Nebula filters

[cyborg421]

Hi all,

How effective are nebula filters at bringing out detail or showing nebulae?

Is a certain type recommended and like most things do you get what you pay for?

Thanks in advance.

Simon

[swamp thing]

Hi Simon

In short Nebula filters can make the difference between seeing an object or not.

Sometimes the detail they can pull out is outstanding, almost photographic.

They are definitely worth having in your arsenal.

The two that work best on most nebula are the UHC and the O-III.

As for price:

I have used a few different makes and TBH most of the time there is little in it. On some objects the premium makes are slightly better but the difference is not massive.

Recently I tested two different O-III filters and found:

There was slightly better contrast and colour correction (cannot understand the colour bit, but it was noticeable ) between my premium make and a budget version.

The budget version made everything greener and with slightly less contrast and detail. But it was close to the other premium one costing considerably more.

Both myself and another forum member noticed this.

The test was conducted through two scopes, both large fast Dobs with identical eyepieces.

So to conclude some budget ones work very well indeed.

Regards Steve

[todd8137]

i brought both filters swamp hing mention in fast scopes they mega but in a 90mm frac man it kills it but thats to be expected the reason i got the expensive one was because the resale value will hold unlike the other ,but its pretty much the same with lp filters the cheapo ones are just as good as the dear ones can you not lend one for a few days of any one to see what you think?

[umadog]

There are differences between filters from different manufacturers. The size of the passbands differ and that can have a big impact on the contrast boost the filter will yield. Not every manufacture's "UHC" is made equal, for instance.

[cyborg421]

Thanks all.

Are there any make of UHC or OIII you would particularly recommend?

Simon

[Chris H]

Lumicon, Thousand Oaks and Astronomik. The Orion (USA) ultrablock won a S@N group test a couple of years ago, make of that what you will.

[JamesM]

Hi Simon, as an overview on the subject and if you have a little time to spend, you might like to read this report from another forum which goes into nebula filters in some depth.

Hope that helps

James

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I have a fairly cheap APM UHC 2" filter, and that is very good for my purposes. Used it a lot in both my C8 and little 80mm.

[umadog]

One that gets little mention but is very good is the DGM NPB filter (it's a UHC-like filter).

[rwilkey]

I use the Sky Watcher ones and am quite happy with the results

[cyborg421]

Hi Simon, as an overview on the subject and if you have a little time to spend, you might like to read this report from another forum which goes into nebula filters in some depth.

Hope that helps

James

Thanks for that James it is very informative.

"DGM NPB filter" does anyone know a UK source?

Thanks

Simon

[umadog]

As far as I know, the only source for DGM is their eBay store: Select Astronomy, Astronomy Filters items in DGM Optics store on eBay!

I know it looks a little dodgy, but the filters are good.

[cyborg421]

Thanks Umadog.

Simon