223 replies to this topic

[skaiser]

With proper balancing and using ASIAIR/guiding I can get solid tracked , 5 min subs on my star adventurer mount.

use the polar alignment function of the ASIAIR and you have no problems getting it nailed in just a few minutes.

With the L-extreme mounted in my EOS RA filter mount, the Dallas light pollution is no longer an issue for multi minute exposures(for the right targets).

my main limitations are trees, clouds , and finding the right spot in the sky without a goto mount.

Yes it takes more exposures, but that’s what stacking software is for.

For me the Filter has been well worth the money if shooting the right targets.

[Ron in Michigan]

L-enhance "TESTS" 



CAVE nebula
https://www.facebook...221135604332562

SHARK
https://www.facebook...219745701945871






Ultra Triad Quad filter. (best of them all)  NBZ filter (NEARLY the same)

SOUL
5 x 500 seconds. 
https://www.flickr.c...57717959454497/

Heart
https://www.flickr.c...57717959454497/

Jellyfish
https://www.flickr.c...57717959454497/

Dolphin head
https://www.flickr.c...57717959454497/




 

[starbuckin]

What equipment did you use? It's kind of meaningless without context.

[vballrican]

What equipment did you use? It's kind of meaningless without context.

I think the equipment is in his signature!

[starbuckin]

Well he has an ED152 and a RASA. The speed of the RASA has an impact on these filters, so which scope was used?

 

These filters are not optimized for speeds below F4.

[mrkhagol]

Well he has an ED152 and a RASA. The speed of the RASA has an impact on these filters, so which scope was used?

 

These filters are not optimized for speeds below F4.

I don't understand this part. how can scopes below f/4 be affected by the filter? is this has to do with refactors only or any type of scope for that matter?

Edited by mrkhagol, 03 June 2021 - 04:03 PM.

[starbuckin]

The fast scopes (of any type) are shifting the Ha (for example) frequency right out of the window that the filter expects Ha to be in, essentially blocking a lot of the signal.

There’s a lot of discussion and videos of this. It would be interesting to see how bad this is on a RASA for example, comparing the two filters. OPT claims the filter works on “fast” scopes, but I just read an article saying this was not true.

[mrkhagol]

The fast scopes (of any type) are shifting the Ha (for example) frequency right out of the window that the filter expects Ha to be in, essentially blocking a lot of the signal.

There’s a lot of discussion and videos of this. It would be interesting to see how bad this is on a RASA for example, comparing the two filters. OPT claims the filter works on “fast” scopes, but I just read an article saying this was not true.

ok so then it would be nice to know for the folks who use H-alpha filter on fast scopes -- do they have any special experience?

 

because what I don't like about this scenario is that fast scopes end up becoming useless just because there's some sort of shift in frequency.

we need filters so we can get specific good freq lights for nice capture otherwise astrophotography becomes a bit dull in that sense.

Edited by mrkhagol, 03 June 2021 - 04:41 PM.

[starbuckin]

The article is in Astronomy Technology Today discussing the Radian and Radian Ultra in fast scopes.

It's behind a subscription wall, but there's plenty of YouTube videos, for example  https://www.youtube....Y4dW4lH8&t=323s

 

I have a Hyperstar at F1.9. The L'enhance still works very nicely, but the L'extreme really cuts the Ha (the bandpass is too narrow). OPT claims that the Radian works great on fast systems, but I'm not willing to plunk down 1k unless I see some great photos on a similar system.

 

So if he took those photos on a RASA, that would be significant, but obviously he provided no context.

 

I do see some nice pics on Astrobin with the RASA and triad ultra. Not much with the Hyperstar.

Edited by starbuckin, 03 June 2021 - 05:11 PM.

[mrkhagol]

The article is in Astronomy Technology Today discussing the Radian and Radian Ultra in fast scopes.

It's behind a subscription wall, but there's plenty of YouTube videos, for example  https://www.youtube....Y4dW4lH8&t=323s

 

I have a Hyperstar at F1.9. The L'enhance still works very nicely, but the L'extreme really cuts the Ha (the bandpass is too narrow). OPT claims that the Radian works great on fast systems, but I'm not willing to plunk down 1k unless I see some great photos on a similar system.

