TMB Pro Series UV/IR Cut Imaging Filter

The TMB Pro Series UV/IR Cut Imaging Filter is designed to block ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) light, allowing only visible wavelengths to reach your camera sensor. Most telescope optics are optimised for visible light, so blocking UV and IR helps produce sharper, more accurate images with improved contrast and detail.

This filter is ideal for colour CMOS and CCD cameras, and can also be used with monochrome cameras. In addition, it serves as a protective barrier for your imaging equipment, reducing the risk of dust settling on your optics during long exposure sessions.

With its robust optical design and high-quality coatings, the TMB Pro Series UV/IR Cut Filter ensures maximum light transmission in the visible spectrum while minimising unwanted wavelengths, making it a simple but essential tool for astrophotography.

Optolong UV/IR Cut filter is designed for ultraviolet and infrared wavelength blocking to improve sharpness of the image as most of the optics are designed for the visible spectrum, because it’s very difficult to create a lens with the same focal point for the visible and IR spectrum.

It is used on a digital camera and the video, which do not have an IR protection filter toward an image sensor or were remodeled. This is important because unfiltered CCD and CMOS sensors are extremely susceptible to UV and IR rays just outside the visible spectrum that can have a very negative impact on image quality.

Main Use and Performance

Suitable for color CMOS and CCD cameras and modified DSLRs.

Use with monochrome CCD for astrophotography.

Available to assist in focusing.

Act as an outstanding dust shield, which prevents the possibility of dust settling on the lens during long time exposure.

WARNING: The filters of Optolong are not designed for sun observation. DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN WITH OPTOLONG FILTER. You would be BLIND if you fail to observe the warning.

Optolong L-Pro 1.25 inch is multi-bandpass filter which offers better color balance by maximizing the transmission band. The balanced transmission allows astrophotos to be taken with minimal color cast to broadband emission objects such as galaxies, reflection nebulae and globular star clusters.

Warning - Do not use this filter for solar purposes !

Optolong L-Pro (L-Professional) filter is designed to improve the visibility of various deepsky objects. By selectively reducing the transmission of wavelengths of light pollutants, specifically those produced by artificial lightings including mercury vapor lamps, both high & low pressure sodium vapor lights and the unwanted natural light caused by neutral oxygen emission in our atmosphere (i.e. skyglow). Together with the highly transparent in main nebula emission lines at OIII(496nm and 500nm), H-beta (486nm), NII(654nm and 658nm), H-alpha(656nm) as well as SII(672nm), the filter is suitable for enhancing the contrast and details for both visual and photograghic purpose at sub-rural area with heavy light pollution.

Optolong L-Pro is multi-bandpass filter which offers better color balance by maximizing the transmission band. The balanced transmission allows astrophotos to be taken with minimal color cast to broadband emission objects such as galaxies, reflection nebulae and globular star clusters. L-Pro is the best choice for light pollution suppression.

• Optical glass fine material
• Spectrum: 380-750nm
• Surface Quality: 60/40 (Refer to MIL-O-13830)
• Fine-optically polished to ensure accurate 1/4 wavefront and < 30 seconds parallelism over the both surfaces
• High transmission at major nebula emission lines (i.e. H-alpha 656nm, OIII 496nm&500nm, SII 672nm and H-beta 486nm).
• Precision off-band blocking, specifically the major emission lines of artificial light pollution (i.e. Na 589nm, Hg 435nm and 578nm).

L-eNhance filter
The relentless spread of urbanization and its associated light pollution have become a growing problem for all amateur astrophotographers. The current solutions to the problem can be expensive and might include the purchase of a monochrome camera, several types of narrowband filters, and a filter wheel.

Optolong L-eNhance filter provides an economical and practical solution for amateurs. It is a dual-band pass filter that has been designed for DSLR (digital SLR), color CMOS, and monochrome CCD cameras. The convenience and cost-effectiveness of this filter allow amateurs to image a rich selection of astronomical images, even in bright, heavily light-polluted areas. Optolong believes the design of our L-eNhance filter is a technical innovation among filters. It effectively isolates the H-Alpha, H-Beta, and Oxygen III nebula emission lines and achieves a maximum transmission of up to 90%. The performance of this filter delivers images that superbly control the impact of light-polluted skies.

