There are many different types of filters used in Astronomy. Whether you are using them for visual observation or imaging; it is always good to know what filter is best to use or that would best help you.
I have been dabbling in the use of filter over the last year and finding that they are indeed very useful in the aid of getting a good observing session and even a good imaging session.
I have used a variety of filters from color filters, moon filters, polarizer filters and Light Pollution filters in my quest to better enjoy this hobby. So today I want to share my experience with you so you can determine if these filters are right for you.
I am a semi professional photographer by trade; but taking pictures of the planets and deep space objects isn’t always easy as it may seem. In order to do this; you need to have balance and a lot of patience. There will always be trial and error as you face the barriers of the night skies like clouds, rain, light pollution and even bright city lights.
When it comes to Astronomy it isn’t always about imaging. I myself also enjoy the occasional simple observation of the planets and deep space objects.
This brings me to the UHC Filter or better known as the Ultra High Contrast Filter. This filter was design for observing the wonders of the deep space. You can still image with this filter but keep in mind you may get some color shifting if using a DSLR, which can later be fixed in post.
This post will be a comparison between the Astronomik UHC Filter and the Solomark UHC Filter. Both are the 1.25 eyepiece thread size to use on standard telescope eyepieces.
I will break this review down into four groups:
1) Durability and Construction of the Filter
2) Cleaning and how easy it is to clean
3) Nebulosity and how much could be seen in the way of nebula gaseous clouds and definition
4) Contrast and did they truly brighten the dimmer stars and darken the background
Before we go into this review I want to share with you what a UHC Filter is and what it actual does or supposed to do. This is my second Astronomik Filter and I was truly impressed by the first filter I used. I will provide a link at the end of this review to my video review on this UHC Filter.
WHAT DOES THE UHC FILTER DO:
The UHC filter allows almost 100% of the radiation from O-III and the H beta lines. It has higher light transmissions which show better views of Deep Space Objects; even in small scopes.
With a high transmission of nearly 100% of H-Beta and OIII lines, you will see lots of extra detail in gas and planetary nebulae.
A second bandpass for the H-alpha line makes sure that this radiation also reaches the eye. Meanwhile, scattered light from other wavelength ranges is filtered out. Due to the strong reduction of the sky background, gas and planetary nebulae are visible with a great amount of detail.
The Astronomik UHC Filter provides enough light to successfully observe deep sky objects with smaller telescopes because of its high transmission.
This increases the contrast to brighten stars, darken the background while also increasing the nebula gas clouds with true depth and definition.
If you take the Orion Nebula for example and observe that through a telescope; it does not matter the size of the telescope or magnification of the eyepiece. When observing this deep space object; it would appear as a small cloud or what looks to be like a small rain cloud above. When the eyepiece is coupled with the UHC filter you now get to see this nebulas true depth. Brighter stars within the nebula and the core of the gas in the nebula can be seen more abundantly on a much larger scale compared to the naked eye or through just the eyepiece alone.
This makes visual observations of such deep space objects more enjoyable to view than just a standard eyepiece without any filter. This is why I say filters are truly important when you are either just looking to observe and do astrophotography.
The first part of my review was for durability of the filter and its construction. Both the Astronomik and Solomark UHC filters were built with quality in mind. They both had earned a star for that segment of the comparison. There is not much more I can really say on this as the ring and optical glass seem highly durable.
The next phase came cleaning the filter and how easy it was to clean. I pressed on the filters optical glass to leave a finger print smudge since our fingers contain oil; I felt that would be best to determine how easy it was to clean these filters. Both of the filters were easy to clean and left no apparent scratches onto the optical glass surface. To me that is a very important part of filters because all of you who use filters know that they do leave marks when the glass is touched.
Now came the most crucial part of this review and comparison of these two filters. I broke this part down into two groups as well and they were did the filter produce higher transmission of light and contrast while visually observing deep space objects.
After examining this section very closely and I did this on days with heavy light pollution and hazy nights and the Astronomik UHC filter with no surprise truly produces some amazing results when observing many deep space objects. I will include a list of objects I have observed.
The Solomark UHC did produce a little higher contrast but sadly in my opinion was not up to my standard of quality. Do not misunderstand my words here. The Solomarks UHC is not bad per say but it just did not produce the quality that I was looking for from a UHC filter so I could not give it a star.
The last part of this test was the gaseous clouds of nebula and whether or not you could see more clouds and gas within nebula's. In comparing both filters; again the Astronomik filter produced some truly amazing views. I compared both filters to the M42 Orion Nebula, M27 Dumbbell Nebula and the M57 Ring Nebula and the detail when observing using the Astronomik UHC filter was outstanding. I also observed Jupiter because I had heard that using the UHC filter would show the cloud bands of Jupiter with greater detail and it truly enhanced the views of Jupiter.
I love observing Jupiter but to me it can be boring at times when the bands are very faint and without detail. Sure someone can take a long exposure and stack many images to capture a great shot. However what if you are not into astro-imaging and just want to observe Jupiter? A UHC filter to me is a must have in your inventory of accessories when it comes to visual observation.
So after comparing the two UHC filters; The Astronomik UHC Filter earned four stars; one for each category and the Solomark only earned two for Durability and Cleaning. The Solomark brand just was not up to my standards or what I was expecting out of a filter.
So in my recommendation; I will say that anyone who is into astronomy and observing should pick up a UHC filter. I will suggest you add one of these Astronomik UHC filters to your inventory if you want a truly durable filter that produces what I like to call high end results when observing.
With that being said; I will close this review up and provide two links. One for my video review on this filter and the second link will be to the Astronomik website so you can read more about this amazing filter. In my video review you can see more images that I was able to capture.
Here is a complete list of what I observed thus far:
The moon
Jupiter
M42 Orion Nebula
M45 Pleides
M27 Dumbbell Nebula
M57 Ring Nebula
M24 Star Cloud
M44 Beehive Cluster
M38 Starfish Cluster
M20 Triffid Nebula
Thank you for reading my review and I hope this helps anyone who is looking into filters.
Clear Skies!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrpdV1DaOsY
In all of my images of the M42 Orion Nebula; The Running Man Nebula in the right corner would never be visible in my images until I used the Astronomik UHC Filter.