 

So if he took those photos on a RASA, that would be significant, but obviously he provided no context.

 

I do see some nice pics on Astrobin with the RASA and triad ultra. Not much with the Hyperstar.

Not sure if you've read the comment on that YouTube video but there does seem to be some difference according to the following report--

It does put things in perspective and now I feel like L-extreme may be too much for f/2 system...but that doesn't mean it doesn't capture anything. It just means it needs more data.

 

https://www.youtube....html_redirect=1

[DanBorja]

2 nights with my new L-eXtreme filter + 533mc and it's a game changer for me living at an awful Bortle 9 zone. 

 

4 hour integration time for both images @ 3 minute subs using my Redcat 51 on a Star Adventurer (guided)

 

North America Nebula (no bias frames)

 

 

SADR (no calibration frames yet since I shot it last night and haven't had time to shoot them)

[maxhy]

2 nights with my new L-eXtreme filter + 533mc and it's a game changer for me living at an awful Bortle 9 zone. 

 

4 hour integration time for both images @ 3 minute subs using my Redcat 51 on a Star Adventurer (guided)

 

North America Nebula (no bias frames)

 

 

SADR (no calibration frames yet since I shot it last night and haven't had time to shoot them)

Really nice pictures DanBorja!

 

How did you get this dreamy purple color of North American nebula? Did it come out like this from the camera? Or did you do some color assignment in PI of Photoshop?

I also have a 533 and my L-X filter is on its way to me, Maybe able to test it under full moon this week. May I ask what gain are you using with thie filter (or for emission nebular in general) ?

 

Yang

[DanBorja]

Really nice pictures DanBorja!

 

How did you get this dreamy purple color of North American nebula? Did it come out like this from the camera? Or did you do some color assignment in PI of Photoshop?

I also have a 533 and my L-X filter is on its way to me, Maybe able to test it under full moon this week. May I ask what gain are you using with thie filter (or for emission nebular in general) ?

 

Yang

 Thank you!

 

I adjusted the hue on the reds in photoshop.

 

I wanted to use unity gain and 4-5 min exposures but guiding wasn't optimal so I had to reduce exp time to 3 minutes and increased the gain to 200.

 

Did you have a chance to test it? I haven't been able to get more images since I haven't got clear skies ever since.

[maxhy]

 Thank you!

 

I adjusted the hue on the reds in photoshop.

 

I wanted to use unity gain and 4-5 min exposures but guiding wasn't optimal so I had to reduce exp time to 3 minutes and increased the gain to 200.

 

Did you have a chance to test it? I haven't been able to get more images since I haven't got clear skies ever since.

Hello DanBorja,

 

I tested it out on July 14th. I finally had time to do some postproessing last night and  the result was astounding!

I only did my stacking and DBE in PI and this is the result so far (5min subs, 66 frames, 5hr30min integration time. ASI533+L-extreme):

 

 

I have a question though since this is the first time I processed dual-band filter images:

1. Do I need to extract RGB channels and reassign them to Ha and O3 and do a color combination before color calibration?

2. How do you do color calibration for this sort of data, I tried Photometric Coloar Calibration, the result is a little bit reddish.. it has two options: Broadband and Narrowband, which on should I choose?

 

Have a great one!

Yang

Edited by maxhy, 24 July 2021 - 11:54 PM.

[Bretw01]

Hello DanBorja,

 

I tested it out on July 14th. I finally had time to do some postproessing last night and  the result was astounding!

I only did my stacking and DBE in PI and this is the result so far (5min subs, 66 frames, 5hr30min integration time. ASI533+L-extreme):

 

I have a question though since this is the first time I processed dual-band filter images:

1. Do I need to extract RGB channels and reassign them to Ha and O3 and do a color combination before color calibration?

2. How do you do color calibration for this sort of data, I tried Photometric Coloar Calibration, the result is a little bit reddish.. it has two options: Broadband and Narrowband, which on should I choose?

