L-Enhance during the short summer nights

[Tangoringo]

Hi folks,

Just a very quick question.

I have an L enhance filter on order from FLO. While I'm waiting for it to arrive I was just wondering if there is any benefit to using the filter during these 'not quite so dark' nights? I appreciate all the light/moon pollution properties they offer during regular 'proper dark' night time imaging sessions etc but I wondered if they would increase the 'effective night' time for imaging at this time of year if working on nebula? I'm guessing the answer is no as you would still have the same background light and taking it to the extreme you wouldnt be able to use the filter effectively in broad daylight for example but with this being my first filter ( I'm an OSC heathen ) I know very little about the hidden advantages they may be able to offer. The main trigger for the question was last sundays chat with Nik who offered the possibility of using narrowband filters when imaging the moon for increased sharpness which was a benefit I hadnt even considered.

Thanks for any hints/tips in advance.

Cheers,

Ian

[CloudMagnet]

It can't make it any worse to be honest that using a broadband filter... so I guess will improve things a bit. I think the best idea it just to keep as far away from the setting sun as possible. For me, the darkest part of the sky tends to be around Vega right now so to get the best results I would stick around that region of sky rather than low in the north where it just doesn't get dark anymore.

[Tangoringo]

Coolio. Thx for the reply CM ( love the name! ) I've been trying to avoid the largely Northern ( light ) skies over the past few weeks and have spent a bit of time on M27 coincidentally. Looking forward to experimenting with the L-enhance to see how it ( and I ) perform. As I mentioned, its my first filter so a whole new world awaits.

[daemon]

I think the biggest thing for me would be - what nebulae are you thinking of imaging? I have a set of NB filters and I am eager to use them. Unfortunately I have few targets that are worth trying - unless someone wants to correct me. My view to the East is inhibited by trees so Cygnus (with some great NB nebula targets I think) is out of my reach.

I'm sticking to galaxies and clusters for the time being (when it is clear) but I am aching to get going on some NB imaging as soon as I have something decent in view.

 

[Tangoringo]

I'm in exactly the same boat as my view to the E from about 080 to 130 azimuth are out of bounds below about 60degrees. I have been trying the Heart and Soul,the Iris, the Elephants Trunk etc to the N but with the fairly bright Northerly horizon its been a bit of a struggle so have been largely concentrating on views to the S and galaxies around Ursa Major, that kind of thing.

[CloudMagnet]

34 minutes ago, Tangoringo said:

I've been trying to avoid the largely Northern ( light ) skies over the past few weeks

Just to give an idea of what you can do, this is from a only week ago with the L-enhance filter on the wizard nebula which is low in the north. I have stacked the 4 images I took before astro twilight totaling just 16mins of exposure. Just stacked with flats, quick levels, curves and saturation in GIMP. Not going to win awards but it does add up when you add it to the rest of your night.

I think it is worth starting around 15mins before and after official astro twilight. We need all the time possible right now with the short nights so well worth it.

 

[Tangoringo]

That’s good to see and pretty amazing for just 16mins. Where the appetite nicely. 👍🏻  Quick Q. How do you avoid the reddening if the stars which I’ve noticed in a lot of L-enhance images?

[CloudMagnet]

Good question, its never something that has came up as a problem for me. I normally would process in photoshop where I would select a star as a white point and balance the colours around that so that the RGB channels all show the same value. Gradient XTerminator also does a colour balance I think that helps as well.

[Tenor Viol]

12 hours ago, Tangoringo said:

Coolio. Thx for the reply CM ( love the name! ) I've been trying to avoid the largely Northern ( light ) skies over the past few weeks and have spent a bit of time on M27 coincidentally. Looking forward to experimenting with the L-enhance to see how it ( and I ) perform. As I mentioned, its my first filter so a whole new world awaits.

Will be interested to see how this goes as I'm thinking about this filter too. 

[2STAR]

Thumbs up for the Optolong  L-eNhance dual band filter, decent at reducing some LP and really good when being used on emission Nebula.

eric

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

I hope to get a chance at using one some time when next the clouds buzz off