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I tried a cheap filter for the moon and ended up with a purple ring around it
Bought a $30 neutral density filter online to try and get more detail in my lunar shots from my apartment balcony. Stacked about 20 frames, and the final image had this weird purple halo around the whole moon. Turns out the filter was causing some bad chromatic aberration that my stacking software couldn't fix. Has anyone else had a budget filter ruin a whole imaging session?
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the_angela5h ago
My first real telescope was a cheap refractor that gave everything a purple fringe. I used to think filters were just extra glass, but a bad one like that taught me optics matter at every step. Now I check reviews for any filter, even basic ones, because that purple halo is a nightmare to fix later. Ruined a whole night of Jupiter shots once the same way.
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lee9265h ago
That purple fringe is chromatic aberration from the telescope lens itself, not the filter. Cheap refractors do that with bright objects. A filter can help a bit, but it's mostly in the glass.
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