Quote:
Originally Posted by robz
Great news Ken! 
If I wanted to do just video astronomy viewing on a tv/computer, do I still need to purchase an upmarket IR filter?
The camera does colour and black and white very well(even in extremely low lighting).It also has 128X sense up which helps even though it's not state of the art like the new cams these days(very easy to cool should I decide to do so). 
I was hoping to get it on to my 12 inch SCT for some fun and possibly pick up some of the brighter nebulas, globs and maybe a galaxy or two in COLOUR? 
Cheers,
Rob. |
Rob,
There are different quality IR and IR/UV filters, and it shows.
I bought a cheap one and it shows everything blue!
Blue stars, bluish Moon, faint blue nebulae
Even the original filter didn't do that!
To answer your question, yes, you need a pretty good one, or it defeats the purpose of taking the original filter out.
There are a few different makes. I use Astronomiks (aprox $70).
For these cameras avoid the Bintel IR Filter.
128x will still allow you to see some pretty faint stuff.
A Tip: What will make a big difference is using a CRT monitor/TV.
CRT's will show things that won't show up on an LCD screen or laptop.
If you want to see good colour, or even faint objects, use a Focal Reducer. CRT's are too slow. The faster the scope the better.
To give an example of what people are capturing live with different cameras go here (page 30 onwards) and have a look.
Most are Screen Grabs from live shows:
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbthrea.../fpart/30/vc/1