Hydrogen is the largest, the most primitive, the simplest, and the oldest element in the universe. Scientists consider that Hydrogen amounts to more than 90% of visible substances in space. Our sun is 5 billion years old, but so far hydrogen is still the key matter of nuclear fusion. While the sulfur element does not have much scientific significance, keeping H and O is meaningful for the exploration of life.
Therefore, we highlight H-a, H-b, O3, and O2, and reduce the signal of sulfur.

2. Spectrum and Characteristic
Substrate: B270
Thickness: 1.85mm
Tpeak: T>90%
Blocking range: 300-1000nm
Blocking depth: light pollution line blocking >99%
Surface quality: 60/40
Transmitted Wavefront RMS: λ/4
Parallelism: 30s

How to read the chart?

▲The horizontal axis is the Wavelength in Nanometers(nm).

▲The vertical axis is transmission in %.

▲The WHITE line shows the transmission of the filter. The artificial emission lines are shown in Yellow. The emission lines from the constellation are shown in GREEN, BLUE, AND RED.

SKU: 13801

L-eXtreme is a two 7nm bandpass filter which can be used with one-shot color cameras like DSLR's (digital SLR), and monochrome CCD cameras, it is also more suited for fast systems. The convenience and cost effectiveness of this filter allows amateurs to image a rich emission nebulas, even in bright, light pollution skies. Optolong believes the design of L-eXtreme filter would be better choice for fast systems in competitive price. It isolates the H-Alpha, and Oxygen III nebula emission lines so that the contrast and signal-to-noise ratio between nebulae were maximized. For people who is living in very light polluted areas, or when the moon is out, the L-eXtreme will be a good filter.

Unlike the Optolong L-eNhance filter which is a tri-band (transmits Hb, Ha, and OIII), the L-eXtreme filter is dual band that passes Ha and OIII emission lines.The advantage of the L-eXtreme filter is that there is no transmission between the H-beta and OIII lines, as there is no nebula emission lines there. In this case, it isn't letting light pollution come through so that maximize nebulas signal and make the sky background darker while imaging. The L-eXtreme filter should better isolate the emission lines only and better protect from light pollution.

Hydrogen is the largest, the most primitive, the simplest, and the oldest element in the universe. Scientists consider that Hydrogen amounts to more than 90% of visible substance in space. Our sun is 5 billion years old, but so far hydrogen is still the key matter of nuclear fusion. While the sulfur element does not have much scientific significance, so keeping H and O is meaning for exploration of life.
Therefore, we highlight H-a, H-b, O3 and O2, and reduce the signal of sulfur.

Spectrum and Characteristics

• Sbustrate: B270
• Thickness: 1.85mm
• Tpeak: T>90%
• Blocking range: 300-1000nm
• Blcoking depth: light pollution line blocking >99%
• Surface quality: 60/40
• Transmitted Wavefront RMS: λ/4

Astronomik now offers you a range of three different UV+IR blockers as Luminance filters. The different spectral window of each new Luminance filters is designed to tune your setup to get the sharpest image from any optical design and any camera.

The Luminance channel is probably the most important for a great final image! You want as much signal as possible so the filter should have the highest transmission possible with a wide spectral bandpass. This combination provides the greatest sensitivity and gives you the highest photon counts on your pixels. While the high transmission level is a great aspect of the new Astronomik Luminance filters, not all optical instruments or additional optical elements like correctors, field-flatteners or reducers, have perfect colour correction so it can be the width of the spectral band pass of  the Luminance filter that can cause problems. A band pass that is too wide will allow the transmission of incompletely focused light (Chromatic aberration), making stars appear soft or bloated. In such cases image processing can become difficult, so having a slightly narrowed spectral window in your Luminance filter can reduce or eliminate this damaging effect.

