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Old 30-11-2012, 05:15 PM
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nobbygon (Angus)
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Astronomik CLS-CCD or alternatives


Hi,

I’ve just moved to a really light polluted area and am in need of a filter/filters to help me out. I’m imaging through a GSO RC8 and QHY9 mono. I intend to shoot both nebulae and galaxies.

The way I see it so far is to use either an Astronomik CLS-CCD to replace my L filter or go down the narrowband route (Ha, OIII, SII). Has anyone had good results with other CCD light pollution filters?

The thing is I still want to be able to shoot galaxies and from what I’ve read narrowband won’t help out at all here. Correct me if I’m wrong but narrowband is more for nebulae isn’t it?

I guess another alternative would be to get a Ha filter for nebulae and use it as my L and just sick it up for galaxies.

What is the best thing to do in this circumstance?

Cheers,
Angus.
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  #2  
Old 04-12-2012, 12:15 PM
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CoolhandJo (Paul)
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Hutech LPS is a good light pollution filter that preservesd colour balance as much as possible. I use it always (accept at star parties)
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Old 04-12-2012, 06:25 PM
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cometcatcher (Kevin)
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DGM Optics make a GCE (galaxy contrast enhance) filter. No idea if it works or not, or if it's suitable for photography.
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Old 05-12-2012, 11:10 AM
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ZeroID (Brent)
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Astronomik CLS is my best solution so far. Kills the sodium glare but seems to give 'true' colours at the chip.
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Old 06-12-2012, 08:28 PM
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alan meehan (Alan)
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Hi Angus got to agree with Brent i use a Astronomik CLS filter in light
pollution of newcastle took my shots from 3min to 10min with no
light pollution worries ,wouldn,t be without it
AL
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Old 07-12-2012, 01:31 AM
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ourkind (Carlos)
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Not too sure myself

Hi Angus,

I recently bought an Astronomic CLS filter for my 60d. The sales person told me not to bother pointing it at Globular Clusters or stars as the colours will be out of whack. It should only be used on emmisions nebulae etc.

I've also wondered wheather I could use it to point at Galaxies but I think not as it will cut out too much light.

Here are my results of the Tarantula with (red nebulae) and without (blue nebulae) the CLS filter. Both were taken from my balcony in Carlton under heavy light pollution.

Post processing was a little painful because everything came out RED RED RED, I was suprised and a little disapointed but others said that my results were good, so it beats me
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (CLS filter.jpg)
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Click for full-size image (No filters.jpg)
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Last edited by ourkind; 07-12-2012 at 02:11 AM.
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Old 07-12-2012, 01:56 AM
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Tandum (Robin)
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The Hutech LPS is the easiest to post process.
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Old 07-12-2012, 08:01 AM
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ZeroID (Brent)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ourkind View Post
Hi Angus,

I recently bought an Astronomic CLS filter for my 60d. The sales person told me not to bother pointing it at Globular Clusters or stars as the colours will be out of whack. It should only be used on emmisions nebulae etc.

I've also wondered wheather I could use it to point at Galaxies but I think not as it will cut out too much light.

Here are my results of the Tarantula with (red nebulae) and without (blue nebulae) the CLS filter. Both were taken from my balcony in Carlton under heavy light pollution.

Post processing was a little painful because everything came out RED RED RED, I was suprised and a little disapointed but others said that my results were good, so it beats me
A CLS certainly makes emmision nebula stand out cos they get lost in the red lp glare otherwise. It doesn't seem to affect star colours much in my limited experience. It did make post processing a heck of a lot easier giving me much darker skies to work with not dominated by the red glare. It does obviously require longer exposure times but the upshot is that the chip doesn't get saturated with the LP effect. So a few more exposures or longer and it's all good for me.
Unless I was looking for carbon stars or particular colours I tend to use the CLS for almost all pix.
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Old 21-08-2013, 04:59 PM
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Jon (Jonathan)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ourkind View Post
Hi Angus,

I recently bought an Astronomic CLS filter for my 60d. The sales person told me not to bother pointing it at Globular Clusters or stars as the colours will be out of whack. It should only be used on emmisions nebulae etc.

I've also wondered wheather I could use it to point at Galaxies but I think not as it will cut out too much light.

Here are my results of the Tarantula with (red nebulae) and without (blue nebulae) the CLS filter. Both were taken from my balcony in Carlton under heavy light pollution.

Post processing was a little painful because everything came out RED RED RED, I was suprised and a little disapointed but others said that my results were good, so it beats me
You could look at it another way - the IR filter in your unmodded 60D cuts out a lot of the "natural" red from the Ha emissions of this nebula. The CLS allows this through while cutting out the orange/yellow sodium glare. So the "red red red" Tarantula is actually more "natural" than the blue one, when it comes to the actual spectrum being put out by that nebula. :-)
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Old 21-08-2013, 08:01 PM
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BlackWidow (Mardy)
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Just remember that the Astronomik CLS filter comes in two different forms. One has an Ir filter built in and the other does not. If you are using the wrong filter you can get bad results in you colour. Ie I have a QHY8 that has an IR filter built into the unit (some have clear glass). I then chose the cheaper CLS filter without IR cutoff as I alreay have that... Go to the Astronomik site to see the diff...

I always use my CLS filter now as I have bad light pollution and have found a vast difference and am very happy with the results..


Mardy
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