Stumbled on a light pollution filter tip from a guy at Cherry Springs

Was at Cherry Springs State Park last August and a guy with a massive telescope showed me you can stack two cheaper filters instead of buying one expensive one. Has anyone else tried doubling up on filters like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

fionam114d ago

Wait, did you have the same issue with weird color shifts? I really feel you on that, @lucast81, because I tried stacking two cheap filters from a bargain bin once and everything came out looking like a muddy orange mess. It honestly made me wonder if the Cherry Springs guy was just showing off with some high end gear that doesn't work the same for the rest of us. Your point about it being like double sunglasses really clicks for me, that's exactly how my setup looked.

lucast814d ago

Respectfully, I gotta push back on that "stacking two cheaper filters" tip. I tried this with a couple of $30 light pollution filters last year (one for my camera lens, one for my eyepiece) and the image actually got way darker, not cleaner. It's like putting two pairs of sunglasses on, you know? The cheap filters also added a weird color cast that was worse than the original light pollution. I think the guy at Cherry Springs might have been talking about stacking filters for a very specific setup, like a dual narrowband filter for astrophotography, not for general visual observing. For most of us, one decent middle-grade filter (around $60-80) beats two budget ones every time.

jenny_lee4d ago

My buddy tried the same thing with two cheap filters on his dob last summer and ended up with an image so dim he could barely see the moon, let alone any detail. He said it felt like looking through a dirty fish tank.