Contrast booster

[Mike Q]

Lets talk about contrast boosters. Whats out there, how are you using them, are you pairing them up with other filters and using them on DSOs or just sticking with the moon and planets. Let's hear it

[messier 111]

I have the baader contrast booster, I've never used it on the moon, maybe I should.
I use it mainly on Jupiter and Mars.
on the dso I do not see how it could be useful, due to the fact of the wavelengths of these objects.

on jupiter the difference is striking,on the grs , the gas bands are of a magnificent color .
on mars it is also very useful for olympus mont and on darker regions.

[Mike Q]

I have the baader contrast booster, I've never used it on the moon, maybe I should.
I use it mainly on Jupiter and Mars.
on the dso I do not see how it could be useful, due to the fact of the wavelengths of these objects.

on jupiter the difference is striking,on the grs , the gas bands are of a magnificent color .
on mars it is also very useful for olympus mont and on darker regions.

I was wondering what would happen if you stacked it with something like a OIII filter. I am curious as to if anyone jas tried this and what the results were.

[Bigzmey]

There is no benefit of stacking contrast booster with narrow band nebula filters like OIII or H-beta. Those filters block over 90% of visible light already, passing only one or two narrow bands. Stacking them with other filters would just make image dimmer.

Like Jean-Yves I use the contrast booster on planets, Mars and Saturn in particular, where the benefit is quite evident.

[Don Pensack]

Lets talk about contrast boosters. Whats out there, how are you using them, are you pairing them up with other filters and using them on DSOs or just sticking with the moon and planets. Let's hear it

The Baader Contrast Booster makes a great planetary filter. It's the best I've seen for Mars, for example.
For emission nebulae, a great contrast increase can be had with a narrowband filter (e.g. TeleVue Bandmate II Nebustar, Astronomik UHC, DGM NPB, Lumicon UHC Gen.3, Orion Ultrablock, Thousand Oaks LP-2)
Even greater contrast enhancement can be found on planetary nebulae, supernova remnants, and Wolf-Rayet star excitation nebulae with a good O-III filter (e.g. TeleVue Bandmate II O-III, Astronomik O-III, Lumicon O-III Gen.3)
Sadly, Lumicon filters are now out of production, though there are probably some left in store stocks.

For all other objects, the best improvement in contrast can be found by putting petrol in your car and driving the scope to darker skies.
Due to the nature of modern lighting (especially LED lighting), so-called "light pollution reduction", "City Light Suppression", broadband filters just don't work well any more.
Oddly, they work OK on some objects at sites with very dark skies, but they don't help enough in the city or suburbs to be worth purchasing.

One thing that helps is magnification, where stellar objects are concerned.
Stars do not dim with magnification, while the background sky does, so fainter stars will be visible at higher powers.
Once you find the location of that star cluster (both globular and galactic), try a 1mm exit pupil or even smaller, and even in a city, you'll get a decent view of the cluster.
This doesn't work on giant clusters like the Beehive or the Pleiades, but it works well on most other star clusters.

[Mike Q]

Lets talk about contrast boosters. Whats out there, how are you using them, are you pairing them up with other filters and using them on DSOs or just sticking with the moon and planets. Let's hear it

The Baader Contrast Booster makes a great planetary filter. It's the best I've seen for Mars, for example.
For emission nebulae, a great contrast increase can be had with a narrowband filter (e.g. TeleVue Bandmate II Nebustar, Astronomik UHC, DGM NPB, Lumicon UHC Gen.3, Orion Ultrablock, Thousand Oaks LP-2)
Even greater contrast enhancement can be found on planetary nebulae, supernova remnants, and Wolf-Rayet star excitation nebulae with a good O-III filter (e.g. TeleVue Bandmate II O-III, Astronomik O-III, Lumicon O-III Gen.3)
Sadly, Lumicon filters are now out of production, though there are probably some left in store stocks.

For all other objects, the best improvement in contrast can be found by putting petrol in your car and driving the scope to darker skies.
Due to the nature of modern lighting (especially LED lighting), so-called "light pollution reduction", "City Light Suppression", broadband filters just don't work well any more.
Oddly, they work OK on some objects at sites with very dark skies, but they don't help enough in the city or suburbs to be worth purchasing.

One thing that helps is magnification, where stellar objects are concerned.
Stars do not dim with magnification, while the background sky does, so fainter stars will be visible at higher powers.
Once you find the location of that star cluster (both globular and galactic), try a 1mm exit pupil or even smaller, and even in a city, you'll get a decent view of the cluster.
This doesn't work on giant clusters like the Beehive or the Pleiades, but it works well on most other star clusters.

There are not a lot of darker places then where i live in Ohio. I literally live in the middle of nowhere. I probably have better skies then most people. Rural dark skies with my closest LP being 400 yards away and minimal compared to most. While I have no way to really know we call it Bortle 4 and on really dark nights we call it almost a 3. Unfortunately no matter where you go in Ohio our skies suck. You can be sure we will have clouds to one extent or another 300 days a year.