So I’ve been wanting to give Narrowband Imaging a try for a while, as I live under dark skies its not necessary but a few directions do have far off light bubbles and in the winter they are about a magnitude worse due to the ground being covered in snow.
So I decided to “dip my toes” as it were and purchased the most affordable Ha filter (2″ as that fits my telescopes) I could find, which was from SVBony on Aliexpress. The filter arrived about a month later directly from china and clouds proceeded to do their thing…
However I eventually got clear skies and aimed my telescope at a popular Hydrogen Alpha target, the Rosette Nebula (Using a modified for Full Spectrum Lumix G5 Camera and RedCat51 Telescope).
However I found that the bandpass of the SVBONY 7nm Hydrogen Filter was a lot wider than expected and likely extended out into the IR band, so I decided to give it a go using my un-modified stock Nikon Z6 which already cuts off at ~700nm – this did mean I would get a much lower 656nm Ha transmission but I’d balance that fact with it forced to be a narrower bandpass. This time I pointed at the North American Nebula.
Overall for the money (~$129) I’m quite happy with the results for my casual use. And I feel that its a good stepping stone for anyone on a tight budget and moderately Light Polluted skies to enjoy some narrowband separation.
Link to Filter – https://www.aliexpress.com/i/32921666501.html