Optolong L-eXtreme First Impressions

[AstroRuz]

So I was fortunate enough to get one of the new Optolong L-eXtreme Filters for review, and even though there has been a heatwave this week I just had to give it a go.

On the Monday I turned the equipment to the Eastern Veil Nebula NGC 6992. I first attempted 5 minute exposures, but I wasn't getting as much signal through as I was hoping. 

I ended up having to bump the exposures up to 10 minutes, ISO 800 with the L-eXtreme on the East Veil

There was a definite green colour cast to the image. But after manually correcting this with a simple levels adjustment and some editing, the final result looked good for just 2 hours of data at 30 Celsius!

 

I also turned this to the Pelican Nebula. I only managed to get 1.5hrs of data with this and the sensor was a whopping 33'C which damaged the data and induced some significant banding that I'm currently troubleshooting and trying to rectify. The data picked up though was nice even after an aggressive amount of noise reduction. The colours of the nebula are nice also. Very reminiscent of the Optolong L-eNhance filter (which makes sense). I just need more data and cooler data. The Pelican Nebula was shot with 5 minute sub exposures ISO800 on account of the temperature. If it was cooler I would've definitely used 10 minute exposures minimum.

 

First impressions are promising. Very excited to try this more and to share my thoughts with you throughout my time with this filter. 

 

If you want further information then you can see my Optolong L-eXtreme First Impressions on YouTube

If you want further reading then you can read the post on my website.

 

Thanks everybody. Clear skies, keep looking up and keep them cameras clicking.

 

 

[MarkAR]

Nice one Ruz, keep up the good work.

Heat has been a killer in the last few days, 30º C on the camera definitely wont help.

[SteveNickolls]

Thanks both for your post and video and most of all for keeping it real, "warts and all".  Good luck with future sessions when it should be cooler and kinder on your DSLR.

Cheers,
Steve

[Miguel1983]

Hi Ruz,

Last year after only one year of use i couldn't live withe those heat noise images anymore so i broke the bank and got an ASI 1600 and never looked back, but i can see why many people still like their DSLR, it just wasn't for me anymore, putting all those hours in and no return...

Keep making those reviews  👍

Edited July 4, 2020 by Miguel1983
typo

[prusling]

Slightly off-topic - I get banding on my Canon 550d and Fitswork4 does a pretty good job of removing it using Lines to Equal Values with default parameters in the Processing, Background Flatten menu.