Another telescope thread

[Tycho]

I have spotted a Skywatcher 1145PM with syscan for £200 in my local camera shop. This is £50 below rrp and about £20 below what I have seen online.

I was told that if I want to mount my camera on the telescope then I'll need to remove the filter from the sensor. The guy wasn't sure if it was the IR or UV filter, however I have never heard of this. Does anyone know if this is correct?

The reviews for this are good but I can't really find any images taken with this or of comparable quality. Does anyone know where I can find any?

Any advice welcome. I really want it for moon / deep space objects.

[DIW35]

Really serious astrophotographers remove the IR filter from the camera as it makes the camera more sensitive in certain parts of the spectrum, allowing them to capture images of fainter objects.

If you are just hoping to have some fun with your camera and scope, there is no need to remove this filter, as doing so would a) invalidate any warranty you may have and b) make it useless for normal daytime photography.

Just to reassure you, this photo was taken with the IR filter still in place.

Edited by DIW35 on Friday 13th March 10:23

[Simpo Two]

The IR filter is over the sensor so removing it is serious surgery and defo bye-bye warranty!

One idea might be to buy a cheap s/h body and modify it specially for this purpose - the Nikon D70 is a popular choice and a body-only might only be £125 now.

[Tycho]

thanks for the replies guys. I think I'll just use my normal camera and maybe if I get serious then I'll get another body.

Sorry to any other telescope usersas it is bound to be cloudy for the next few months...

[kryten]

Beware, taking photos through a scope can be VERY time consuming. Also, you'll never end up with stuff close to the hubble shots you see on the web.

It can be very satisfying but its a long, slippery and VERY expensive slope...

[JustinP1]

kryten said:

...Also, you'll never end up with stuff close to the hubble shots you see on the web.

Well f*** that then, I'll let Jessops go bust!

You don't get nothing for £50 nowadays.

Edited by JustinP1 on Friday 13th March 20:52

[kryten]

Hehe. Doesn't matter what kit you have - you need a LOT of patience to get anything approaching really good results.

I got _very_ into it a couple of years back and over a year or so collected a HUGE amount of kit including:

meade 8" scope
huge polar mount
very expensive b&w astro CCD
filter wheel and colour filters
plus tons of the anciliary bits you need

Then spent a fair while getting very disheartened with the number of shots I got that were actually any good - so much so that i've hardly done any photography through the scope recently.

Just gone back to viewing mainly, which is what i really enjoyed so much in the first place.