Askar Dual band filters

[Anthonyexmouth]

Has anyone here used the Askar duo band filter? The cheaper one. I see lots of reviews on the more expensive colour magic ones. Only seen one review and thats on the @flo website. 

[Budgie1]

If you mean THIS ONE, then I got one from FLO in one of their sales early last year.

I got the 2" version to replace the 1.25" L-eXtreme I had when I started using a filter draw, instead of screwing the filter into the 11mm spacer on the front of my ASI294MC.

Overall I'm happy with the results from the filter and think it's a good alternative to the L-eXtreme. It has the same 7nm pass band but does suffer from red halos around the odd star. Calibration is fine if you go with a gain of 200 and offset 30, these settings seems to sort out the issues with the Flats.

Here's a couple of image taken with the Askar  Duo-Band:

3h 32m on the Heart Nebula.

5h 12m on the Flaming Star Nebula.

 

Edited February 1, 2023 by Budgie1
Added image times.

[Anthonyexmouth]

Is that the cheaper £199 one? I have just been using a skytech LP filter until now as I'm low bortle 4 bordering on 3 but the moon really pee'd me off the other night. 

[Budgie1]

It is the £199 2" version I have. 

If it's just so you can image around the full Moon then you may be better off with the L-eNhance. It's cheaper than the Askar, works nearly as well around the full Moon (as long as you don't image too close to the Moon) and gives you little more Hb wave band. I tend to use the L-eNhance more than the Askar these days, still with the same gain & offset settings though.  

[Anthonyexmouth]

28 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

It is the £199 2" version I have. 

If it's just so you can image around the full Moon then you may be better off with the L-eNhance. It's cheaper than the Askar, works nearly as well around the full Moon (as long as you don't image too close to the Moon) and gives you little more Hb wave band. I tend to use the L-eNhance more than the Askar these days, still with the same gain & offset settings though.  

I was worried about the optolong one with the 294. You don't have any issues with it? Any halo issues? I'll be putting it in a filter drawer directly in front of the camera. 

[Budgie1]

2 hours ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

I was worried about the optolong one with the 294. You don't have any issues with it? Any halo issues? I'll be putting it in a filter drawer directly in front of the camera. 

I do see the halos occasionally, both with the Optolong & Askar filters, but I'm normally able to remove them. StarXTerminator tends to leave the halos on the background and I can use the CloneStamp tool in PI to remove them.

[Anthonyexmouth]

58 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

I do see the halos occasionally, both with the Optolong & Askar filters, but I'm normally able to remove them. StarXTerminator tends to leave the halos on the background and I can use the CloneStamp tool in PI to remove them.

So if you could only have one, would it be the l-enhance or extreme?

[Budgie1]

33 minutes ago, Anthonyexmouth said:

So if you could only have one, would it be the l-enhance or extreme?

Now that I've tried the Askar Duo-band, L-eNhance & L-eXtreme, I think, for me in my Bortle 2 area, it would be the L-eNhance. 

There's nothing wrong with the other two, I just feel the L-eNhance gives me more of what I was looking for. Like you, I wanted something to allow me more imaging time when the Moon was dominating  and the L-eNhance does that for a reasonable price.

Note: This is my personal filter preference, other filter preferences are available!   

[Anthonyexmouth]

6 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

Now that I've tried the Askar Duo-band, L-eNhance & L-eXtreme, I think, for me in my Bortle 2 area, it would be the L-eNhance. 

There's nothing wrong with the other two, I just feel the L-eNhance gives me more of what I was looking for. Like you, I wanted something to allow me more imaging time when the Moon was dominating  and the L-eNhance does that for a reasonable price.

Note: This is my personal filter preference, other filter preferences are available!   

I'm in a low bortle 4 that could probably be a Bortle 3 after the street lights go out so LP isnt a huge problem for me. Guess I'll try the enhance.