Optolong L-Para 2" Dual Band Filter

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Conquer Light Pollution with this Optolong L-Para Filter!

For those who live in urban settings, light pollution is a difficult challenge to overcome. Light from sodium, mercury, and LED lamps wash out the night sky, making it hard to discern detail on celestial bodies. Helping you cut through the murk, this Optolong L-Para is a must have within your imaging toolkit! With a 10 nm bandwidth in the Ha and OIII wavelengths, enjoy capturing rich detail on nebulae from within the city, highlighting beautiful structure and stunning colors that would have otherwise been shrouded by light pollution.

As a dual-band filter, the L-Para is designed to be paired with color cameras, producing full-color astroimages in just one shot. Ideal for use on emission nebulae, such as the Soul Nebula, the Veil Nebula, and plenty more, this filter presents stark contrast on nebulosity and the background sky. It is crafted with the utmost precision, delivering 85% transmission rates for focal ratios f/2 and above. Additionally, you can expect halo-free stars thanks to its careful design. Housed within a threaded filter cell and adaptable to fast optics like RASA and HyperStar, this Optolong L-Para is compatible with just about any imaging system!

Jellyfish Nebula Taken by Gear Expert Diana P.

What Does Our Team Think?

• "The L-Para filter has completely exceeded my expectations, proving itself as a game-changer from the very first test. With just one hour of integration time on my first night, I captured a surprising amount of nebulosity, vibrant colors, and fine details. But what truly impressed me was how it handled Propus, the bright star below the Jellyfish Nebula. Where other filters create harsh, distracting halos, the L-Para produced a beautifully soft glow that was both subtle and eye-catching. Right then, I knew this filter was something special.

  Eager to see its full potential, I imaged the Jellyfish Nebula for a total of six hours. This filter revealed an extraordinary amount of OIII emission—far more than I anticipated. The overall colors were rich, natural, and beautifully balanced, bringing out the nebula’s intricate structure with stunning clarity. The L-Para also excels in practical performance, significantly boosting contrast and effectively combatting light pollution. No halos, no compromises—just clear, vibrant results.

  After testing it extensively, I can confidently say the L-Para is the best narrowband filter I’ve ever used. Its ability to combine natural color rendering, light pollution reduction, and superior detail extraction makes it my top choice in the Optolong lineup. For me, the L-Para raises the bar for narrowband filters, making it my first choice for emission nebulae targets."

- Diana P., High Point Scientific Gear Expert

A High Performance Astrophotography Filter of the Utmost Quality

Let's Take a Deeper Look!

What sets one filter apart from another? Which filter is best for me? When developing a filter, manufacturers provide a chart that represents the wavelengths permitted through this filter. This gives insight into the filter’s performance, and what it can help you achieve. So, how exactly do I read a transmission chart? Our team has put together a comprehensive article, to help you understand the fundamentals on How to Read a Transmission Chart. Check out the article and feel more confident about choosing the right filter for your needs!

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More Detail, Less Light Pollution

Opening the doors to capturing outstanding images from the city, this L-Para is a perfect solution for those surrounded by light pollution. Read more below as we highlight the key features that make this filter a must have, showcasing its applications, versatility, and optical integrity.

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Exquisite Detail on Emission Nebulae
H-alpha (656.3 nm) and OIII (500.7 nm) are two of the most abundant emission lines within emission nebulae. As opposed to collecting these wavelengths individually with two different filters and a monochrome camera, this L-Para collects Ha and OIII in one go, bringing narrowband imaging to your color camera. Not only can you create full color images in less time, but your imaging sessions will be more streamlined with only one filter to manage. With a narrow bandwidth of 10 nm, this Optolong L-Para ensures each emission is well defined within the captured frames. A bandwidth this slim effectively blocks out light from surrounding street lamps and homes, making it wonderful for environments up to Bortle class 7.

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Effortless Integration
This Optolong L-Para is housed within a metal filter cell and features M48x0.75 threads, allowing it to easily incorporate into just about any setup! Either thread it into a filter wheel, a filter drawer, or through a direct connection within your imaging train. The 2” diameter provides even illumination even across full frame sensors, ensuring outstanding performance from corner to corner.

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Built With Quality in Mind
Designed to deliver both quality and durability, Optolong has crafted this filter with the utmost precision. The 1.85 mm thick optical glass offers impressive light transmission at the Ha and OIII wavelengths, providing clear detail and exceptional contrast. With this L-Para, even bright stars within your images will be sharp and halo-free, a result of the extensive optimization testing performed by Optolong. The slender filter cell integrates seamlessly into the majority of filter housings on the market today, while also offering incredible security with its metal build!