To give you all the tools to gather the best data possible we have expanded our line of Luminance filters: Now you can select a Luminance filter perfectly matched to the kind of telescope you use, to get the highest signal and sharpest image for the Luminance channel!
Depending on the color correction of your scope you may use a wider spectral window for the Luminance data. The L1 filter has the widest spectral window, the L2 is about the same as our current L-Filter and the L3 is much narrower.
If you use an optical system that is completely free of any chromatic aberration you should get an L1 filter for your setup. For general use the L2 filter is well suited to most optical systems with a corrector, flattener or reducer in the optical train while the L3 filter is designed for users of refractors with a less-than-perfect color correction and in combination with the new Deep-Sky RGB filters, the L3 filter will minimise the problem of bluish halos around stars.

The transmission curve characteristics and coatings on the new Luminance filters have been designed and engineered in such a way that no halos or reflections will be visible. Even with bright stars in the field of view you will be able to reveal the faintest structures in nebulas or galaxies.

Like all Astronomik Filters, the new Luminance filters are made using an extremely durable and scratch resistant coating, deposited on the finest polished optical substrate, which is free of any striae or internal strains. All substrates are made to exactly the same thickness, so all of our filters are parfocal.

Additional note for observers working under light polluted skies:
If your observing site suffers from light pollution you should try to use our CLS-CCD as a replacement for the Luminance filter. The transmission curve of the CLS-CCD will give you approximately the same amount of energy in all three colour channels while blocking nearly all unwanted artifical light pollution. Customers who replaced the Lx filter with the CLS-CCD are amazed by the increased quality of their data. This small change gives you the opportunity to take much deeper images from your current observing site.

It's about a 3nm dual band designed to drastically reduce the effect of light pollution, the 3nm isolates the nebulae's emissions into H-Alpha (red) and OIII (green-blue). It blocks light pollution, maximizes the signal from nebulae, and darkens the sky background. It also blocks artificial light from mercury vapor lamps, high and low pressure sodium vapor lights, and unwanted natural light caused by the emission of neutral oxygen in our atmosphere. Maximizes the transmission of the main emission lines of the nebula in OIII (496nm and 500nm) and H-alpha (656nm). Used with DSLR, color/MONO CMOS and CCD, however, this filter is not suitable for fast ratio systems.

The advantage of L-Ultimate is that it only passes through the emission lines OIII(500.7nm) and Ha(656.3nm), in which case all other light pollution emission lines are eliminated so that only the emission and reflection signals of the nebula are captured during imaging. Therefore, the sky background of the image is darker, and the contrast between the nebulae and the signal-to-noise ratio are improved to the greatest extent. In heavy light pollution areas, the product can also selectively filter light pollution and clutter signals through the emission lines of nebulae, and finally avoid the impact of light pollution on astrophotography.

It is different from the series of dual-narrowband L-eNhance and L-eXtreme in that L-Ultimate is a dual-3nm bandwidth filter that only passes through Ha and OIII emission lines. You will get a darker sky background, more contrast of the image and the suppression on stars. L-Ultimate has also been optimised in terms of halo performance, so that there is no obvious halo when shooting on a bright star object.

Features

TMB Pro Series Duo-Band Nebula Imaging Filter

The TMB Pro Series Duo-Band Nebula Imaging Filter is designed for astrophotographers using colour cameras who want to capture emission nebulae in stunning detail without investing in a full mono camera setup. This dual-band filter works by letting through only two specific colours of light, Hα (656 nm) and OIII (500 nm), which are the wavelengths most emitted by many nebulae. By blocking most other light, including light pollution and moonlight, it makes faint nebulae stand out more clearly in your images. It works especially well on well-known targets such as the Orion Nebula, Carina Nebula, Lagoon Nebula, and Trifid Nebula, but will also enhance contrast on virtually any emission nebula across the sky.

