Filter question(s)

[fwm891]

As someone who is quite happy to use Ha, SII or OIII filters for imaging I find myself asking which is best for the visual side of this hobby.

I have just bought a 10-inch f5 dob, a few reasonable ES 68° 1¼" eyepieces. Not thought before about my imaging filters being only for CCD use, do I need to invest further in OIII etc filters for visual? which makers are preferred?

Clear skies

Francis

[Uplooker]

Hi Francis,

The main filters for visual use are UHC, H beta and OIII.

The Ultra High Contrast (UHC) as the name suggests increases the contrast on a number of nebulae. I currently only have a Lumicon UHC. It greatly improves the views of the Veil.

The H beta is commonly known as the Horse Head filter.

The OIII is preferred by some to the UHC and it does make nebulae standout more.

Here is a very good page to read through to get a better understanding. It is taken as being one of the beat articles on visual filters:-

https://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/useful-filters-for-viewing-deep-sky-objects/

Lumicon was considered one of the best manufactures of filters, until they were bought over. It has been discussed at length on SGL. If you can get one of the Lumicons pre 2017 you should be good. Baader are well regarded but Astronomic seem to be the current favourite.

Others will be along shortly to advise better than I.

[bomberbaz]

Hello fella, good question and I wont bore you with waffle on what does what. I have read and stuck by the following website below and I have found the results have pretty much followed theirs. 

http://www.scopecity.com/how-to/select-telescope-filters.cfm?pn=How+to+select+telescope+filters

https://www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/user-reviews/accessories/astronomical-filters/filter-performance-comparisons-r1471#top

[fwm891]

Quote

 

@bomberbaz @Uplooker Many thanks for the links above. The cloudy Nights list certainly gives a good mixture of objects - with a few surprises for filters thrown in

Are there differences in density between the visual and CCD varieties of these filters or is it marketing!

[Guest]

No it is primarily bandwidth. CCD filters are usually much narrower than those used for  visual observing. I don't think you would get enough light through a CCD filter to observe. For a first filter get a UHC type filter. Probably the best of those I have tried is the new TeleVue Bandmate 2 Nebustar filter, it is jointly made by Astronomik and teleVue. Somewhat pricy but you get what you pay for in this market. A cheap Chinese clone filter maybe better than nothing but it will not be good.

 

Owen

[KP82]

Another vote for UHC as your first DSO filter. They are good for all those emmision nebulae. Then I'd suggest O-III for planetary nebulae. You can leave H-beta for the last as it's mainly for reflection nebulae which are hard to find anyway.