TheSkySearchers

Hi all,

So I have got a chance to buy an Astronomik UHC filter and I got it finally.

Last night I stayed up so Orion rise and I wanted to test it out to see what's the difference it will do with my DSO views (technically I have 0 visibility on anything other than stars)..
I live under a class 9 sky in a white zone so it is so bad for me...

I know not to expect much but what I was looking is to at least see some sort of a faint nebula with my eyes as to indicate this is a nebula or something.

What I got was some similar view really with less brightness and some hard time to resolve the stars of the nebula. Basically it was the 4 visible stars in the Trapezium cluster at the center of the nebula, plus the 3 stars lining under that with no indication about any haze or a faint cloud or anything. Also there was some red color shadow for the stars that you would think one star is actually 2 on top of each other...

So I got confused a little bit really about what to consider a faulty filter from what is a normal situation and an expected view considering my sky conditions...

Any feedback on this? Or does anyone had a similar experience?

I'm just looking to know if there is something wrong with the filter or this is completely normal for my case as I am unable to judge due to no prior experience with this and I haven't attempted to do this in a better sky conditions...

Thanks all for the help!

Comparing the views with and without the filter should give you an idea if the UHC is working. I suppose sometimes the LP is so bad that even a filter may not help all that much. I am in a red zone (Bortle 7) and sometimes get reasonably good views of M42 from home. But there is no substitute for truly dark skies.

Unfortunately, UHC filters tend to be hyped up a bit as far as performance goes.
Remember, a filter will never increase any light hitting your retina. All it can do, is block the unwanted light and let the light you want, in.

With that being said, you may want to simply hold the filter up between your eye and the eyepiece and move it in and out of the field of view.
This "blinking" technique should show you whatever difference there is to be had.

Cheers

helicon wrote: ↑Thu Aug 15, 2019 1:55 pm Comparing the views with and without the filter should give you an idea if the UHC is working. I suppose sometimes the LP is so bad that even a filter may not help all that much. I am in a red zone (Bortle 7) and sometimes get reasonably good views of M42 from home. But there is no substitute for truly dark skies.

Thanks a lot for your reply!

Well the thing is, I am seeing similar view with the filter and without the filter... or so it seems to me.

The only difference when I use the filter is the less bright view to the point the stars themselves appear dimmer and the reddish shadow behind each star.

I put the filter on the camera to see if it is any different with it, and it was a bit more clear now with the center of the nebula visible when viewed through the camera (but again I could see the same view without the filter but less contrast) but when I view with my eyes I still don't see anything related to a cloud or haze or anything. So if I did not know I'm looking at the Orion nebula it would still appear as a small group of stars to me with or without the filter...

I guess it might be all to the level of LP in my area and there is not much I can do about it and no matter how slightly I wanted to affect or enhance it it would not work for me... But again I have been reading about his for about 2 days and the feedback I read was a little bit more positive from what I had seen so far I'm doubting my eyes a little bit as well as I wear eyeglasses and I have 'some' issues while trying to resolve some bright stars at night, so maybe it is in me at the end ... I will bring the eyes of my wife to help tonight and check what she will see as well!

I have a Lumicon nebular filter and while it helps in my red (pink?) zone, an unfiltered scope in dark skies beats anything I've seen.

Some people compensate for heavy LP by going into narrow band imaging, but that's a whole 'nother story on cost and complexity.