[Renato1 (Renato)]

The LPR filters are never as amazing in light polluted places as the ads make out. My set are over ten years old, but the ads were the same back then. My observations from using them in an 8" SCT follow.

In Broad-band filters, there are broad Broad-band filters and narrow Broad-band filters. The Lumicon Dark Sky filter was broad Broad-band filter which I found pretty hopeless in my polluted sky, but actually very pleasant at a darkish sky. In sharp contrast was my Celestron LPR filter, which was narrow Broad-band filter, and was a fair way towards being a an Ultra High Contrast (UHC) filter, and worked pretty well on emission nebula and many planetary nebula in a light polluted sky. In between the Lumicon and Celestron was the Orion Skyglow, which didn't work as well as the Celestron one, but didn't kill off the stars as much leading to a more pleasant view.

When I got my Narrow-band filters - the Lumicon UHC and Orion Ultra Block - I didn't like them much. They killed off too many stars, and anyway, were redundant as I'd also bought an Oxygen 111 filter - which killed off more stars, but showed more detail in emission nebula and enabled one to see the big planetary nebulas and spot the tiny invisible ones - by having them appear and disappear while either passing the filter between the eyepiece and eye, or just tilting the filter 45 degrees while aiming at where the invisible planetary nebula was supposed to be (known as "blinking"). All three of these filters worked pretty well on emission and planetary nebulas in my light polluted sky.

But as time went on, I suddenly decided I liked the UHC filters more tha the O111, as the view of emission nebulas was more aesthetically pleasing. The 0111 filter was relegated to the task of finding the 15 to 20% of planetary nebulas that the UHC filters wouldn't show up.

However, before my back went and I could still set up my 14.5" dob, the O111 filter got a lot more use in it, since the stars weren't dimmed as much as in the 8" telescope.

And one day, out of idle curiosity, I bought a Kson UHC filter - and in my 5" Mak it gave better detailed and more aesthetically pleasing, views to my eye of emission nebulas in Scorpius, than the other two Narrow-band filters.

So to sum up, yes, some filters are useful under light polluted skies if you have a strong interest in emission nebulas and planetary nebulas, but they aren't of much or any use for reflection nebulas, open clusters, globular clusters and galaxies. And their characteristics, mean that there will be differences in how people perceive an rate them in the degree that they dim down surrounding stars and enhance the nebula, as well as the way they perform in different sized telescopes.

Now - the most important point. If you have a backyard surrounded by houses with lots of lights coming through blinds and the occasional street light as well, just attaching whichever LPR filter you have to an eyepiece is going to result in you're being disappointed. You have to block off stray light coming into the side of your eye.

In my case, depending on where I was positioned to see some object,
a. sometimes being next to a fence or pole would suffice to get a good view, or
b. sometimes a butterfly eyepiece cup would suffice to get a good view, or
b. sometimes that butterfly cup, together with one or two hands cupped around the eyepiece would give me a good view, or
c. sometimes, especially when doing blinking to see an invisible or very dim planetary nebula, I needed to put an opaque piece of black cloth over my head and the eyepiece to stop the stray light. And in cold weather, this only works for a short amount of time, until you start fogging up the eyepiece and filter used for blinking.

Good luck with whatever choice you make.
Regards,
Renato