Whats your recommendation for a dual narrowband filter on a fast f/2 system?

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Arny avatar
I run an Asi2600mc OSC on my EdgeHD with an Hyperstar v4 at wonderfully fast f/2.
Unfortunately my L-Enhance creates really massive star halos, so I look for a better dual narrowband filter on my f/2 system.

Any experiences with L-Extreme F2 or recommendations for other products?

Arny
Armin Lukas avatar
Don’t have any experience, but there is a F2 Version of L-extreme filter:

https://optolong.com/cms/document/detail/id/276.html
Rostokko avatar
Take it for whatever it's worth it, but I did go down your same path earlier this year - hyperstar (on a c8), color camera, dual band filters.
I never got results I liked... OK results, but nothing more. I decided to make a big investment and switch to a monochrome camera and use the Baader fast filters, and I never looked back.
That said, the L-extreme mentioned above was the dual filter behaving the best for me.
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shenmesaodongxia avatar
Both the Antlia ALP-T HIGHSPEED and Optolong Lextreme HIGHSPEED filters can improve the transmission rate, but they still have a significant portion of the spectrum cut off.
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ScotiaAstro avatar
Hey Arny,

I've had great success using an IDAS NBZ UHS filter on my Samyang 135mm F2 and ZWO 2600MC Pro pairing. I'm usually running it at F2 or F2.8.

Haven't had any issues at all with halos using the IDAS…not as big a system as your RASA, obviously, but is been working great for me.

Hope that helps and best wishes from Scotland,
Steve smile
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Markice Stephenson avatar
The ALP-T 5nm high-speed has worked best for me. I also own the IDAS NBZ 12nm, but isn't as useful from B9 skies. If you can hold off on a purchase, Antlia mentioned that they are making a high-speed version of their new 3nm dual filter. Not sure how far away they are from releasing one, but I had asked about it last month when I saw the regular dual filter drop on Agena.
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Arny avatar
I decided to make a big investment and switch to a monochrome camera and use the Baader fast filters, and I never looked back.




Hi Rostokko,

that concern is exactly what worries me and going mono came to my mind as well - only that going mono would mean swapping filters by hand -- or living with loosing a lot of light collection area by cramping a filter wheel between camera and Hyperstar. 

Which route did you take - manual swap or filter wheel?

Arny
Ryan Génier avatar
I have a bit of experience with this. I have a RASA, started with a 2600MC & dual band filter, moved to 2600MM & baader high speed filters.

For dual band filters, I've never been happy with the Optolong filters (L-Enhance, L-Extreme). They have tight bandpasses (especially L-Extreme & L-Ultimate), but the halos are brutal. My recommendation for anyone with a fast system is the IDAS NBZ. A slightly wider bandpass, but the quality of the stars and halos is top notch. No better filter for high speed systems in my mind.

For the mono camera, I use Baader Ultra-Highspeed filters. They are fantastic, and definitely the best ones that I can suggest for high speed systems when using mono. 

With regards to switching filters, I swap everything manually. It's pretty much impossible to add a filter wheel to a hyperstar / rasa, so you're stuck manually swapping. When shooting narrowband, it's a pretty trivial issues (I just shoot a single filter for each night). When shooting RGB, it's a big PITA. I definitely wish I had a OSC for shooting broadband.
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Rostokko avatar
Arny:
I decided to make a big investment and switch to a monochrome camera and use the Baader fast filters, and I never looked back.




Hi Rostokko,

that concern is exactly what worries me and going mono came to my mind as well - only that going mono would mean swapping filters by hand -- or living with loosing a lot of light collection area by cramping a filter wheel between camera and Hyperstar. 

Which route did you take - manual swap or filter wheel?

Arny

I do switch filters manually - I wouldn't even consider a filter wheel with hyperstar. I use the Starizona drawers, which are well made.
To be honest, it's not that big of a deal for me: I set things up to shoot, say, Ha for the night, and I create a plan which shifts through 2-3 targets - all of them in Ha; I would probably do that anyway to capture them where they are the high in the sky; being tied to a single filter per night just makes me wait longer to capture all the subs I need, but when I'm done, I have subs covering the 2-3 targets I chose.
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Arny avatar
Arny:
I decided to make a big investment and switch to a monochrome camera and use the Baader fast filters, and I never looked back.




Hi Rostokko,

that concern is exactly what worries me and going mono came to my mind as well - only that going mono would mean swapping filters by hand -- or living with loosing a lot of light collection area by cramping a filter wheel between camera and Hyperstar. 

Which route did you take - manual swap or filter wheel?

Arny

I do switch filters manually - I wouldn't even consider a filter wheel with hyperstar. I use the Starizona drawers, which are well made.
To be honest, it's not that big of a deal for me: I set things up to shoot, say, Ha for the night, and I create a plan which shifts through 2-3 targets - all of them in Ha; I would probably do that anyway to capture them where they are the high in the sky; being tied to a single filter per night just makes me wait longer to capture all the subs I need, but when I'm done, I have subs covering the 2-3 targets I chose.



smart strategy Rostokko - I will try that out!
Dale Bush avatar
Hey Arny,

I've had great success using an IDAS NBZ UHS filter on my Samyang 135mm F2 and ZWO 2600MC Pro pairing. I'm usually running it at F2 or F2.8.

Haven't had any issues at all with halos using the IDAS...not as big a system as your RASA, obviously, but is been working great for me.

Hope that helps and best wishes from Scotland,
Steve

What he said.  The IDAZ number 2 was developed for fast scopes and is the filter Starizona recommends for the Hyperstar.  I have two and love them