Ideal for One-Shot Colour (OSC) cameras, the filter provides an easy way to explore narrowband imaging while retaining natural colour. Its precision optical design features finely polished Schott glass, double-sided anti-reflection coatings, and a robust anodised aluminium cell, ensuring excellent light transmission, minimal reflections, and long-term durability.

Available in standard 1.25” and 2” sizes, the TMB Pro Series Duo-Band Filter is compatible with almost all standard colour cameras and filter wheels, making it a practical solution for deep sky imaging in urban or light-polluted environments.

Key Features:

• Dual bandpass for Hα (656 nm) and OIII (500 nm)

• Enhances contrast of emission nebulae

• Reduces interference from moonlight and artificial light pollution

• High-quality Schott glass with anti-reflection coatings

• Robust CNC-machined anodised aluminium cell with laser-engraved markings

• Standard 1.25” or 2” sizing for wide compatibility

Astronomik now offers you a range of three different UV+IR blockers as Luminance filters. The different spectral window of each new Luminance filters is designed to tune your setup to get the sharpest image from any optical design and any camera.

The Luminance channel is probably the most important for a great final image! You want as much signal as possible so the filter should have the highest transmission possible with a wide spectral bandpass. This combination provides the greatest sensitivity and gives you the highest photon counts on your pixels. While the high transmission level is a great aspect of the new Astronomik Luminance filters, not all optical instruments or additional optical elements like correctors, field-flatteners or reducers, have perfect colour correction so it can be the width of the spectral band pass of  the Luminance filter that can cause problems. A band pass that is too wide will allow the transmission of incompletely focused light (Chromatic aberration), making stars appear soft or bloated. In such cases image processing can become difficult, so having a slightly narrowed spectral window in your Luminance filter can reduce or eliminate this damaging effect.

To give you all the tools to gather the best data possible we have expanded our line of Luminance filters: Now you can select a Luminance filter perfectly matched to the kind of telescope you use, to get the highest signal and sharpest image for the Luminance channel!
Depending on the color correction of your scope you may use a wider spectral window for the Luminance data. The L1 filter has the widest spectral window, the L2 is about the same as our current L-Filter and the L3 is much narrower.
If you use an optical system that is completely free of any chromatic aberration you should get an L1 filter for your setup. For general use the L2 filter is well suited to most optical systems with a corrector, flattener or reducer in the optical train while the L3 filter is designed for users of refractors with a less-than-perfect color correction and in combination with the new Deep-Sky RGB filters, the L3 filter will minimise the problem of bluish halos around stars.

The transmission curve characteristics and coatings on the new Luminance filters have been designed and engineered in such a way that no halos or reflections will be visible. Even with bright stars in the field of view you will be able to reveal the faintest structures in nebulas or galaxies.

Like all Astronomik Filters, the new Luminance filters are made using an extremely durable and scratch resistant coating, deposited on the finest polished optical substrate, which is free of any striae or internal strains. All substrates are made to exactly the same thickness, so all of our filters are parfocal.

Additional note for observers working under light polluted skies:
If your observing site suffers from light pollution you should try to use our CLS-CCD as a replacement for the Luminance filter. The transmission curve of the CLS-CCD will give you approximately the same amount of energy in all three colour channels while blocking nearly all unwanted artifical light pollution. Customers who replaced the Lx filter with the CLS-CCD are amazed by the increased quality of their data. This small change gives you the opportunity to take much deeper images from your current observing site.

Astronomik now offers you a range of three different UV+IR blockers as Luminance filters. The different spectral window of each new Luminance filters is designed to tune your setup to get the sharpest image from any optical design and any camera.

The Luminance channel is probably the most important for a great final image! You want as much signal as possible so the filter should have the highest transmission possible with a wide spectral bandpass. This combination provides the greatest sensitivity and gives you the highest photon counts on your pixels. While the high transmission level is a great aspect of the new Astronomik Luminance filters, not all optical instruments or additional optical elements like correctors, field-flatteners or reducers, have perfect colour correction so it can be the width of the spectral band pass of  the Luminance filter that can cause problems. A band pass that is too wide will allow the transmission of incompletely focused light (Chromatic aberration), making stars appear soft or bloated. In such cases image processing can become difficult, so having a slightly narrowed spectral window in your Luminance filter can reduce or eliminate this damaging effect.

