amateur telescope eyepiece filters

Stanwyck66

So, I have a relatively small (6") Orion Dobsonian with a 25mm and 7.5mm Plossl eyepieces and live in a somewhat light polluted area. Because of this, I am considering purchasing an eyepiece filter to reduce light pollution and enhance nebula/planetary viewing. I was wondering how this would affect my viewing with my eyepiece's and their eye relief. Also, I was wondering if these filters really are effective enough to enhance the details with my scope. Here are the filters I'm considering:

http://www.telescope.com/control/acc...escope-filters

http://www.telescope.com/control/acc...yepiece-filter

chemisttree

Those will both work great. Don't forget to get a variable polarizer as well to darken the moon as well. On sale now at Orion for $37.95. Great value IMHO.

These filters screw onto the bottom of your eyepiece and won't affect your eye relief. They lengthen your eyepiece by a quarter inch or so but that shouldn't cause any issues.

Chronos

Filters are a good option for moon photography. For nebula, extending your tube will help a lot with light pollution without sacrificing aperature. All you need to do is tape about a 2 foot piece of rolled up parchment paper to the end of your scope. Spray paint the inside flat black.

Stanwyck66

I've gotten great pictures of the moon and planets, I wasn't even considering nebula photography. Is it really as simple as taping a piece of paper to the end of my scope?

chemisttree

No, it isn't by my experience. You aren't going to be doing much nebula photography with a dob mount unless you can convert it to a tracking mount. The rolled up paper will only cut stray light entering from relatively close sources like a streetlamp. Skyglow will be entirely unaffected by that light shield.

For nebula, try a nebula or OIII filter as well. Astronomics has one for about $50 that works pretty well.