Narrowband Filters got Cooled OSC cameras

[Startrek]

Looking at upgrading from a stock DSLR ( after 3 years ) to a cooled ZWO OSC Camera later this year
I image from Sydney Bortle 8 skies and South Coast NSW Bortle 3 skies
I’ve read a lot of articles in other forums , from suppliers and on YouTube on the benefits of using narrowband filters for OSC cameras under light polluted skies ( ie Sydney )
Some products I’ve researched are as follows -
STC Duo band filter
ZWO Duo band filter
Optolong L enhance duo band filter
Radian ultra quad band filter
And a few others ........
I welcome advice and recommendations from cooled OSC imagers who use narrowband filters in light polluted skies Bortle 7 and above
Thanks in advance

[AnakChan]

Here's what I did back in last Oct. I live in Perth burbs and is prob around Bortle 5.

I don't have the ZWO, Optolong, nor Radian. I only have the STC and IDAS. Each are taken at ISO2000, 5 min exposures on a Takahashi µ250CRS (2500mm/F10 scope).

[Nikolas]

I have the L-Enhance filter and it is an excellent filter, especially for light pollution and moon glow.

[Atmos]

I had long been considering purchasing a narrowband filter for my OSC and ultimately decided that if I was going to go down that path it would either be the Triad (3 or 4 pass band) or the Optolong L Enhance; I'd personally go for the latter myself.

It largely depends on what it is that you're wanting to achieve. If you want to help bring out the nebulosity then either the Triad or Optolong is going to be your best bet. If you only want to cut down on light pollution (shooting galaxies/star clusters) then I don't think it's worth it as you spend more time trying to get back to a decent colour balance.

My personal thought of using the Optolong would have been to use it to capture the Ha/Hb/OIII nebulosity and then go unfiltered to capture the pure RGB. Going unfiltered captures all of the light pollution but also keeps the proper star colours, the narrowband data would then be used to bring out the nebulosity further.

[Startrek]

Thanks All
I mainly image nebulas and star clusters from my Sydney Bortle 8 location and obviously image everything from my Bortle 3 weekender location
Yes I’ve read that star colours are affected by using NB filters but I suppose there’s no way to avoid that problem. It’s mainly exposing more nebulosity at the end of the day.
Does anyone know about the ZWO duo band filter ???
ZWO are making great cameras these days so you would think their filters would be pretty good too ??

[Atmos]

With star clusters you’re better off just shooting them without any filters, light pollution doesn’t matter so much anyway.

ZWO filters are pretty good but they do tend to have issues with reflections (halos) around brighter stars. I don’t know about their duo filter specifically but in general they’ve suffered from halos.

[Startrek]

Colin
Yes it’s mainly nebulas for the filter , I’ve imaged globs for the past 4 years without filters and have had no significant issues under Bortle 8
Thanks again for your input

[ChrisV]

I'd seriously consider going mono. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy my STC duo, but mono with narrow band would be so much better. I will continue with OSC as I'm too cheap to get another camera, but mainly because i'm waiting for that whizz bang aps sized one to come out

Looks like I could be waiting a long time ...

[Startrek]

Chris
Are you referring to the new ZWOASI2600MC with APS-C sensor and 3.76uM pixel size , 50K well depth ,16bit ADC , super low noise and no amp glow and the great specs go on and on .......
If so, the price has gone up in the past couple of weeks to just over $4K Aus

[ChrisV]

That's full frame and out of my budget - not just the camera, but also filters etc etc. The camera I want isn't there yet ... Maybe I'll just have to bite the bullet and get the smaller asi1600 or the qhy equivalent.

[Atmos]

The ASI2600 is an APS-C OSC where as the ASI6200 is the full frame OSC/M :)

[Startrek]

My goodness the ZWOASI6200 full frame is around $8k Aus