Chroma filters

[Ken82]

When they say no halos they mean it! I was sceptical at first as I thought it may have been the camera producing my small halos with baader and Idas filters. But I tried out a chroma oiii tonight and wow awesome ! 
 

delighted, get me a full set of narrowbands  and LRGB 👌

I’ll update more tomorrow after work. 
 

but here is an image of my halos with the baader and and IDAS filters - 

baader filters with halo 120pixels across and IDAS D2 and D1 160 pixels across. 
 

chroma zero halo 😀
 

 

[RayD]

Nice one, Ken.  They certainly do perform well 👍

[Ken82]

Only problem is how do I now explain to my wife the filters have all doubled in price 🤔😀

[RayD]

4 minutes ago, Ken82 said:

Only problem is how do I now explain to my wife the filters have all doubled in price 🤔😀

Gently, and from a distance? 🙂

[Ken82]

8 hours ago, RayD said:

Nice one, Ken.  They certainly do perform well 👍

I just say a big thanks Ray as your detailed comparison and video really helped me make this choice. 
 

one thing that I did notice is that although the chroma website details you must orientate the filter with the arrow pointing towards the objective. My 50mm unmounted filters didn’t have an arrow so I was a little concerned at first. 
 

I was told that the orientation didn’t matter for most telescopes with these filters anymore. However I was reading a few had a halo issue on cloudy nights with the wrong orientation. 
 

so to be clear I mounted my filters with the bottom of the writing Pointing towards the objective/nebula. 👍
 

ken 

[Adam J]

4 hours ago, Ken82 said:

Only problem is how do I now explain to my wife the filters have all doubled in price 🤔😀

Always ask permission if you value your marrage.

It is an interesting one as I currently have AD narrow band and Baader RGB, I do get reflections from the blue filter and am tempted to go for either AD or chroma LRGB filters. Problem is I am not sure how much of it I should be putting down to the ASI1600mm pro causing reflections and how much is the filters. Its a complicated picture to be honest.

Also I take 4 narrow band images for ever 1 LRGB image so its a case of value for money and justification.

Adam

Edited July 6, 2020 by Adam J

[Ken82]

Well my full set finally arrived (plus a LP filter on back order) these new ones also arrived with individual test certificates. Interesting actually my oiii didn’t have a certificate  but hey it’s the no halo images that count. 
 

😀

 

[Highburymark]

Congrats - I’ve just added a 2” Chroma ha filter to my night vision set up, and it’s superb. 

[Ken82]

And the final piece of the jigsaw a light pollution filter to replace the luminance/ and d1/D2 filters I have. 
 

😀

 

[Ken82]

I got some special 3D printed filter masks to centre the filters and stop them moving around inside the recess. 
 

This works perfectly for the Standard 3mm chroma filters but unfortunately the new low glow is only 1.3mm so it moves around inside the cell. 
 

I’ll need to look at some sort of 3D printed alternative for this filter. 
 

looking good 👍

 

[Ken82]

I had an opportunity to test out the new chroma LowGlow over the weekend and yet again no halos and exceptional results. You get to the point where you have absolute trust in your kit and turn to capella for the ultimate halo test as shown in my image. 😀

ADU is slightly higher for the lowglow over the IDAS D1/D2 but that is more a debate for different LP filters. And regardless of this the lack of halo make the chroma lowglow well worth the investment. 

One very slight negative which ive mentioned earlier is that the LowGlow filter is only 1.1mm thick (LRGB + HA + OIII + SII are all 3mm)  meaning if your using the new zwo 7x2" filter wheel the filters aren't held in place by the zwo filter holders. Instead i recommend getting someone to 3D print some filter holders which centre the filter and hold it in place for repeatable flats. 

[Ken82]

Ok here is the 3D printed filter holders that were designed particularly for chroma 50mm filters and zwo 2x7”. 
 

It’s hard to see but there is a small rivet which holds the filter in the centre of the recess and stops It moving around unlike the zwo filter holders. The filter holder for the LowGlow filter is slightly thicker to account for the narrower filter as my previous post. Job done 😀

[Ken82]

I thought I'd add a little to this review with some actual images.

One thing I've also learnt about using 3nm filters is that they add considerably to your SNR (assuming you live in a light polluted area)

A normal routine for me would normally consist of gradient reduction algorithms like dynamic background extraction and trying to squeeze every ounce of detail from every pixel! Certainly now in terms of narrowband I don't need to do very much post processing because there are no gradients which wasn't true for my other narrowband filters.

Ken 

 

[nfotis]

Very nice 👍

Trouble is, I can't justify such pricey filters for me (I am still at the research stage).

N.F.

[dan_adi]

On 06/07/2020 at 14:49, Ken82 said:

Only problem is how do I now explain to my wife the filters have all doubled in price 🤔😀

Hey, where did you order the filters from? Directly from Chroma's website?

[Ken82]

18 minutes ago, dan_adi said:

Hey, where did you order the filters from? Directly from Chroma's website?

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/chroma-filters.html
 

😉

[dan_adi]

Just now, Ken82 said:

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/chroma-filters.html
 

😉

Thanks, in the near future I am hoping to get some Chroma filters too.