OSC filter choice

[Anthonyexmouth]

Can't quite afford to go mono at the moment after the last month's purchase of a new scope so thinking I need to get a NB filter for my 294 osc camera. 

I'm in a low bortle 4 zone so really only need to block that annoying moon.

Is an l-extreme my best option or would an l-enhance or something else be better. Thinking the askar dual band option or one of the Altair offerings. 

 

[Lee_P]

14 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

I'm in a low bortle 4 zone so really only need to block that annoying moon.

Dualband filters don't just block the Moon; rather, they make it possible to image narrowband objects like hydrogen-rich nebulae. More info here.

I'm currently conducting a dualband shootout: Optolong L-eXtreme (7nm) vs Optolong L-Ultimate (3nm) vs Askar Colour Magic (6nm). Nothing beats real-world tests as far as I'm concerned! I hope to have the results in a few weeks.

[Anthonyexmouth]

3 minutes ago, Lee_P said:

Dualband filters don't just block the Moon; rather, they make it possible to image narrowband objects like hydrogen-rich nebulae. More info here.

I'm currently conducting a dualband shootout: Optolong L-eXtreme (7nm) vs Optolong L-Ultimate (3nm) vs Askar Colour Magic (6nm). Nothing beats real-world tests as far as I'm concerned! I hope to have the results in a few weeks.

Oh I get that, but I'm kinda lucky where I am having a kinda good dark garden. Last night's moon tipped me over the edge, new triplet and crystal clear sky but fooking impossible to image anything. 

Certainly don't want to spend out on the l-ultimate, just wanna make moon lit nights a little more worktable. 

[Lee_P]

Speaking personally, I don't worry about what the Moon is doing at all. Long integration times coupled with good processing (shoutout to PixInsight here) means you can get good data regardless of the Moon. Also consider that I image from a Bortle 8 city centre; your skies with a full Moon are probably better than mine with no Moon!

For reference, this image was taken from my city centre location with no filters at all. It's a long integration (22 hours) but almost all of that data was gathered with a bright Moon close in the sky.

 

My advice is:

* For broadband targets, don't use any filters. Image regardless what the Moon is doing - just aim for a long integration time and work on your processing.
* For narrowband targets, use a dualband filter. Image regardless what the Moon is doing - just aim for a long integration time and work on your processing.

 

Edited October 9, 2022 by Lee_P