Excelsis Ratings/Reviews - Votes:Baader UHC

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Baader UHC

I've been observing for about 12 years now and purchased this UHC-S filter last Aug. 04 for use in my new Williams Megrez II ED. I have limited nebula filter experience, several times I've looked through a friends Sirius optics Neb 1 and anothers Lumicon UHC and OIII. I was attracted to the Baaders price for a 2-inch filter and the bandpass looked to be more forgiving then the steeper curves of other brands. Additionally these baaders filters are supposed to be pretty tough and resistant to the elements, though I take care of mine dew and cold havn't bother it at all and it still looks brand new. I've seen the effects of dew on other filters and they can begin to peel at the edges, not so with the Baader :)

I thread the filter in front of the diagonal. I've been useing the UHC-s more and more and really like it a lot, I forgot it last week when I was out of town on business and missed this accessory more then I would have imagined.

When you pull it out of the box you'll notice the Baader comes in a nice clear locking case with a thin foam lining. When you pull out the filter the first thing you'll feel is a nice thick ring, it has riples and is easy to handle, I've yet to put a finger print on it, and the ring is so thick I can handle it with thinner gloves on, saving many a finger out in the cold here in Canada.

The filter optics appear to have well applied coatings which reflect a hint of purple in their silver reflection under a house lamp. In the scope on bright obejects the images are a deep green with a hint of red on the fringes of Mag. 3 and brighter objects. I have heard that images can become rather distorted when viewing non-nebular objects with other filters but the baader UHC-S keeps everything in good focus and but for the green color and red fringe everything remains tack sharp.

I have compared this filter directly to the Lumicon O-III and UHC and things get pretty dim in those so that you are best to find the object then insert the filter. The Baader UHC-S allows so much light through I leave it on the diagonal and hop around to all the nebular objects I want to view. The stars are a little dimmer, but it's not obtrusive and clusters etc. keep their familiar appearance. Last week I compared the Lumicon OIII in an ED80 with my UHC in the Megrez, both at ~20X on the Rosette. The brighter north segment was more visible with the OIII but the other areas were dimmed beyond perception. In the Baader, there wasn't an obvious floating cloud, you had to work a little to first see it, but once you had the image you could trace out more of the extended nebula.

Tonight I observed M42 under moderate light pollution, mag. 5.5 sky. Without the filter M42 appears as a distinct hazy patch at 18X, but the familiar umbrella form is lost, you only see the brightest sections near the stars. Pop in the filter and the tenuouse lines begin to appear and you can trace out those arcs of the umbrella for a long ways. The view is similar to that at our observing site with mag. 6.3 sky when I don't have the filter in place. At that site useing the filter is a dream and it takes magnification very well, I had it up to 112X on the 80mm.

One evening last summer, while I was waiting for the Megrez to arrive, we tried the UHC-S in comparision to the Lumicon UHC on an Orion ED80, Stellarvue SD 102 and Astro-Physics 130. On the 80mm & 102mm we preferred the Baader UHC-s as the image was not dimmed as much as the Lumicon, but by the time you get 5-inches it becomes a draw as you begin getting enough light that things aren't dimmed out as much.

Eventually I'd like to compare the UHC-S on larger scopes, but right now I have to say that in smaller telescopes which are used as grab and go you can't go wrong with this affordable 2-inch Baader UHC-S.

-Chris

Overall Rating: 9
Optics:9 Value:10
Weight: 5 (Veritable Vote)
Date: 02/12/2005 02:09:58 pm PST
By: c_beckett
Link to this vote: http://excelsis.com/1.0/displayvote.php?voteid=419196

Reply Replies: 0

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