What filters should I get?

[peter brown]

I have set up my Meade GPS 10" SCT on an ultrawedge and piggy backed my Skywatcher 100ED. I have a Meade Deep Sky Imager lll Color camera, a modded Canon 20D, a Phillips ToUcam and Starshoot autoguider. I have a dedicated Dell Laptop running XP with duo core processor.
I think I have got my polar alignment process down pat but I think the SCT needs collimating and I have a set of Bobs Knobs ready to install when I get some nerve.

So I think I,m ready to start having a go...especially with Orion coming into view.

Could someone give me advice about which filters I should purchase as to enable my best shots of nebulae, star clusters and maybe even comets....one day?
I also have a straight Nikon D80.
All this gear is sitting in a sirius 3.5 observatory in our orchard ( I chopped down the cherry tree!!!)

Many thanks for any and al advice

Peter B

[Ian Robinson]

Visit Lumicon , they have a very comprehensive filter guide.

I'd suggest a LPF or UHC and or a DSF, maybe a Hb and a OIII. Depends on what you want to view or image.

[Bassnut]

Easy, ditch the D80, buy a mono Astrocam , and then L,R,G,B, HA,Hb, SII, OIII, U,B,V,R,I and set of IR versions of RGB, and a set of continum filters for good measure :D.

[peter brown]

Do you have to have seperate filters for viewing and photography?

[Ian Robinson]

I don't , all my filters are used mostly visually , and to image too.

Some the guys here probably rearly actually look through an eyepiece, that's OK , depends what you are interested in.

[Zuts]

Hi,

I notice you are in Mount Beauty therefore I would say you dont need any visual filters at all. Your skies are wonderfully dark and you also have some elevation, you lucky bu%&*er :)

From your equipment list you appear to have no mono cameras so i dont think you need a set of RGB filters.

For just starting out i am basically saying you dont need any filters given your location except for a UV/IR cut filter for imaging. This will remove a bit of bloat from stars and is not really necessary but people do use them. As you progress you should consider a narrowband Ha filter. This will allow you to image even during a full moon and you can add this data to the data you get from all your one shot colour cameras.

Having mastered Ha, you may like to add an OIII and SII and try some narrowband imaging.

As far as brands are concerned I always buy Astronomic gear as I find the quality and robustness worth the price.

Basically though stick with your D80 and see how you go :), obviously if you have the money an EOS 40D or QHY8 would be a far better addition given your location than multiple filters.

Cheers
Paul

[Hagar]

Hi Peter. Fred is just teasing you. Where we live the only filters that may of any real use would be a UHC which will give you a little better resolution of most nebulas but with the 10 inch you really don't need any. Borrow my UHC and see what you think. I also have a Ha but imaging with the Ha is really a monochrome exercise. I have one of these you can try also. Some of the others like a Hb is largely a visual filter and OIII and SII are for very narrow band imaging at very long exposures.

I tend not to use any of the filters for normal imaging but have dabbled with Ha and UHC but I am not overly impressed with the results. A thing to remember about Narrow band filters is the exposure times are doubled or more to get reasonable monochromatic images.

[Tandum]

Again, filters solve problems, as you have no problems yet, blah blah blah.

[peter brown]

Thanks for the advice guys.

Ordered a Olll and will order a UHC and see what happens.

This is really a great brains trust!!!

Peter B

[Zuts]

Hmm, not sure how you arrived at this given the advice you got; but good luck anyway :)

Cheers
Paul