Rising costs of Astrodons. Wow, all I can say is wow.....

[kirkster501]

I noticed that a LRGB E series in the 1.25" is now £562 and the Ha and OIII 3nm are £573 each.  They have gone up 15-20% on top of the already huge cost.

Blimey O'Riley...........?

Really want a set of these, been looking for ages but they never come up used and I am simply not prepared to pay that for new ones.  What alternatives as a narrowband upgrade from the Baaders please ???  I'm after Ha and OIII ?

[souls33k3r]

Try Chroma? They do 3nm ones too.

Astronomiks aren't too bad either at 6nm

[Gina]

I think ZWO do some - don't know how good they are though.

[AKB]

11 minutes ago, kirkster501 said:

I noticed that a LRGB E series in the 1.25" is now £562 and the Ha and OIII 3nm are £573 each. 

Um, er, ... hesitate to ask, but... how much are the 2" ones?!!

[souls33k3r]

11 minutes ago, AKB said:

Um, er, ... hesitate to ask, but... how much are the 2" ones?!!

£1,242 for the round ones (LRGB) and NB starting from £1,149 ... was i supposed to say each?  

[ollypenrice]

Sara says the Chromas are fine...

Olly

[Skipper Billy]

Even if I won the EuroMillions lottery I dont think I could justify the thick end of ten grand for a full set of 2" narrowband and broadband filters !

[Craney]

What on Earth are they made from ??    Kryptonite ?  Unobtainium ?    The crown Jewels ?

[Jkulin]

Gents, all I can say is contact Chroma direct for a price, you might be very pleasantly surprised ? I know I was!

[Davey-T]

"Luckily" I bought a full set of 31mm unmounted a few months ago on special offer, £1200.00 from IKI 

Dave

[tomato]

Astrodons sure are pricey but as they say in certain auto racing circles, “speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?”

[Adam J]

WOW I got hold of mine just in time!

Got a second hand 1.25inch OIII 5nm for £180 and got a new 5nm Ha via someone I know in the states for £250

both purchased back in September.

Even the 5nm filters are still £380 each now in the UK!

Adam

[carastro]

I too can;t justify the expense of Astrodon's much as I would like them, and have been looking out for 2nd hand for absolutely ages.  

Chroma filters are also expensive.

Heads up  - Baader are bringing out a 3.5nm Ha filter in 1.25" size in March, apparently it will be £206 which is a lot less than the Astrodon and chroma ones, but they are described as enforced.  No idea what that means.  They don't as yet have them in Oiii and Sii at 1.25" but have put in an order for an Ha.  Maybe I will have got over the expense by the time they bring out the Oiii one.

Carole 

 

[don4l]

Another vote for Chroma here.

A few months age I splashed out on a Ha 3nm with great trepidation.  I was very nervous about the expenditure.   After a few weeks I ordered the OIII 3nm.

 

IMHO, the OIII is more valuable than the Ha.  I had read this before, but I didn't really believe it.  The reason is that you can image most objects with any Ha filter at (almost) any time of the month.  The 3nm OIII filter can be used on brighter objects at almost any time.  However, the big difference for me is that it can "see" things that my old OIII filter simply could not see at all.

The best example is the Squid nebula in SH2-129.  I took 40 minutes binned 2x2 with my old filter and saw absolutely nothing.

A single 10m binned exposure with the 3nm reveals that it is there.  I will still need at least 4 hours, but at least I know that I can image it.  I will also be able to get some OIII data on lots of other targets where I wouldn't have bothered.

 

 

[Steve 1962]

Another vote from me for Chroma. I’ve got the 3nm NB set along with LRGB - not a bloom or reflection in sight - I’m delighted with them.

[kirkster501]

The Chromas are not much less than the Astrodons...

[kirkster501]

19 hours ago, tomato said:

Astrodons sure are pricey but as they say in certain auto racing circles, “speed costs money, how fast do you want to go?”

The 3nm Ha Astrodon (I have the 31mm on my wide-field rig) is beyond superb.

I have Astrodon LRGBHa 31mm on the wide-field FSQ85 rig and Baader LRGBHa on the TEC 140 rig.

I wanted to upgrade the TEC 140 to Astrodon LRGBHa and also add OIII 3nm to both scopes then redeploy the Baaders to planetary filters.

Costs of doing all that is the thick end of £2300.  I am financially in a reasonable place but I cannot justify that sort of expenditure with our UK skies.  If they were in use four times a week then maybe I would.  But four times per winter?  I think not....  I will carry on with my Baaders for a while yet and watch for some used ones (that hardly ever come up).

[Gina]

I have Ha, OIII and SII in 3nm Astrodons.  I shouldn't have bought the SII as I never seem to get anything out of it.  I also have Ha and SII in 5nm.  Baader LRGB.

[alanjgreen]

I am using a 2” Chroma 5nm Ha filter with my night vision. It provides greater contrast and works with less “gain” than the Astronomik 6nm that it replaced - I believe this means that you photography types won’t need as long an exposure with the Chroma?

I would definitely recommend it.

Alan

[DaveS]

I have a full set of 3nm Astrodons in 1.25", and have found the [NII] more useful than [SII]. Unfortunately Chroma don't do [NII].

Even so, I will be looking at Chroma when I put together a 16200 camera set.

[souls33k3r]

I do wonder, are people still going to be buying their filters at this price? No matter if i can afford them or not, i just will never be able to justify the cost of these filters at this price.

If these filters came at £300 a pop, these would sell like hot cakes.

[ollypenrice]

The narrowband are good. I've processed a few data sets with their LRGB and found nothing astonishing about them. I actually preferred Baader but that may be due to familiarity with how they behave. I'm not tempted to switch to Astrodon colour filters but would like their NB. I'm sure Chroma would do fine instead, though.

Olly

[Whirlwind]

2 hours ago, DaveS said:

I have a full set of 3nm Astrodons in 1.25", and have found the [NII] more useful than [SII]. Unfortunately Chroma don't do [NII].

Even so, I will be looking at Chroma when I put together a 16200 camera set.

I thought I read that Chroma will make custom filters.  May be worth and email to ask?

[kirkster501]

I particularly want a 3nm Ha 1.25 for my TEC which is my main galaxy scope (that being my main AP interest).  I may have to swallow very hard and just buy one, I have never seen one come up used, and I know why, they are superb.   I can live with the LRGB Baaders as most people do.  But I'd like the OIII too eventually.  In no rush for those.

 

[Gina]

17 hours ago, DaveS said:

I have a full set of 3nm Astrodons in 1.25", and have found the [NII] more useful than [SII]. Unfortunately Chroma don't do [NII].

Even so, I will be looking at Chroma when I put together a 16200 camera set.

It's possible to use 5nm and 3nm Ha filters and subtract to get NII as the 5nm Ha passes NII and the 3nm doesn't.  I agree though the a proper 3nm NII would be better.