nebula filter for sw heritage 130p

[neil_grant]

Hi, I was looking for advice on equipment for my sky watcher 130p heritage flextube. I was wanting to get a nebula filter and from what I can see I would need to get an UHC rather than an Oiii filter, I was torn between the skywatcher UHC and the baader UHC.

The other thing is that the most powerful eyepiece I have is a vixen NPL 10mm which gives me a magnification of 65x, would I be better off getting a more powerful eyepiece before a nebula filter?

[Schorhr]

Hello,

I have no experience with UHC Filter yet, but there is a number of filters thart supposedly work better with smaller apertures as they don't filter as narrow as a UHC filter. They sell as lp filter, contrast filters and so on, and some seem to be not good. Not sure which is to rcomend at the moment.

As for eyepieces, I have a 8mm HR Planetary and m81/m82 just fit into view. But now I also own a 6mm UWA 66 degree eyepice, great for the price (27£/32€), and great for deepsky (small nebulae and star clusters) as well.

Of course higher magnifications mean dimmer views, but under dark skies I have successfully used a 3.2mm and 2.5mm HR Planetary and even saw the bridge of m51 indirectly in it, awesome what the little telescope can do even from a less then perfect location.

Also when the planets are up high, it's fun to view them at 200 or 260x when the seeing/conditions allow it.

It really depends on what you want to observe, but a variety of magnifications is useful. 30mm Plössl, 20mm and 6mm UWA plus 17€ achromatic barlow would be my minimum equipment, though I have allready left the house with just the 20mm and a 3 and 2x barlow. Okey for not-so-dim objects...

In the long run the Planetary complete the eyepiece case.

So 32mm, 20mm, 15mm, 9mm, 6mm and 3.2mm or better a HR Planetary Astrozoom around the range 8-3mm or something would be ideal, but probably overkill.

If a certain, larger nebula type is your main focus, go for the filter! :-)

[LukeSkywatcher]

For viewing nebulae,its better to have a low power EP instead of a high power one. Nebs can be BIG,so you want to fit as much of it in as possible. If you zoom in on them too much,you lose the beauty of them. An EP around the 20mm should be good. A UHC filtert is also a good investment. I have the SW version of the 1.25" and it works really well.

[AlexB67]

I guess it would be hard to know whether to get additional eyepieces before a UHC filter. I went the "get a couple of eyepieces more route first", though now feel I have enough for a little while to get the UHC filter ( may be after another eyepiece I would like first though ). It all depends what you want to look at and what you preferred targets are since we don't know what eyepieces you already have.

I would say go with what you feel you need. Assuming you already have something like the 25mm stock eyepiece and something in between the 25 and 10 would be useful also, then if nebulae are the targets you really want to look at go for it. If a planet or the moon is more on your list to look at I'd say get a higher power eyepiece. That being said, planets are not great right now in the UK for viewing, low in the sky and Jupiter still rising in the early uncivilised hours, Saturn is still there or there about, but gone out of its optimal window now ( from my garden it is properly gone ).

I have the Heritage too. In my experience, apart from the 8mm, which is not that far away from the 10mm, you wouldn't use higher powers often on DSO objects below that focal length, I don't anyway. The 6 mm I have I only use on planets really, the moon, and very occasionally on a bright globular cluster, or some smaller open clusters, something like M13 on a good night looks good in it, but it is quite rare I use it on DSOs overall.

You may like to read some threads by AndyW. If you search the forum, he did some write ups recently using a UHC in the Heritage. Not sure what he bought though, Bader or Sky-watcher, he'll probably will have something to add.

Good luck

[neil_grant]

Thank you very much gives me a lot of food for thought. Luke, I still have the skywatcher super 25mm that came with the telescope would you recommend using that with the UHC filter?

Thanks also for the advice on eyepieces as well. I've been looking for some eyepieces that are cheaper as I don't have a lot of money to throw into the telescope at the moment so will definitely have a look into that 6mm for when Jupiter comes back out of hiding.

