I bit the bullet and filled my 50mm filter wheel with a final 3nm H-Alpha Astrodon today. The h-alpha was the last filter to go in (the rest I'd acquired some years ago).
Expensive for sure ...but if you want to make an omelet...you gotta break a few eggs (even if they are from the golden goose )
I did wonder how many other Astrodon users are out there on IIS..
and whether you are genuinely happy with the product ? Why did you choose them? Or why didn't you?
Last edited by Peter Ward; 09-02-2021 at 08:50 AM.
Hmmmm, very nice Congratulations. You will be downloading some great data with this lot I’m sure.
For my current upgrade I’m working on I went down the path of 50mm round Astronomik filters. Key decision driver was the price v performance and I’ve had good results from the 1.25” filters in my QSI683 camera.
Hmmmm, very nice Congratulations. You will be downloading some great data with this lot I’m sure.
For my current upgrade I’m working on I went down the path of 50mm round Astronomik filters. Key decision driver was the price v performance and I’ve had good results from the 1.25” filters in my QSI683 camera.
Yep...that last few percent of increase in performance is costly. Astronomik (I suspect ) are on par with Baader performance wise and look like they offer good value.
As a former 'Don user, I seriously considered them again when I upgraded to 2" filters, until I saw the staggering cost!
Further research showed that Chroma were just as good, better value (but still expensive) and they actually produced and manufactured Astrodon filters until a decade ago.
According to several forum posts on CN, sadly it seems that the new owners of Astrodon have let the quality control reputation slip as well.
According to several forum posts on CN, sadly it seems that the new owners of Astrodon have let the quality control reputation slip as well.
I'll suggest, as the other Don used to like to say: that's fake news.
All AstroDons are now shipped with with an signed inspection report and holographic integrity seal to ensure QC and that you are getting the real deal.
Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking Chroma...reports and images produced with them suggest they are also excellent.
If this cloud ever clears I'll post some NB images from the 3nm Don set in due course...I'm sure we'll compare results accordingly
Interestingly, good to hear that Astrodon have upped their QC game - possibly in response to Chroma doing the same thing with their inspection reports etc. (I was very impressed with my Chroma package when it arrived https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnZP4ucVuuA&t=5s)
However, a google search reveals that the Chroma people have reviewed their pricing recently - upwards!
This from Barrabclaw on C/N - "I was just about to buy a Chroma O-iii 3nm in the 31mm size. $490 a few days ago. I checked again yesterday and the price went up to $625. A ~30% price increase is pretty substantial.
I emailed their sales about it to ask if I was losing my mind or if the price really did go up. Definitely real. They told me that the CEO and financial people in the company reviewed yields and margins for the astronomy line of filters and they are barely making money or even losing money on some filters. They considered discontinuing the line, but decided to keep producing the filters but sell them at a higher price.
It was nice to hear from a real person and be given an explanation. However, with Astrodons now the cheaper option, I wonder how many will choose Chroma filters. I haven't seen much anecdotal evidence claiming one or the other is better, and I certainly haven't seen any systematic examination. So what will anyone go by but price? Availability, I suppose?"
Current pricing...
Optech: 2" round 3nm Ha Chroma $1300 usd
Farpoint: 2" round 3nm Ha Astrodon $1145 usd
Enjoy your new filter Peter, seems you made the right choice!
Current pricing...
Optech: 2" round 3nm Ha Chroma $1300 usd
Farpoint: 2" round 3nm Ha Astrodon $1145 usd
Enjoy your new filter Peter, seems you made the right choice!
Ouch. Chroma gone up considerably.
My Original filter set was Gen-E LRGB plus 5nm Ha, 3nm SII and 3nm OIII. The 5nm H-a has been replaced with the 3nm....very keen to see what sort of contrast it has.
I have used several Astrodons, Baader Gen 1 and Astronomiks Gen 1.
The Astrodons are parfocal, do a 1:1:1 colour combine the others do not no matter what they say.
The Astronomiks are 1mm thin and the other 2 are 3mm. My filter wheel required the filter to be 3mm. I got one damaged because of this.
Then Gerd brought out a spacer later on and wanted $100 for them.
I am used to US style customer service and that would be called really slack in the US and increasingly here.
Apart from the poor customer service the filters themselves seemed ok. Not Astrodon standard but certainly fine.
