How can I reduce light pollution in astrophotography?
Asked 8/13/2012
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I want to photograph the night sky from somewhat light-polluted areas and keep stars as visible as possible. What filters or other techniques can help reduce the effects of light pollution when shooting astrophotography?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
14y ago
2 Answers
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Depending on the target you are interested in imaging and the sensor you are using, you may be able to use a variety of filters.
If you are interested in emission nebula, then usually a contrast-enhancing filter helps. These come in two strengths usually, a lower strength that lets more of the continuous light through (which helps keep star colors intact) and a high strength version which helps eliminate more of the background skyglow and reject more of the sodium and mercury vapor city lights.
If you are looking at a nebula that features light primarily in Hydrogen Alpha or Beta or Oxygen 3, then you can use a notch filter just for that specific wavelength. These are the best option for eliminating nearly all the skyglow and light pollution in an area. The narrower the bandwidth is better for these cases. Popular bandwidths are 7nm to 5nm.
There is a third option which is a very gentle filter based on didymium doped glass which can help reject some yellowish skyglow. It's a commonly used filter to enhance the red colors of fall foliage.
Choosing the right filter depends on your imaging sensor, too. If you are using a one-shot color sensor (DSLR and film are examples of this) then the former contrast enhancing filter would be more appropriate than a notch filter.
Note that if you are going after bright targets like the moon and planets, filters are usually not a big issue except to minimize telescope artifacts like CA and purple fringes. Then you would be considering IR and UV blocking filters and maybe minus violet filters.
Originally by user5675. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user5675
14y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The most effective solution is still to shoot from darker locations and, if possible, higher altitude. Distance from city lights helps more than any filter.
Filters can help, but their usefulness depends on your subject:
- For emission nebulae, a contrast-enhancing light-pollution filter can improve separation from skyglow. Stronger versions block more sodium/mercury lighting, while milder ones preserve more natural star color.
- For targets that emit strongly in specific lines such as H-alpha, H-beta, or OIII, narrowband/notch filters are the best option. Narrower bandwidth generally rejects more skyglow, but these are mainly suited to emission-nebula imaging, not broad-spectrum targets.
For general star fields, galaxies, and natural star colors, filters are less effective because they also remove some wanted light.
In post-processing, you can reduce uneven skyglow by duplicating the image layer, applying a heavy Gaussian blur to the duplicate so stars/targets disappear, then subtracting that blurred layer from the original. This can reduce gradients from light pollution, haze, or thin cloud, but it cannot recover faint detail that was never recorded.
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