To give you all the tools to gather the best data possible we have expanded our line of Luminance filters: Now you can select a Luminance filter perfectly matched to the kind of telescope you use, to get the highest signal and sharpest image for the Luminance channel!
Depending on the color correction of your scope you may use a wider spectral window for the Luminance data. The L1 filter has the widest spectral window, the L2 is about the same as our current L-Filter and the L3 is much narrower.
If you use an optical system that is completely free of any chromatic aberration you should get an L1 filter for your setup. For general use the L2 filter is well suited to most optical systems with a corrector, flattener or reducer in the optical train while the L3 filter is designed for users of refractors with a less-than-perfect color correction and in combination with the new Deep-Sky RGB filters, the L3 filter will minimise the problem of bluish halos around stars.

The transmission curve characteristics and coatings on the new Luminance filters have been designed and engineered in such a way that no halos or reflections will be visible. Even with bright stars in the field of view you will be able to reveal the faintest structures in nebulas or galaxies.

Like all Astronomik Filters, the new Luminance filters are made using an extremely durable and scratch resistant coating, deposited on the finest polished optical substrate, which is free of any striae or internal strains. All substrates are made to exactly the same thickness, so all of our filters are parfocal.

Additional note for observers working under light polluted skies:
If your observing site suffers from light pollution you should try to use our CLS-CCD as a replacement for the Luminance filter. The transmission curve of the CLS-CCD will give you approximately the same amount of energy in all three colour channels while blocking nearly all unwanted artifical light pollution. Customers who replaced the Lx filter with the CLS-CCD are amazed by the increased quality of their data. This small change gives you the opportunity to take much deeper images from your current observing site.

The UHC (Ultra High Contrast) broadband filter is designed to improve the visibility of various deepsky objects. By selectively reducing the transmission of wavelengths of light pollutants, specifically those produced by artificial lightings including mercury vapor lamps, both high & low pressure sodium vapor lights and the unwanted natural light caused by neutral oxygen emission in our atmosphere (i.e. skyglow). Together with the highly transparent in main nebula emission lines at OIII(496nm and 500nm), H-beta (486nm), NII(654nm and 658nm), H-alpha(656nm) as well as SII(672nm), the filter is suitable for enhancing the contrast and details for both visual and photograghic purpose at sub-rural area with heavy light pollution.

Main Use and Performance

Suitable for color CCD cameras and unmodified DSLRs.

UHC with narrower passband provides higher contrast than CLS. Thus it is more suitable for urban environment where you suffer from severe light pollution.

UHC has a substantial red passband and offer superb views for objects like the Orion Nebula (M42).

Light pollution filter do not eliminate the effects of light pollution or increase the object’s brightness. In many cases, they increase the contrast between nebula and night sky, not brightening the nebula.

WARNING: The filters of Optolong are not designed for sun observation. DO NOT LOOK AT THE SUN WITH OPTOLONG FILTER. You would be BLIND if you fail to observe the warning.

The Astronomik CLS CCD is suitable under light-polluted skies for DSLR Cameras, which have been remodeled for astronomical use. The filter enhances the contrast between all deep-sky objects and the background. 

The CLS-CCD Filter enhances the contrast between astronomical objects and the background. Due to the wider transmission curve compared to UHC filters, a greater amount of light will pass the filter. Stars will be less dimmed. This filter has been optimized to block as much spurious light as possible and simultaneously provide the best performance for 'useful' light. A good filter for DSLR-, CCD- and film b/w-photography as well as observation of deep-sky-objects with telescopes or photo lenses of all aperture f/2 and above.

