Optolong Listened! - L-Extreme F2 Edition!
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- Опубліковано 21 сер 2024
- Huge thanks to Optolong for sending over the filter for testing, and special thanks to my friend Shawn Nielsen from the channel VisibleDark for setting me up with the test!
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#astrophotography #space #stars #nebula
Great video. The line “stretch the nuts off it”. 😂
I wanted to use another word but well... :-D haha! Thanks for watching mate!
Nice to see Optolong stepping up to try and improve their filters. Lovely images once again, the Bubble nebula is especially nice.
Absolutely agree mate! - It's really nice when honest feedback is not ignored! Kudos to Optolong!
That’s pretty awesome that Optolong listened to your first review! Very useful comparison, taught me a lot about these F2 filters if I ever want to get my hands on a rasa someday! Clear skies man :)
Thanks so much for watching mate! :-D Keep it up with your content dude, you're killing it!
This goes to show just how valuable and trustworthy your reviews are Luke. Good job - again!
That's really kind of you to say mate! - Thank you! :-)
Thanks!
Thank you ever so much!! :-D
It's great to see that optolong seeking your advice mate , very nice finale image Luke
Thanks so much Tony! Really impressed at Optolong for taking the feedback on the chin to be honest! :-)
I love the way you casually flick between your truly amazing images. you have come along way Luke. Great stuff!
Thank you Dave mate! :-D I'm chuffed to have had your support all along the way, it's appreciated!
I was dead excited test my (original) filter on my f1.2 50mm .. was really really pissed to see the halos
Ah damn :-( I guess it's not much consolation that this f2 version is suffering with halos on brighter stars too 😅
Clear skies mate!
That’s a nice honest review and test Luke. A great final result of the Bubble.
Thank you ever so much mate!! I appreciate your time and support 🙏
Great review! That was a excellent image of the Squid nebula and with a OSC camera! Hope the sky clears for you soon mate!
Thank you Dave mate! :-)
Nice mate👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼good info and very nice photos!!!!
Thanks so much mate! :-D I appreciate you watching!
Excellent test! Thanks!
Thanks so much mate! :-)
Interesting test, Luke.
I am thoroughly enjoying my Optolong dual-band filters ... L-Pro, L-eNhance, and L-Ultimate. But I am using them on an f/7 and f/4.8 scopes. Oh yeah, those clouds are here too.
Hey Pat! - Glad to hear from you my friend, hope life has been treating you well! :-) Sorry to hear the weather out there in Savannah has been cloudy too, with any luck we'll all catch a break soon enough though! Clear skies!
I recently acquired the HyperStar v4 for my 8" EdgeHD and it does very well with the L-Enhance. No halos or noticeable artifacts. Exposures have ranged 30-180s.
Another cracking review Luke & good to see companies taking on board constructive feedback. I've got the Lpro, Lenhance and Lextreme from optolong and overall would say they're a decent filter brand but all do suffer from some halo's......I guess you need to spend a lot of money on filters to get rid of that issue. On the weather I'd wish you clear skies mate but we both know we're not gonna get any this week...... again! Never known a run of clouds like this year.
Thank you so much mate! - And aye, I hear you loud & clear! the weather has been beyond a joke!
Hope you have a great week regardless! :-)
Nice review Luke. Now if I could just get myself a f2 scope...... we really need some clear skies bud. Keep well.
Thanks Rob!! We really do need some clear skies soon haha, it's beyond a joke at this point!
Hi Luke. Thanks for taking the time to do all of these test images. However, I must confess that I am not sure if the news is as good as it seems at first blush. Here's my thought process...please correct me if I'm wrong.
1. If the design of the filter (substrate glass, interfence coatings, etc.) do not prevent internal reflections in the system, it does not matter how bright the star is....if there are internal reflections, there are internal reflections whether they are bright or dim.
2. What your test was doing is determining the magnitude & spectral type of star that produces halos which are no longer visible in a single exposure...in other words, when the brightness of the halos is lower than the noise in the image.
3. However, this is not necessarily a good sign, because the internal reflections are part of the signal, which will remain constant, while noise can be reduced via stacking & a averaging algorithm.