 

Have a great one!

Yang

1. You don't need to do this, but you can if you want to use pixelmath to combine and create a SHO like image.

2. If you use PhotometricColorCalibration select Narrowband and the band width for RGB. I usually just do a basic colorcalibration and adjust to my liking later in photoshop.

 

Your image looks pretty good as is, running SCNR to remove green will give you the HOO look that the veil has in most images.

[cucubits]

2 nights with my new L-eXtreme filter + 533mc and it's a game changer for me living at an awful Bortle 9 zone. 

 

4 hour integration time for both images @ 3 minute subs using my Redcat 51 on a Star Adventurer (guided)

 

North America Nebula (no bias frames)

 

 

SADR (no calibration frames yet since I shot it last night and haven't had time to shoot them)

 

This is a bit worrisome. I'm also planning on trying an L-Extreme with a 533MC from a Bortle 8-9 zone. Those are some huge halos around brighter stars? Wondering if those go away with shorter subexposures. Even with this narrow bandpass, 3mins is way too much in a white zone.
 

[sbharrat]

This is a bit worrisome. I'm also planning on trying an L-Extreme with a 533MC from a Bortle 8-9 zone. Those are some huge halos around brighter stars? Wondering if those go away with shorter subexposures. Even with this narrow bandpass, 3mins is way too much in a white zone.
 

The L-Enhance is a bit "middleway".... Not as narrow so more gradient to deal with. But all less trouble with halos. 

 

But really brights stars are going to be big no matter what...

https://astro.bharra...60-jul2021.html

[cucubits]

The L-Enhance is a bit "middleway".... Not as narrow so more gradient to deal with. But all less trouble with halos. 

 

But really brights stars are going to be big no matter what...

https://astro.bharra...60-jul2021.html

I do have the l-enhance too and as you say it still lets in significant amounts of light pollution.

 

While my l-extreme is not here yet, I keep wondering about those halos. Since this filter is specifically aimed at battling light pollution, a lot of folks are using it from nasty Bortle 8-9 white zones, yet I keep seeing extremely long subexposure times for those skies. There's a thread around here somewhere which calculates correct exposure times to swamp the read noise, considering sky glow, for a number of OSC cameras. It has data for the l-extreme too and for my example with a 533MC in mag 18 skies, I should be imaging only about 40 seconds at gain 100. This seems incredibly short for a narrowband filter but stacking enough, the details will show.

 

So yeah, wondering if using correct subexposure times would help with halos or this is just how the Oiii part of the filter works. 

[elmiko]

I have been using the L-Extreme filter for about a year now. It's going to cause halos around the bright stars. Doesn't matter how long the subs are. You can reduce them in post processing. I posted the technique I use on this forum. It's a great filter though. Game changer for us osc imagers in light polluted skies.

[TareqPhoto]

I have been using the L-Extreme filter for about a year now. It's going to cause halos around the bright stars. Doesn't matter how long the subs are. You can reduce them in post processing. I posted the technique I use on this forum. It's a great filter though. Game changer for us osc imagers in light polluted skies.

Why don't light polluted skies imagers use mono cameras with filters? 

[cucubits]

Why don't light polluted skies imagers use mono cameras with filters? 

Because a good mono setup with quality filters and the wheel can end up costing 3x more than a similar OSC camera with one of these dual/triple narrowband filters and the gain in final imagine quality is not going to be that huge.

[TareqPhoto]

Because a good mono setup with quality filters and the wheel can end up costing 3x more than a similar OSC camera with one of these dual/triple narrowband filters and the gain in final imagine quality is not going to be that huge.

I knew that the cost is the main reason, and that is very very true, i agree, so then if someone already have one or two mono cameras with good to high end filters with filter wheel and then got OSC, is it really smart to buy L-eXtreme filter then beside all those filters and mono cameras?

[elmiko]

Why don't light polluted skies imagers use mono cameras with filters? 

Hmm....... because I choose not too. I welcome the challenge.

[TareqPhoto]

Hmm....... because I choose not too. I welcome the challenge.

Ok, that is very understandable, i respect that, thank you