I can't decide, advice please

[fortytwo]

I was thinking of trying for The Leo Triplet, or possibly just the Hamburger Galaxy tonight, using my SW Explorer 200 and my unmodded Canon 600D.

Living in West London (Bortle 7-8) I often use a clip in LP filter but this is going to compromise the colour.

The local HS2 site is now competing with Central London (and winning) as the entity who is able to make my astro life near impossible.

"London to the left of me, HS2 to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with Bortle 8...." I feel a song coming on....

My question is what would you do in this situation, I am tempted to ditch the LP filter and try to deal with the LP in post, but can't decide.

Cheers,

Jeff

Edited March 26, 2022 by fortytwo

[Elp]

All you can do is try it, personally I don't use LP filters for galaxies as it reduces the signal from them too. If they're higher up in the sky you have a better chance.

[ollypenrice]

Everything I do, all the decisions I take, are based on experiment. I'm happy to listen to the theory and it's often informative, but it's only as good as the initial conditions it's given. Experiment will never lie.

Olly

[Clarkey]

These days the bulk of LP is LED and general filters have limited benefit. Unless doing narrowband I would not bother.

I would say keep your subs short and take lots of them.

Good luck.

[fortytwo]

Thanks everyone, I opted to image Bodes in the end as it is brighter, 30 second subs, no LP filter going now so we will see how it turns out.

The added advantage is its facing away from the worst of the LP as well.

I'm going to put in a complaint to HS2 about their lighting, not only does it mess up my astro but it is getting past our black out blinds and curtains in our bedroom. The first time they turned them on I thought we had a full moon, then I realised it was completely clouded over and the reflected light was illuminating our garden and its almost 1/2 mile distance.

[AMcD]

22 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Everything I do, all the decisions I take, are based on experiment. I'm happy to listen to the theory and it's often informative, but it's only as good as the initial conditions it's given. Experiment will never lie.

Olly

I am going to do this experiment over the next couple of weeks.  I plan to image the same bright galaxy for a set period of time, first without a filter and then with an Optolong L-Pro that I plan to have the postman bring in the next couple of weeks.  I will post the comparison when it is done. 😀