Saturday, July 3, 2021

Using The IDAS NBZ Filter!




Over the last few years, multi-narrowband filters have popped up into the market place.  They are particularly useful for one-shot color cameras and DSLRs although they can be used as luminance filter for monochrome cameras as they are excellent at reducing light pollution.  The current filter choices for these multi-narrowband filters include 1) dual-band (Ha & OIII), 2) Tri-band (Ha, OIII, & SII), 3) Quad-band (Ha, OIII, SII, & Hb).  Numerous manufactures now have these in their lineup and following is a partial list:

ZWO Duo Band (Ha & OIII)

Radian Triad Quad-Band (Ha, OIII, SII, & Hb)

Optolong L-eNhance (Ha, OIII, & Hb)

Optolong L-eXtreme (Ha & OIII)

Altair TriBand (Ha, OIII, & Hb)

IDAS NBZ (Ha & OIII)

IDAS NB1 (Ha, OIII, & Hb)

IDAS NB2 (Ha & OIII)

IDAS NB3 (OIII & SII)

I wanted to get a good multiple narrowband filter to be used with the ZWO ASI294MC Pro and was looking at the various options.  After doing some research I purchased the IDAS NBZ filter specifically because it was redesigned to handle telescopes with focal ratios as low F2.  

I had a chance to test this on IC1396, The Elephant Trunk Nebula, the recently during near full moon from my Bortle 5 skies.  The test consisted of collecting two 180 second exposures without the filter and then collecting two exposures with the NBZ filter.  





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1 comment:

  1. Sky deepMarch 17, 2026 at 4:06 AM

    Great explanation of the IDAS NBZ filter and its performance. Dual-band filters like this are really useful for capturing emission nebulae while reducing light pollution. Using setups with ZWO astronomy cameras together with filters like the NBZ can produce impressive deep-sky images, especially for targets rich in hydrogen and oxygen. Very informative post for astrophotography enthusiasts

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