Hopefully i dont get too much hate for posting this as im still learning. Ive been looking on here for a good while now trying to find info to help me decide, but it seems like the more i find the more confused i get.
Setup is an AT80EDT with an Asi533mc (uncooled unfortunately) and my skys are crappy B7 (whish is most likely the biggest issue). tracking and guiding and all that jazz are fine. the scope and camera operate just fine, i just want to make the faint fuzzies less faint and fuzzy. I only use this camera to shoot with and i dont do any RGB or narrowband so i need something that will go well with my 533mc.
All i want is a filter that will help make the deep sky pop a bit better. recently tried the elephant trunk nebula and wizard and even after 2 hours of each i could barely make out any details. it was just a crazy star field image. It could totally be my camera settings as well. Ive never shot these targets before and i was just trying them out. I did 30s exp at 0 gain cause i didnt want to blow out my stars. I know big long exp and dozens of hours is always the answer but i didnt have that kinda time and if thats the problem then thats fine, i will try again another night.
Ive been looking at some affordable (svbony & astronomiks) UHC and CLS options ($50-60 for a filter seems ok) but it seems like they are basically the same thing. Id rather not go with the spendy options like L-Pro and L-enhance cause its just not worth the money to me honestly.
so yea, can anyone help me choose??
thanks
No hate here, this is a common problem. Two really big deals.
Filters work well on emission nebulae only. On other things - not so much. The reason is that emission nebulae emit light in 1-3 narrow bands. That's ideally suited for sorting out with a filter. Other targets emit across the entire spectrum. Filters really mess that up. They reduce signal, and you have none to spare. They distort color.
Some filters on emission nebulae are not very good. They are _way_ too sloppy, so they're inefficient at sorting out signal from light pollution. These include.
The UHC, which was designed for your eye.
The ancient CLS, whose design is pretty much obsolete.
The ones that work are the modern duobands. The cheapest one I know of is the ZWO, a number of people are reasonably satisfied with that:
https://astronomy-im...uo-band-filter/
Other point. For targets where filters don't work, a good alternative is gradient reduction in processing. Not perfect, but doesn't reduce signal or distort color. Astro Pixel Processor has an excellent gradient reduction tool, also other software.
This is an image of M31 I took from a very light polluted backyard (just like yours, B7). No (not so) magic "light pollution" filter was used, just gradient reduction. Click on the mediocre CN thumbnail for a good version, and capture details.
So, if you don't want to spend on a duoband for emission nebulae, image other targets where filters are not very useful. Some cameras do need a cheap UV/IR cut.
Edited by bobzeq25, 03 October 2023 - 02:05 PM.