[neil_grant]

Also thank you Alex I'll read his thread now!

[LukeSkywatcher]

Thank you very much gives me a lot of food for thought. Luke, I still have the skywatcher super 25mm that came with the telescope would you recommend using that with the UHC filter?

Thanks also for the advice on eyepieces as well. I've been looking for some eyepieces that are cheaper as I don't have a lot of money to throw into the telescope at the moment so will definitely have a look into that 6mm for when Jupiter comes back out of hiding.

Yep. Use what you have already. No point spending money you may not have on something you do already have.

Regarding EP's.................check out the range of Vixen NPL's. 30-40 each and they really are quality EP's.

[Schorhr]

Oh, I forgot to post the links,

http://www.teleskop-express.de/shop/product_info.php/language/en/info/p4687_TS-1-25--CLS-Breitband-Nebelfilter-fuer-Beobachtung-und-Fotografi.html

The Seben/Orbinar one was cheaper but discontinued due to quality issues if I remember right.

There where some German tests with spectroscope mesurements.

As you can see it lets more bandwidths pass compared to UHC filters, so the image does not get quite as dim with the small aperture.

Sure, a higher magnification makes no sense on larger objects, but some require it. More reason to consider one of those filters.

I would recomend upgrading the SUPER eyepieces due to their low contrast, but don't rush it.

The 66 degree eyepieces are available in 6, 9, 15 and 20

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=140717462903

At least the 20mm won't be sharp to the edge on f/5 but great value, and 66 deg helps finding things on higher magnifications and keeping planets in the view.

As for overview, http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?sbk=1&nav=SEARCH&itemId=380439958980

better something like http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?sbk=1&nav=SEARCH&itemId=370515022417 or a 24mm 70deg eyepiece if you can afford it. Those will give you the max. Visible field on the 1.25" focuser. Theres a 40mm plössl but all you get is a narrow aparent field of view.

These are great and 2.5-3.2mm is awesome for good conditions and brighter objects if collimation and mirror quality is good.

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?sbk=1&nav=SEARCH&itemId=380460298658

though this will do too, at least for a while

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?sbk=1&nav=SEARCH&itemId=330492287469 , but imho any better barlow will cost as much as a good eyepiece.

[hobsey]

Just thought I would have a look at filters after reading this topic as it will probably be a future purchase, not cheap are they if you're on a tight budget.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Ive just realised that what i have said may not be the correct course for you, considering the scope being used. While its true that nebulae can be big,many of them are also a hell of a lot further away then other which makes them smaller to the eye. With the Heritage,most of them are going to appear tiny so you do want to throw as much magnification at them as possible. 8mm is about as high as i go on anything really. I'm also now re-thinking the UHC filter on the Heritage. It will work on the bigger nebs like M42, but others will be kind of small in the scope to not warrant the use of filter. I'm not saying dont buy one,its up to yourself.

[AndyWB]

You may like to read some threads by AndyW. If you search the forum, he did some write ups recently using a UHC in the Heritage. Not sure what he bought though, Bader or Sky-watcher, he'll probably will have something to add.

Good luck

I got a Baader UHC-s. I think the thread mentioned is this one.

The short of it - a filter is no substitute for dark skies, but it does definitely help. In a dark location and using a UHC filter gave me some lovely views of the eastern and western parts of the Veil nebula, the North America Nebula, the dark lane in the Lagoon nebula. Most of those are big - so I tended to use my 30mm lens.

Now, I'm pretty inexperienced with Planetaries, so I can't comment on how much magnification you want for those. I would say that my 30mm eyepiece is probably my most used - it's the vixen NPL. I love how wide a true field of view it has, it makes navigation much easier. I know people say that the 25mm that comes with the scope is acceptable, but I much prefer the 30mm - wider true and apparent fields of view.

Oh, and I believe the UHC-s is designed for smaller scopes - it's a bit less aggressive, apparently.

Would I suggest it as a next purchase? Hard to say; it rather depends on your situation and what you want to look at.