Which filters to put in the wheel?

[RikM]

I currently have L, R, G, B, Ha, OIII, & SII but only a 5 place wheel. It is currently loaded with RGB, Ha, & OIII should I swap out the red or the green for the SII?

I will probably go for a 7place wheel when I can find a cheap, light, manual one. I don't really want a heavy USB wheel because that would also mean changing the focuser probably and I will put up with quite a bit of hassle before spending money.

[RikM]

I think I might replace the green first and see how I get on. It just seems a bit odd to have three 'reds' in the wheel.

[Gib007]

Simply depends how you want to image a target on a particular night. I'd have LRGB and HA on all the time and I'd replace L and R with OIII and SII when I want to do full-on narrowband imaging.

[ollypenrice]

I tend to do HaRGB quite frequently. If there is no reflection nebulosity to be had then I think luminance is more trouble than it's worth, bloating the stars and diluting star colour. I don't use Ha as lum, though, or only very slightly. I apply it to red. So maybe L could be the loser in this game of musical chairs, until you want to do M45 and then you can ditch the Ha filter!

Olly

[RikM]

I used to have LRGB+Ha. When I got the OIII, I dropped the luminance to give RGB+Ha+OIII. The question now is which of the colours makes way for the SII?

My current thinking is to drop the green and run RB+Ha+OIII+SII. That way I can still shoot some Broadband targets, I just have to use a synthetic green.

[Gib007]

It seems a little odd that you wish to simply not use the Green filter. Why not just change the filters in your filter wheel whenever you decide to image a new target in a different way?

[RikM]

Yes. Certainly will try to do that. I'm just trying to leave myself the greatest flexibility so I can minimise the number of times I have to change the set up. Is there such a thing as a manual 7x 1.25" wheel these days?

[Gib007]

Mhmm, I had the same dilemma. Switched to a Starlight Xpress USB Filter Wheel. It is entirely USB-powered so no need for a 12V supply and comes with a 7x1.25" carousel. Also good is that there are like 5 different carousels available as extras, in case you ever change filter sizes to mounted or unmounted.

[pyrasanth]

My filter wheel holds 9 filters so I carry a full LRGB set & a full set of narrow band including a H-Beta. This even gives me one slot empty! but if I use 2" filters I'm back to 5

[pyrasanth]

I'm still toying with the thought of getting the 3nm Astrodon's but the price makes me wince!