4. So, multiple images being stacked will reveal halos where a single (noisy) image may not.
5. Furthermore, any stretching of an image will stretch the halos even further 'above' the sky background, so imaging dim nebulae could still reveal halos in nearby stars, even if the stars are dim.
6. Bottom line: the only way to reduce/eliminate halos or to render them undetectable is to alter the design of the filter (different/more/more uniform interference coatings, etc....which may increase costs...).
Hey there Derek mate! It's good to hear from you and thank you for the insightful comment!
I agree with everything said here basically mate!! :-D all I'd add is that even though reflections should always be present, they don't seem to ever creep above the noise floor on a field with dimmer stars such as the bubble nebula image for example, which had reasonable integration and strong stretching 👍 just my 2c anyway!
Thanks again mate 🙏
Love that Bubble image!
Thanks ever so much Dave mate! :-D
Nice picture, makes me want to image the Bubble Nebula. It's been a tough summer here in the northeast U.S. for astrophotography as well due to the wildfire smoke from Canada.
Ah mate you should give it a go, such a nice target! :-D Hopefully the skies clear of both smoke and clouds for you soon!!
oooooooooer interesting
Cheers mate!! :-D
Cool video! I loved my LeX filter before getting the Ultimate. Maybe a F2 Ultimate filter will come out lol.
Hey Caleb! :-D Ah mate an F2 l-ultimate would be very nice haha, hopefully it's something that can be done eventually as manufacturing processes develop! Clear skies mate!
great info thanks I have the ultimate and on the 2600mm works well.But might be looking for one for the hyperstsar 11 inch we will see.BTW Luke you were right it was camera tilt still working on getting it fixed
Hey there Stu! It's good to hear from you mate, hope you are keeping well! :-)
RE: the tilt issue, - it can be a heck of a task on these sensitive systems, I totally empathise! You'll get it sorted though I'm sure! Good luck & clear skies!
Good to see they have made a faster version but still not a fan of the halos I hope they can sort out that like they did with the Ultimate which i think is an excellent filter but not fast
Hey mate! :-D Totally hear you RE: the halos, I hope some day a filter will come out that is totally free of them on my RASA11, it seems to be very difficult to get right for the manufacturers! even filters that worked perfectly on my RASA8 show issues on the 11, I guess due to the extra brightness of point-sources from the increased aperture!
Hope you're having clear skies my friend!
Get the IDAS HS filters and dont look back. Best purchase I ever made 2 years and running as far as filters go.
Thanks for the suggestion mate!! :-D I've got the Idas nbz UHS which worked totally perfect on my RASA 8, but gives super weird reflections on my RASA 11 unfortunately! 😅
Ah well, that's life!
@@lukomatico That's weird because they're designed for faster optics. I use mine with the Hyperstar f/2 and don't have that issue. OIII is an entirely different story though.
@@DawgcityClev I may have misunderstood - are you referring to individual high-speed compatible S/H/O filters? I was referring to the high-speed compatible dual narrowband offering myself, perhaps that's where our experience differs! :-D 👍👍
@@lukomatico Yes the single narrowbands. I agree Duo's tend to introduce issues
Looks like its got better but its still showing halos on the brighter stars which is a shame unless its a reflection issue still, I wonder if it would show on another rig wink wink lol. Lovely bubble at the end though mate clear skies!!
Thanks so much mate! :-D I definitely can't judge any filter too harshly on halos with the rasa11, it's a real beast to tame it seems haha!
Good video Luke. I wonder if you might do some of your testing with filters with a refractor instead of your RASA? Your RASA Is F2 and an 80mm refractor is more like f5.9 or so. With a flattener/reducer f4.7. If you look on Astrobin, the vast majority of Astrophotographers use small refractors for many reasons. If I remember correctly, Chloe' s telescope is just such a refractor. I'd be interested in seeing if your test results would be the same. The RASA is a more "exotic" quirky and sensitive instrument that has inherent design problems by your own admission.
