Optolong L-eNhance - Worthwhile Upgrade?

[Sarek]

I live in a Bortle 4 area. Helpfully (for very late imaging sessions) most street lights in my village are turned off after midnight.

I am thinking of replacing my IR/UV cut filter with the Optolong L-eNhance filter for use with my ASI 5333MC Pro

Interested to hear opinions on whether or not people think this a worthwhile upgrade

[Elp]

Will be marked better for ha and o3 rich emission nebulae. I've used both it and the extreme with various OSC cameras and DSLRs. If there's any stray light hitting the lens or even not, sometimes background extraction doesn't quite work with them.

Edited May 27, 2023 by Elp

[iantaylor2uk]

The L-Enhance will definitely bring out much more on targets like the north American nebula, the veil nebula, the heart nebula and many  other emission nebulae. It also works well, in my experience, when the moon is up, and/or there is a lot of light pollution. You will need longer exposures compared to just UV/IR filter - I usually take subs in the 30-60 second range with a UV/IR filter but use 2-3 min subs when I use the L-Enhance filter. I don't use it for galaxies.

[Budgie1]

It's definitely worth having the L-eNhance as a tool in the box, but not as a complete replacement for the UV/IR filter. You will need both for different targets because the L-eNhance will block the wavelengths from reflection nebula, like the Iris, and galaxies, as Ian has said above.

You will also loose the star colours to a certain extent and they will look more blue than normal. You can get around this by taking some exposures with the UV/IR filter to get the full RGB star colours back.

This is IC59 using the L-eNhance which I took last year as an example.

[Sarek]

Really helpful advice - thank you!

[Sarek]

2 hours ago, Budgie1 said:

It's definitely worth having the L-eNhance as a tool in the box, but not as a complete replacement for the UV/IR filter. You will need both for different targets because the L-eNhance will block the wavelengths from reflection nebula, like the Iris, and galaxies, as Ian has said above.

You will also loose the star colours to a certain extent and they will look more blue than normal. You can get around this by taking some exposures with the UV/IR filter to get the full RGB star colours back.

This is IC59 using the L-eNhance which I took last year as an example.

Beautiful image!

[Neil_104]

I can definitely recommend the L-eNhance - it'll allow you to image up to about a 2/3 full Moon, so gives a much wider imaging window during the Lunar month and removes the need for dark skies to get some astrophotography done. So you can also image before midnight! You can produce great HO false colour images if you use a stacking program like APP to separate the H alpha and OIII channels.

I also have the 533, I chose the 2 inch filter to ensure it fully covers the chip and to also allow a future upgrade to a bigger imaging chip some day (though that will be some time, I really like the 533 and its square image).

I usually take 90s exposures, though this will of course depend on the tracking capabilities of your mount. Focusing and plate solving can be an issue as stars appear much fainter on screen. I sometimes take the filter out of the filter draw to get aligned on the target, then put the filter in before fine focusing.

I was weighing up between the L-eNhance or L-eXtreme but went for the former to avoid the star halos and the requirement for longer exposure lengths due to the extreme blocking more light.

BUT there is one major downside to these Optolong filters to be aware of - having to wrestle with spelling their name properly 😂 

Joking aside, I'd say go for it - as someone said to me when I was asking Qs about it, "You'll love it!" 👍

And I'm sure you're aware but just to mention, your UV/IR cut filter will still be used for broadband targets like galaxies. The L-eNhance is for nebulae as it'll block too much light for imaging galaxies (though it can be used to image H alpha regions in the larger galaxies to add to your luminance images).

[Fegato]

Already said I think, but I would look at the L-eNhance as an extra tool in the box. Given that you have fairly dark skies, you don't "need" it for many targets. It mostly depends what you are trying to achieve in your final image.

I have used the L-eNhance, and I have the IDAS NBZ dual narrowband filter too, as it works slightly better at fast speeds (I have a RASA). However, as I've gained experience and learnt about what I'm doing, I've realised that in Bortle 3 I am blessed with the potential to just shoot all my images in broadband if I want to, and this includes favourite narrowband targets (star removal during processing is a key part of this too).  You just get a very different take - dust and subtle colour shifts versus the bright colours and different palettes often used in narrowband imaging. 

[Adam J]

On 27/05/2023 at 10:32, Sarek said:

I live in a Bortle 4 area. Helpfully (for very late imaging sessions) most street lights in my village are turned off after midnight.

I am thinking of replacing my IR/UV cut filter with the Optolong L-eNhance filter for use with my ASI 5333MC Pro

Interested to hear opinions on whether or not people think this a worthwhile upgrade

I dont recommend using anything more than a UV/IR cut for galaxies and other baud band targets, has a bad impact on colour, in terms of emission nebula there are better filters available than a L-eNhance. 

