtastro]

I've had great results with the L-eNhance. It was like a switch being flipped on when I started using it.

 

https://www.astrobin...eqnt8i/?nc=user

Edited by crtastro, 19 August 2020 - 11:21 PM.

[Huangdi]

When I saw your image on Reddit it inspired me to get 9 hours of L-Extreme data on the same target. But I've been unable to replicate the effect of your processing and cannot get a clear blue to appear using variations of HOO in PI. What's the trick!?

I'm not using PI, but I usually create a synthetic third layer made up from ha/oiii which gives the image more depth. It's tough to describe how the colors are achieved, I usually play around with color balance/channel mixer until I like it.

I have a duo band filter processing tutorial in the making though, perhaps that'll help you!

[Craig_]

Can anyone with the L-Extreme confirm if it fits in the ZWO M42 filter drawer? My Enhance does, just want to make sure the Extreme doesn't have deeper housing. Considering the upgrade... I've been very happy with the results of my L-Enhance, but as I sometimes image from heavily LP skies in a major city, narrower band pass is definiely appealing. 

 

Attached is two hours of data from the L-Enhance. Nothing close to true colour, just me messing around

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[TareqPhoto]

Once i finish with my mono setup soon, then i will move to OSC or color cooled one, then later i will think which filter, for now i have one LP filter which is very similar or even better than L-Pro or in same level i believe, only left is a multi band filter, and i am very lucky, because i don't have any color cooled camera yet so i will not end up like many or some here buying one filter after another, i will just buy the best i can find that time later, sounds L-extreme is better than L-enhance, who knows what tomorrow they will produce, it is only because of my budget i will go with a very cheap even outdated color camera, otherwise i buy something like APS-C size and crop that to match my mono cameras sensor.

[deonb]

Can anyone with the L-Extreme confirm if it fits in the ZWO M42 filter drawer? 

 

Do you mean a ZWO-FD-M42? If so, I can check for you later today.

[Craig_]

Do you mean a ZWO-FD-M42? If so, I can check for you later today.

Thats the one, thanks

[mewmartigan]

Yes, it fits. I also use this filter drawer and just ordered an extra filter holder. Now I have the L Pro and L eXtreme each in a holder for easy swapping.