Incoming!

[Ags]

I can't really afford it, but I have a new 2" Baader UHC-S filter coming my way, to go on the 52-48mm stepping ring I bought the other day. Bye-bye light pollution!

[JamesF]

Well, perhaps you can't afford it, but it is cheaper than moving house I have the 2" Skywatcher LP filter for mine that I've not had the opportunity to test yet. I'll be interested to hear how you get on.

James

[Ags]

It is the second step (after getting the EF 50/1.8 lens) in my master-plan to build up the following setup:

Good camera tripod, light but strong enough to also carry a grabngo scope

Vixen Polarie to go on said mount

EF 35/2.0 lens

EF 100/2.0 lens

EF 200/2.8L lens

Modded camera

The goal is to have a setup that is compact, backpackable and airplane-friendly.

[Ags]

One more thing for the shopping list: RDF with attacment for the flash shoe on the camera. That's next actually: it will let me align the 4SE mount when it is just carrying a camera so although polar alignment will be out I will at least get correction in the DEC axis. Optimistically, I hope it could add 30 seconds to my subs - although engaging an extra motor on the 4SE mount might actually REDUCE my max sub length.

[sologuitarist61]

Well, perhaps you can't afford it, but it is cheaper than moving house I have the 2" Skywatcher LP filter for mine that I've not had the opportunity to test yet. I'll be interested to hear how you get on.

James

Well put James ! I have both the Skywatcher and Baader versions and they are bith very good.

I can't really afford it, but I have a new 2" Baader UHC-S filter coming my way, to go on the 52-48mm stepping ring I bought the other day. Bye-bye light pollution!

Have fun with it Ags. life is too short to worry about money !! (at 65 it is even shorter for me!!!)

[Ags]

With a good fast lens, light pollution control, the ability to get 60 second subs... I no longer have any excuse for appalling pictures. Expect only celestial Mona Lisas from me from now on :-)

[sologuitarist61]

With a good fast lens, light pollution control, the ability to get 60 second subs... I no longer have any excuse for appalling pictures. Expect only celestial Mona Lisas from me from now on :-)

I always have an excuse for appalling pictures Ags!!

[Ags]

I blame the stars, it's their fault for only shining at night when there's no light :-)

[Ags]

I forgot to mention that the other thing to go in the backpack will be a luxury 200mm travel dob. It will be heavy, but a good kind of heavy.

[Ags]

It's arrived! It looks very smart. The first thing it did was get stuck in my stepping ring but eventually I found the right combination of four letter words to release it :-)

I tried it out on some white cloud tonight. I set the camera to monochrome to compare the result easily. The histogram was shifted 50% to the left with the filter, so I imagine I could get double the exposures before my sky gets too bright. That's plenty seeing as that is longer than the longest exposures I can achieve.

[Ags]

Under not-very-good conditions I got to try out my new filter. Before and after single subs of North America Nebula, both shot through thin cloud.

You can just make out the NaN in both, but it is much easier in the UHC sub. Although I have fewer stars in the UHC sub, the ones that get through the filter seem brighter and they have better color.