Adam

[Sarek]

On 31/05/2023 at 11:23, Adam J said:

I dont recommend using anything more than a UV/IR cut for galaxies and other baud band targets, has a bad impact on colour, in terms of emission nebula there are better filters available than a L-eNhance. 

Adam

Were you thinking of the L-eXtreme filter for example?

[Ratlet]

I think with the dual band rather than triband filter you get a smaller band pass therefor less light from other sources.  I'm in a similar boat to you (Bortle 4-5 skies, Altair 533 Hypercam which has a built in UV/IR cut filter).  I recently got the SVBONY SV220 filter and it did a really nice job on the horsehad nebula at only 10 x 1minute subs with a vintage Takumar 135mm at F5.6 or so.  The SV220 is a dual band filter with a 7nm cut similar to the Optolong L-Extreme.

I found that it worked very well in my case and gave an acceptable amount of data for the length of time imaging.  I also think that it might have helped with chromatic aberration in my case

[Adam J]

2 hours ago, Sarek said:

Were you thinking of the L-eXtreme filter for example?

yes that one and others come to mind. 

[Sarek]

3 hours ago, Ratlet said:

I think with the dual band rather than triband filter you get a smaller band pass therefor less light from other sources.  I'm in a similar boat to you (Bortle 4-5 skies, Altair 533 Hypercam which has a built in UV/IR cut filter).  I recently got the SVBONY SV220 filter and it did a really nice job on the horsehad nebula at only 10 x 1minute subs with a vintage Takumar 135mm at F5.6 or so.  The SV220 is a dual band filter with a 7nm cut similar to the Optolong L-Extreme.

I found that it worked very well in my case and gave an acceptable amount of data for the length of time imaging.  I also think that it might have helped with chromatic aberration in my case

Looks very good. I hadn't been considering this filter but it does seem to get very good reviews.  Some say its better than the L-eXtreme for halos? Where did you buy this from?

[Ratlet]

17 minutes ago, Sarek said:

Looks very good. I hadn't been considering this filter but it does seem to get very good reviews.  Some say its better than the L-eXtreme for halos? Where did you buy this from?

I ordered mine from AliExpress.  Ordered loads of goodies from there with no issue.  I've heard it might be better for halos but I'm not completely sure of the cause so would be reluctant to voice an opinion.

I'm taking my 130pds out tonight so I'll try pointing it at vega and see what it does.

[PadrePeace]

He’s what I get on the L Extreme though a ASKAR FMA180 on my ZWO294MC: hope this helps:

 

[FenderGreg]

I currently use an Astronomik CLS clip-in filter (On my Canon 550D) and have been looking at the L-enhance and L-extreme.

I'm very unsure how much better the L-enhance is than what I use now but am worried that maybe the L-extreme may be too much. 

 

[Elp]

The lenhance and extreme are different filters to a CLS which is a general light pollution filter which still allows a broad spectrum of light to enter the camera. The optolongs mentioned are much narrower in allowing mostly around the hydrogen alpha, beta (in the case of the enhance) and oxygen iii, the extreme allows ever narrower bandpass and the ultimate more so. The narrower the bandpass the less unwanted light pollution getting into the sensor, it's more difficult nowadays to control as LED lights are everywhere and emit in more broad spectrum than the older sodium type lights. So they're good for imaging emission nebulae. Not so good for anything else. The camera being used will have a significant effect to the end result as factory DSLRs will block out a significant amount of hydrogen alpha light, it's why people get them astro modded.

[Second Time Around]

If anyone 's interested I recently put a 2 inch L-enhance up on the For Sale forum. I don't take photos so it's surplus to requirements.

[bosun21]

3 hours ago, Second Time Around said:

If anyone 's interested I recently put a 2 inch L-enhance up on the For Sale forum. I don't take photos so it's surplus to requirements.

Your post states it's a 1.25" L enhance for sale. Just incase of any mix-ups.

[Second Time Around]

Whoops, the advert is wrong.  It is indeed a 2 inch.  Ad now corrected.

Many thanks indeed!

[FenderGreg]

21 hours ago, Second Time Around said:

If anyone 's interested I recently put a 2 inch L-enhance up on the For Sale forum. I don't take photos so it's surplus to requirements.

I may be but I can’t yet see the sale forum

Edited July 14, 2023 by FenderGreg

[Second Time Around]

Sorry, it's sold now.

[FenderGreg]

4 hours ago, Second Time Around said:

Sorry, it's sold now.

Happens quickly with these filters!

[Grant Fribbens]

I started out with the 2" L-Enhance and tried an L-Extreme but did not like the halos so went with the Antlia ALP-T Gold and really love it and use it with my Altair 26C across a range of different scopes.