Baader UHC-s vs Castell UHC

[crazyjedi]

By the look of the light transmission charts the Baader UHC-s and the (much cheaper) Castell UHC - deep sky have very similar band widths, but . . . which is better?? The price difference is about £65 so if the Castell measures up, why spend an extra pile of cash on the Baader??

If anyone wants to lend me one of each to help out with this project please don't hold back

TTFN

[GazOC]

I can lend (or is it borrow?) you a Baader.

[steve_bham]

Be interested in seeing the results on this as im very keen to buy one of the castell UHC and OIII ones.

[John]

I'm not sure it's a case of "better" but rather that the characteristics of the Castell UHC are a little different in terms of band pass width than those of the Baader UHC-S. My guess is that you would have to try them both at the same time with the same scope and under the same sky conditions to really assess the difference - it will be pretty subtle to be sure.

Also bear in mind that a filter does place another optical element in the light path so you do want the best quality optical glass and coatings that you can have, as you would for eyepieces. Also the coating method and durability does have some bearing I feel - Baader tell us a lot about that in their blurb but I can't find anything about the Castell brand other than on the 365 Astronomy website.

[crazyjedi]

Yes i know that there are slight differences in the band pass and i wanted one of each to test on my scope on the same night at the same time with same EP's so that i could ascertain which would be best; for the average observer with an average scope, with average EP's under light polluted skies. So far as EP's go i was going to use my Meade 5000's and the standard EP's that came with my SkyWatcher, to give a balanced view (no pun intended). This was just meant to (hopefully) show which was better for an average Joe living in the suburban (light polluted) site that many of us call home. If any of you guys wants to lend me one of these filters for a short while please drop me a private message so i can pass on my postal details.

Clear skies

[crazyjedi]

Alternatively if any of you guys live close to each other and have one of each, get together and report your findings!

TTFN

[zhgutas]

Yep, would be very interesting to know a bit more about that Castel thingy! sure looks tempting at this price, but as John mentioned, virtually no info is given about quality or other properties of this filter @ 365 site..

Marius