Hey there Mike! - I'd done quite a few tests in the past using my old Esprit 120 at f5.4 and found it to be a good test bed, but must admit for all it's quirks, the RASA makes me very happy to use! I like being able to complete images for my channel during brief breaks in the cloud, something that's not really possible with the slower scopes out there unfortunately. - Hope that helps explain my current choice to keep using the RASA as the main scope!
In future I'll surely be able to revisit use of a refractor though, I do love them! :-)
Clear skies my friend!
Great video. What are your thoughts on the IDAS NBZ for the RASA 11 vs the L-Extreme F2? I use the IDAS NBZ and love it.
Hey mate! I loved my Idas nbz UHS on my RASA 8, but on the RASA 11 it gave extremely strange reflections, really odd!
Great video Luke. While I don't have a RASA or Hyperstar, I do shoot with a L-Extreme and 2600MC Pro (at f/6 to f/5). The results are always amazing for the nebulas but sometimes the stars are just horrible (very bloated white stars, red stars that look like donuts). I've used both BlurXterminator and Bill's star reduction methods (I really like Bill's tools) but sometimes I still end up with crappy looking stars. I am thinking about imaging nebulae with the L-Extreme and then the stars with just broadband OSC. Do you have a video on doing this that covers how long the light subs should be (I'm in a Bortle 2 location and my refractors are 61 and 110 mm) and how to combine the broadband stars and NB image in PixInsight? Thanks buddy. Dr B from Manitoba, Canada
Hey Dr B! - Sorry about the late reply to this one!
I think that sounds like a fun idea to try out! :-) I don't have any videos on doing this however, but it should be relatively straightforward - make sure both masters are registered to each other and cropped to the same area during dynamic crop, take the stars out of both and put the rgb stars in the NB image, everything should be perfectly aligned :-)
Hope that helps!
@@lukomatico No worries about the delayed response. You probably get a ton of Qs. I’ll give your suggestion a try once the snow stops falling and the skies clear! Brian
Nice description of this filter on a fast system.... I'm usually shooting @f/4.5, so this filter looks excellent for my set up...?
Hey there mate! It should probably work at f4.5 but it's really designed for f2 specifically - if you want to go with optolong for your setup then I'd say the l-ultimate may be your best bet :-) cheers!
@@lukomatico thanks for the advice Luke, I'm in about Borle 5.5-6 and it isn't getting any better. I have my own backyard observatory/dome, and I don't plan on moving anytime soon. Therefore, I must adapt to my surroundings. I built it in 2007, they sky's were much better then.
I know how you feel there mate! The skies around here had been getting gradually worse over time too as more and more things got built!
Wishing you luck for some clear skies! 👍👍
Hello Luke ur desert friend from Saudi Arabia nice bubble nebula photo 👍, I'm having problems when i dealing with m51 and m101 with my 8 edge HD 2032 mm ask 294 it says no enough stars all the time , tried 60 , 120 , 180 exposure 😟
Hey mate! :-) Hope you are well!
RE: not enough stars, it could be worth trying to increase your gain a little, and maybe even try 2x2 binning, sometimes that can help with finding more stars! :-) Good luck!
Have you tried the idas nbz uhs. I use it with my Hyperstar. I don’t get halos
I checked astrobin with a search for "idas nbz uhs alnitak" and I think you are onto something here. No halos! A bit spikey stars (maybe just cable spikes) but no halos.
Hey Anthony! I have indeed mate, it used to be my favourite filter on my rasa8, but with the rasa11 it gives very strange and strong reflections!
Thank you for watching and taking the time to share your thoughts! 👍👍
@@lukomatico too bad. I actually checked all my photos after I told you that and I saw when doing the jelly fish I was getting it with the idas also. So I was wrong. Optics are hard to control when you screw with them. Love your channel.
Very interesting! Thanks for the update about the filter mate, I appreciate your time 👍👍
How does it compare to Ultimate
There is no l-ultimate f2 edition, so I can't compare - the standard l-ultimate would be useless at this focal ratio due to bandpass shift
These are still fails.
I certainly agree there's room for improvement, but I wouldn't agree that the end result is a fail at least!