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mtbdudex

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Aug 28, 2007
2,896
5,263
SE Michigan
Anyone here getting a light pollution filter for Christmas?
(yea, it's #1 thing on my wish list, wifey told me good to go :D)

I'm looking at this one Astronomik CLS Light Pollution Filter - Canon EOS Clip
Our Price: $129.95
Wow, an Astronomik CLS Light Pollution Filter for your Canon EOS camera that clips in above the mirror! All normal functions of your EOS camera will be unaffected... focus, image stabilization, etc.

The Astronomik Visual CLS Light Pollution Filter is presented in a Canon EOS Clip format.

Blocks the light of the spectral lines of mercury and sodium-vapor lamps and lets the largest part of the visible light and H-alpha emissions pass.

The Astronomik Visual CLS Light Pollution Filter are optimized for use with aperture ratios from 1:3 to 1:15.

All the important emission lines, as well as the spectral region that the very well dark adapted eye can see, can pass through the filter.

clsEOS-L.JPG
astronomik_eos_clip_filter-S.JPG
 

fpnc

macrumors 68010
Oct 30, 2002
2,002
162
San Diego, CA
I hope this doesn't end up sounding like the Grinch who stole Christmas, but...

Unfortunately, broadband light-pollution filters MAY be nearing the end of their usefulness now that many cities are changing to LED street lamps. For example, both San Diego and LA are doing away with sodium vapor lamps within the next one to two years (completely, or so they say). Both of those cities are switching to broadband light sources which means that many of the so-called "light-pollution" filters may become less useful in the future (which is saying quite a bit since the effectiveness of broadband filters has been under some doubt even when sodium vapor lamps were the norm). Sad for astronomers, but this may be a fact of life in just a few more years.

Some of the cities are claiming that they will install better light shields to protect the night skies but I'll believe that when I see it.

However, narrow-band filters should continue to work, but those won't help much with galaxies, stars, and many reflection nebula (i.e. they are most effective when used on emission nebula and when recording narrow-band images using something like H-alpha).

In fact, I own a broadband Baader Neodymium filter and while it has a dramatic effect on sodium vapor light sources it has a much, much milder effect on LED lights (I've measured the change with a light meter and the difference is like night and day).

Frankly, however, I have yet to confirm whether the Baader Neodymium filter really makes that much of an improvement in my astrophotography. My images of the night sky no longer start out in a sickly yellow-orange but neither are they completely color neutral and light gradients are still a big problem. It's hard to do a direct comparison (with and without filter) since all of the images still need a fair amount of post processing to remove the broader effects of light pollution and to "stretch" the detail in the pictures. Thus, I can't be completely sure whether the differences (improvements?) are caused strictly by the filter or by the changes in the post processing (which is still kind of a black art for me and nothing close to a predictable science).
 
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fpnc

macrumors 68010
Oct 30, 2002
2,002
162
San Diego, CA
It's been a while, but finally a clear night (relatively) and no moon.


The Leo Triplet of Galaxies, Plus NGC 3596, NGC 3593, and NGC 3666 On Flickr you can read a lot more about this picture (equipment, how it was done, and details on the galaxies).

All six of these galaxies were captured in the same, wide-field image that was taken with a 105mm telephoto lens mounted to a Nikon digital camera. The base exposure time was only ten seconds, although multiple images were recorded and then combined ("stacked") to produce a higher-contrast and lower-noise result.
 

budman1961

macrumors regular
Mar 9, 2010
225
7
Jupiter from 1/24/12

Exceptional skies, everything right! Taken with my Meade LX200 Classic 10" f6.3 @ 1600mm. Celestron Neximage, 240 second @ 20 FPS, poorest 20% of frames dropped. Stacked in Registax, very litttle wavelet, and a RGB align.

This was the first time I have seen/captured the Great Red Spot!

Enjoy and comment please!

Andy
 

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fpnc

macrumors 68010
Oct 30, 2002
2,002
162
San Diego, CA
Exceptional skies, everything right! Taken with my Meade LX200 Classic 10" f6.3 @ 1600mm. Celestron Neximage, 240 second @ 20 FPS, poorest 20% of frames dropped. Stacked in Registax, very litttle wavelet, and a RGB align.

This was the first time I have seen/captured the Great Red Spot!

Enjoy and comment please!

Andy
That's nice detail for only 1600mm (prime focus, I guess).
 

budman1961

macrumors regular
Mar 9, 2010
225
7
I modded my Canon 100D/first light pics

Using the great guides on Gary Honis's website, I removed the factory IR filter from my 1000D. 65 minutes start to finish, it functions flawlessly.

