light pollution fillters,any good or waste of money

[crbazzer]

Hi there SGL friends. anyone used or has any comments on light pollution fillters. Are they any good or are they a waste of money. Just thought i'd get some feed back before i went and bought one.

cheers chris

[Merlin66]

I see you use a 12" dobbie....

For visual:

If your light pollution is the old sodium yellow lights then an LP filter will help, if there's bright blue mercury vapour lamps around then slightly less and if you have the "new" LED lamps your screwed! (These LED lamps are now broad spectrum and unfortunately can't be filtered unless you start imaging with very narrow band filters....)

Edit: I should have added - you can always come over to the "Rainbow side" - spectroscopy - then light pollution doesn't matter at all!!!

[crbazzer]

i've heared of spectroscopy but thats about it, wouldn't have a clue as to what is involved.only just getting used to astronomy LOL.

[bish]

I use one for visual. It can help, but don't expect too much. I also use it for certain DSO's under dark skies.

[eddy]

Not sure if its any consillation but here is a 60sec image of 'with and without LP filter'

[swamp thing]

Not sure if its any consillation but here is a 60sec image of 'with and without LP filter'

The LP filters work bettter photographically than visually.

I personally would go with an O-III or an UHC filter with your scope.

Regards Steve

[S1m0n]

I picked up a cheap £19 lp filter and helps loads . I have those nice orange street lights and it filters out the glow quite good.

[Merlin66]

Eddy,

which type of light pollution did you have? Sodium lamps?

[eddy]

Yeah the old fashioned sodium lights up by me, im lucky as i cant foresee them being changed anytime soon so for me the LP filter worked really well

[crbazzer]

its probably a mixture of all of them but predominently the yellow sodium lights aound here.

[rwilkey]

The Baader Neodynium filter is a good one, also enhances planets like Mars and can also be used as a Moon filter.

[Moonshane]

The Baader Neodynium filter is a good one, also enhances planets like Mars and can also be used as a Moon filter.

+1 although I only use it for moon and planets, not light pollution even though it's bad where I live. increasing magnification helps a bit with LP too.

[paul schofield]

I agree with rwilkey the Baader Neo is a good one. I bought one after his advice a few months back and have not looked back. Great filter for LP, Moon, Mars, Jupiter. Works well for me, but I suppose it depends on the type of light pollution you have.

[eid]

Another vote for the Baader Neodynium