Narrowband Imaging for beginners

[peroni]

Hey All

I was searching around for some information about narrowband imaging and came across this link. I hadn't seen it posted before on this forum and it is well worth a read if you are thinking about getting into this area of imaging.

Enjoy!

[Zakalwe]

Great article, thanks for the link

[kalasinman]

Thanks so much! A very informative piece.

[cockney]

brought me an LP filter the other day just waiting for these dam clouds to go. thanks for posting the link very usefull

[peroni]

Another interesting background read on narrowband imaging... here

[lensman57]

In my humble opinion, NB imaging under UK  skies can be a very frustrating and often disappointing experience. The exception is the use of  Ha filter for emission nebulae which can be very rewarding if subs with long enough exposure times are taken. The other problem is with the Oiii and Sii bands. Quite a lot of the DSO targets do emit in OIII and Sii but relative to Ha these signals are very weak and in terms of Oiii at least subs of 1200~ 1800s exposure are required and in large numbers to overcome the noise and build enough signal. This places a great demand  on the quality of guiding, mount,  CCD sensitivity,  processing technique and etc not withstanding the cost of the filters and with regret I must mention the rather erratic results obtained with even the most expensive brands. As far as a beginner is concerned I would say that a decent quality Ha filter of 5~12nm passband would be a good starting point as it will not only combat LP but it is also usable under the Moon to an extent, an Oiii filter would be of no use here. The use of fast optics is also problematic with the general NB filters designed to work with systems of F4 and slower. Newer filters designed to " work " with fast systems are becoming available but at a cost. So before rushing out and spending hard earned cash a bit of thought is required.

A.G

[zcdawson]

What about filters for a OSC ccd?

[glowingturnip]

they shud do a filter for OSC's that lets through Ha and OIII together.  One channel will see through one, the others will see through the other

[lensman57]

they shud do a filter for OSC's that lets through Ha and OIII together.  One channel will see through one, the others will see through the other

These are widely available, UHC-S or Nebula filter. They need an increase of exposure of about 75%.

A.G

[Ikonnikov]

Hutech LPSV4 is excellent for nebulae with an OSC, expensive but gives a good colour balance. Only sold mine as I switched to mono.

Paul