Here are a couple of links with the "after" images. Feel free to comment please!

M42

M82
 

budman1961

macrumors regular
Mar 9, 2010
225
7
M42 and The Running Man

I love my new Celestron f.63 reducer! With my Meade LX200 10" f6.3 Classic, the results are imaging at f4...and my field is flat and nearly twice as wide.

Here's my first go!



Comments are welcome!

Andy
 
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Phrasikleia

macrumors 601
Feb 24, 2008
4,082
403
Over there------->
[url=http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7189/6866355961_cb68f1f265_z.jpg]Image[/url]
Orion Nebula in 0.33 Seconds (Untrack/Unguided Exposure Stack). On Flickr you can view a larger version of this image and read additional details on its creation.

Taken with my Nikon D5100 and a Nikkor 70-300mm zoom lens. No telescope, no tracking or guiding, just an unmodified digital camera on a fixed tripod using a base exposure of only 1/3 second.

What??! Seriously? No telescope? Amazing!

I love my new Celestron f.63 reducer! With my Meade LX200 10" f6.3 Classic, the results are imaging at f4...and my field is flat and nearly twice as wide.

Here's my first go!

[url=http://astrobin_images.s3.amazonaws.com/e2f0e40a-c188-4c54-b33c-8594da412695_thumb.png]Image[/URL]

Comments are welcome!

Andy

An incredibly beautiful photo!
 

drmosh

macrumors newbie
Mar 24, 2012
1
0
]Rigel to Alnitak with the Great Orion Nebula, M43, Running Man, Flame, and NGC 2023 Nebulas[/url] on Flickr you can view a larger version of the image and read additional details about the subject.

Taken with my Nikon D5100 and a 105mm Nikkor telephoto lens. Camera tracking/guiding was done entirely by using a hand-driven, barn-door type mount (two boards, a hinge, and a screw you turn by hand).

Wow fpnc... you must live out in the boonies in San Diego or hike out there... these are awesome without a telescope...
 

fpnc

macrumors 68010
Oct 30, 2002
2,002
162
San Diego, CA
Wow fpnc... you must live out in the boonies in San Diego or hike out there... these are awesome without a telescope...
No, both of the above pictures of Orion were taken from my front driveway which is very close to the center of the city in which I live (which is close to, but not in the city of San Diego). The sky conditions aren't very good where I live (and where these pictures were taken), it's not as bad as being in downtown San Diego or LA, but I'd guess that the limiting magnitude for unaided vision in my location is somewhere between 4 and 5 (best case, much worse when you begin to move away from the zenith).

The "The World Atlas of the Artificial Night Sky Brightness" and ClearDarkSky.com rate my location as close to 7 on the Bortle Scale which has the following description (which I think is pretty accurate):

"Entire sky has a grayish-white hue; strong light sources evident in all directions; Milky Way invisible; M31 and M44 may be glimpsed with the naked eye, but are very indistinct; clouds are brightly lit; even in moderate-sized telescopes the brightest Messier objects are only ghosts of their true selves."
 

fpnc

macrumors 68010
Oct 30, 2002
2,002
162
San Diego, CA
Did you use any kind of light filter?
Definitely NOT on the one taken with a 300mm lens ("Orion Nebula in 0.33 Seconds (Untrack/Unguided Exposure Stack)"). On the other, I'm not sure but I think I did not. I've tried the so-called broadband light-pollution filters and I'm not convinced that they help that much. In fact, when you use a broadband filter you have to increase the exposure time to compensate for the transmission loss in the filter or you'll get even worse results.
 

fpnc

macrumors 68010
Oct 30, 2002
2,002
162
San Diego, CA

Venus and Pleiades Conjunction on Flickr you can find additional details on this picture and view a larger version of same.

The April 3, 2012 conjunction between the planet Venus and the Pleiades star cluster (high clouds formed the circular veil around Venus). Taken with a Sony NEX-5N camera and a 300mm telephoto lens.
 

milbournosphere

macrumors 6502a
Mar 3, 2009
857
1
San Diego, CA
I've been reading through the thread over the past few days. I'd like to thank you guys for such detailed material! I was all excited to go out shoot the meteor shower tonight, but of course there's a dense fog advisory lasting into the morning, so that's not happening. :mad: No moon either, so I can't even try that out.

Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to make a contribution to this thread soon. Thanks again for the tips and good documentation. :)
 
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