When the dollar was good several years ago I purchased complete Don sets in 1.25" and 2". The 2" set of 3nm filters and type 2's LRGB were 8K and the 1.25" set in the same configuration was 3K. Both have been outstanding despite the almost insane cost at the time. Happy with the performance for sure.
Hmm until you start imaging at f3.8 and lower, then they are not parfocal and require offsets. Not much but enough to cause some initial setup time.
On nights of excellent seeing if I am using say F4.5 I have found you can finesse the focus for each filter if there is a refractive element in the optical system.
.not the filters fault, but simply a teeny sphero-chromatic shift from the optic.
If I'm using just mirrors, then I have yet to detect any focus shift with the Dons.
Once upon a time I gradually upgraded 12nm Astronomiks to 3nm Astrodons, including 3nm NII, and then I added Astrodon LRGB. One of my best astro buys. I no longer do astroimaging, but I would certainly recommend considering quality filters to any astrophotographer.
Has anyone got an opinion on the Baader filter sets? I am plotting the move to mono but to be realistic, Dons or Chromas are probably a bridge too far cost wise. On the other hand I have seen too many halos with cheaper filters and they would annoy me as much as the ASI1600 (And other cams using the same sensor) and the micro lens artifacts, and those stopped me ever considering buying one.
My current thinking is to spread the money well out by buying a filter wheel and filter set and for now use it on my ASI2600MC, which proved remarkably capable with a HA filter in front of it. Then when budget allows it should be a reasonably simple matter of swapping the filter wheel on to the mono version of the same cam. The Baader sets appear to be LRGB-HA-OIII-SII-C which would work out for me well as I could use the clear in place of lum (The ASI2600MC has what amounts to a lum filter as the chamber window) to keep RGB and NB parfocal. It was an interesting experiment last month to put a HA filter in the train but I would not want to be tearing the train down every filter change.
Once upon a time I gradually upgraded 12nm Astronomiks to 3nm Astrodons, including 3nm NII, and then I added Astrodon LRGB. One of my best astro buys. I no longer do astroimaging, but I would certainly recommend considering quality filters to any astrophotographer.
Hi Suavi, hope you're well - we certainly miss seeing your amazing NB images here.
Has anyone got an opinion on the Baader filter sets?
I use a 65mm Baader set with my STX16803. Baaders have excellent balance and transmission. My only gripe would be they do show modest halos on brighter stars. For example here
AstroDons don't, but as you mention, they are not cheap.
That is sort of bordering on my tolerance level to halos. But then we are talking about Alnitak here.
It is interesting to see Baader mentioning that in many cases that halos seen are a result of reflections from the camera, passing back though filters and reflecting back again off other optical elements. Given the price of Dons and Chromas, I wonder how much of lack of reflections is down to the likely top dollar glass that is in front of it (If you can afford Astrodons, you are probably not using them with an ED80 or a budget flattener!)
What channels did they show up on in that image? I assume by the colour at least some of it was in HA? You would assume with the Honders that it would have to be from the filters themselves? There isn't anything else to reflect off before the secondary is there?
That is sort of bordering on my tolerance level to halos. But then we are talking about Alnitak here.
It is interesting to see Baader mentioning that in many cases that halos seen are a result of reflections from the camera, passing back though filters and reflecting back again off other optical elements. Given the price of Dons and Chromas, I wonder how much of lack of reflections is down to the likely top dollar glass that is in front of it (If you can afford Astrodons, you are probably not using them with an ED80 or a budget flattener!)
What channels did they show up on in that image? I assume by the colour at least some of it was in HA? You would assume with the Honders that it would have to be from the filters themselves? There isn't anything else to reflect off before the secondary is there?
Almost all of the halo is generated from the h-alpha channel. The RGB shows very little. A cheaper solution, albeit not parfocal, would be Baaders for LRGB and AstroDon for the narrow band.
I am inclined to give them a try and hope for the best. It does seem that the same filters will give very different results on different gear. Even the ZWO filters seem to vary anywhere between between pretty good results and "ohmygodthatsawful"
Getting focus to work for a HA filter in front of a bayer matrix was tricky and required settings that would mess up RGB focus, so using the 2600MC with NB filters would end up a choice between RGB of NB imaging per session, to ensure no unexpected focus related issues. Once I was mono, ending up slightly non parfocal due to changing out a filter would not be much of an issue so long as it was not enough of a difference to visibly impact sensor spacing.