Main use

The filter blocks completely emission lines of artificial light sources like streetlights (e.g. sodium- and mercury-vapor) as well as the airglow. All 'important' emission lines as well as the spectral range of the night-adapted eye are beeing passed. The supplementary IR-blocking layer allows the use for DSLR- and Webcams without an integrated IR-block filter.

Other uses

• Easier resolution of Double Stars.
• With the EOS-Clip model, photography with DSLR cameras is feasible even unter extreme light-polluting conditions without shifting the white balance.
• The 1,25" and 2" socket models can be used for observations from light-polluted areas.
• If you plan to create color images from emission line data, our CLS-CCD filter is a great choice for the Luminance channel

Alternatives

CLS: For cameras with an integrated IR-filter or for visual observation.

Suitability

• Visual observation (dark skies): Good, to reduce light pollution by mercury-vapour lamps (streetlight)
• Visual observation (urban skies): Reasonable, an UHC-E or UHC filter is more suitable
• Film photography: Very good, colour balance is near perfect
• CCD photography: Very good, optimized rejection of light pollution
• DSLR photography (original): Good, colour balance shifted but contrast enhanced
• DSLR photography (astro modified): Very good, colour balance is near perfect
• DSLR photography (MC modified): Very good, colour balance is near perfect
• Webcam / Video (Planets): Unsuitable
• Webcam / Video (Deep Sky): Very good, if light pollution is a big problem

Technical Data

• 95% transmission at 486nm (H-beta)
• 95% transmission at 496nm (OIII)
• 95% transmission at 501nm (OIII)
• 97% transmission at 656nm (H-alpha)
• pass from 450 to 520nm and from 640 to 690nm
• Parfocal with other Astronomik filters
• Glass thickness: 1mm
• Completely resistant against high humidity, scratches and aging effects
• Diffraction limited, the filter will not reduce the optical performance of your telescope!
• Astronomik filters are delivered in a high-quality, long lasting, filter box
• Since 2008 we do ship filters with a completely new design. Any kind of halo or strange reflection is a matter of past

The Astronomik CLS is a budget filter for visual observation, Black & White photography and CCD photographs of nebulae, galaxies and star clusters with astronomical instruments of any size. 

The Astronomik CLS blocks the light of the spectral lines of mercury and sodium-vapor lamps and lets the largest part of the visible light and H-alpha emissions pass. All the important emission lines, as well as the spectral region that the very well dark adapted eye can see, can pass through the filter.

Main use

The filters are optimized for use with aperture ratios from 1:3 to 1:15. Transmission losses and chromatic distortions, which are problems with other filters, only appear with Astronomik filters when extremely bright aperture ratios of 1:2 and more are used. The CLS filter is suitable for use with telescopes of all aperture sizes.

Suitability

• Visual observation (dark skies): Good, to reduce light pollution by mercury-vapour lamps (streetlight)
• Visual observation (urban skies): Good, an UHC-E or UHC filter is more suitable
• Film photography: Very good, colour balance is near perfect
• CCD photography: Good, when used with an additional IR-block-filter
• DSLR photography (original): Good, colour balance shifted but contrast enhanced
• DSLR photography (astro modified): Very good, colour balance is near perfect
• DSLR photography (MC modified): Good, when used with an additional IR-block-filter
• Webcam / Video (Planets): Unsuitable
• Webcam / Video (Deep Sky): Very good, if light pollution is a big problem

Technical Data

• 92% transmission at 486nm (H-beta)
• 92% transmission at 496nm (OIII)
• 92% transmission at 501nm (OIII)
• 97% transmission at 656nm (H alpha)
• pass from 450 to 540nm and beyond 650nm
• Parfocal with other Astronomik filters
• Glass thickness: 1mm
• Completely resistant against high humidity, scratches and aging effects
• Diffraction limited, the filter will not reduce the optical performance of your telescope!
• Astronomik filters are delivered in a high-quality, long lasting, filter box
• Since 2008 we do ship filters with a completely new design. Any kind of halo or strange reflection is a matter of past