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Old 27-10-2013, 06:41 PM
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gregbradley
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gregbradley is offline
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Sydney
Posts: 17,897
I have both. I used Astronomiks for a little while. At first I had a lot of trouble as they are very thin - about 1mm. My filter wheel was designed for 3mm thick so they were loose. As a resulta couple got damaged. Then Astronomik released a packer for them. That cost $100 for something that should have been released with the filters as they were unuseable for their intended use so that was not cool.

At that time filter wheels that could take thin filters did not exist as far as I know, they came later. So my opinion of Astronomik was negative right from that - they were very unprofessional to be selling filters that could not be used and when told ask for more money to make the defective filters work.

However imaging with them I found I could get a pleasant image without any hassles and I think they produce nice star colours in particular. These were Gen 1 without antireflection coatings and it was a while ago but I don't recall having too much of a reflection issue but there was some. Usually its the green filter that has worst reflections. If you are using a flattener or reducer then anti reflection latest versions of whatever brand are vital.

Astrodons though are the best. They fit. They are parfocal as claimed (Baader is not despite marketing nor are they 1:1:1 colour balance as they claim).

So I think its buyer beware in the filter industry with more than a little bit of marketing BS. But I have found Astrodon Gen 11 to not cause reflections, to be easier to colour balance and to be quite parfocal.

They are expensive but in my opinion worth it. Mike loves his Astronomiks so there is the other view. I was turned off Astronomik by the above and felt gouged and let down. But Mike's experience no doubt is very positive.

Astronomiks are also quite a bit cheaper, so perhaps that is an important point.

Greg.
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