ZWO vs Optolong

[Saturnine]

Hi All

I'd like to pose the question to the collective brains trust here as to the differences between the Optolong L-eNhance and the ZWO Duo-band filters, if any . Looking at the band cut-offs at Ha and O111 , they seem very similar in performance.
Thinking of parting with some cash due to the flamin' light pollution around home.

Cheers
Jeff

[Nikolas]

Optolong has less haloing

[Astronut07]

Hi Jeff

I definitely recommend the Optolong filter.

Cheers
Ben

[Saturnine]

Thanks guys, hoping for some more feedback from others. Out of curiosity, how noticeable is the halo around stars and why is it caused, reflections between coatings ?

[Zubenel]

I saw a vid on my feed yesterday of a pommy testing a new Optolong Duel band Ha O3 filter . Might be worth further investigation ? L- eXtreme ...
https://youtu.be/VXTXpo8i64o

[Saturnine]

Thanks Wes, have been watching several Utube reviews of L-enHance, Duo Band etc and they all look like they do a good job on light pollution. Just trying to find the most cost effective option.

[Don Pensack]

It does depend on price, of course. But shoot through filters of 3-5nm, and you could shoot nebulae in the middle of Sydney without LP being a problem.
It's just that you'd spend a lot of money on those filters.
Still, it is not costly to use a separate H-α filter and O-III filter and combine the images. And you might get less noise than in the test of the filter in question.

[Saturnine]

Thanks for the input Don, I was musing last evening that the filters in question could be replicated by stacking , say 10 nm Ha and O111 filters which I have. Not going into 3 - 5 nm range, too expensive for my budget.
I had tried imaging with my modded 450d and seperately, Ha and O111 filters but was not encouraged by the results, seemed really noisy. Maybe the exposures were too short at 180 or 240 secs. with the filters.
Also, my processing skills need a lot of work but I don't seem to have the attention span to cope with the complexities of Photoshop, Pixinsight, Gimp etc. Too many sliders and buttons make the programs confusing to navigate for my old brain.

[netwolf]

Jeff imho stacking filters would not work . If you put Ha in front of Oii, the Ha nulls out the OIii region then the Oiii behind it will have no effect, same if you reverse. As the individual ones filter out anything but Ha or Oiii , a stack will not work.

[Saturnine]

Thanks , of course, not thinking clearly because as you say the Ha would cut the O111 and vice versa, Doh.

[Startrek]

I’ve been looking at the Optolong, STC and ZWO duo band filters for a while now ( magazine articles, Cloudy nights, Astrobin , manufacturer’s specs , IIS members etc.... ) and decided to buy the ZWO duo band filter. The filter arrives next week but my 2600MC Camera is still weeks and weeks away.

[LewisM]

I went with ZWO. 8 days from order to arrival (Fedex messed up twice), and $80 cheaper than local retailer (who has nil stock).

[Saturnine]

Thanks again to every one for their replies, I am leaning toward the ZWO Duo, purely on cost as much as any other criteria. Ordering direct from ZWO seems to be a good option. One question I have forgotten, is how compatible to DSLR camera are they, would be used with an modded 450D.

[Startrek]

Jeff,
I think you’ve seen a few of my posted images using the ZWO 2” Duoband filter in Sydney’s Bortle 8 and at my South Coast retreat under full moon Bortle 3
I can’t compare with the L enhance or L extreme but I’m extremely happy with the ZWO
Cheers
Martin

[Saturnine]

Thanks again everyone, lots of useful insights to digest. A friend recently lent me his L-eNhance filter to try out and it did a good job of cutting through the light pollution and moonlight. But in the meantime I had looked at a lot of spectral charts of many of the light pollution / NB filters available nowadays and realised that I've had a suitable filter sitting here all the time.
For most of my astronomical life I've mostly an visual observer and only recently, the last 10 years approx, become corrupted by astrophotography. Though I enjoy it , it is not the only astro, though deteriorating eyesight makes the visual less viable. Anyway to cut a long story short, I've had a 2" Baader UHC-S for visual with the dobs and on checking the band pass of the filter found that it was also a photographic filter too with a not dissimilar band pass to the L-Pro and similar class filters. So I gave it a try out from my light polluted skies and it does a reasonable job of cutting through. Don't know at this stage how it will handle strong moonlight, gives me something to work with anyway for the time being.

The Catspaw is from Bortle 5 skies, no moon with a 127mm f950 Triplet with the Baader UHC-s and IC 2648 in Scorpius was with a 1st quarter moon about 30 deg away with the L-eNhance filter, from same location.

Sorry for the ramble.

[va1erian]

People say if you were impressed with L-eNhance, your jaw will drop after you use L-eXtreme. This has to do with the narrower band allowing a greater contrast of nebula.

Personally for me, I am using the ZWO duo-band filter, and I am impressed. Going for the bands that are more narrow is great, but I am concerned about the stars getting dim. When I combine ZWO duo-band with the orange #21, SharpCap has a difficulty to align.