Why does nobody talk about the price of astro filters before you buy a telescope?

I dropped $220 on a set of narrowband filters for my 8" Dob last spring, thinking I'd get those gorgeous nebula shots everyone posts here. Turned out my cheap camera and mount couldn't handle the long exposures, so they've sat in a drawer since June. I should've spent that cash on a decent tracking mount first, like the guy at the Dark Sky Society meetup in Flagstaff warned me. Anyone else waste money on gear their setup couldn't use?

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emeryr383d ago

Filters alone wouldnt have gotten you those shots anyway, even with the tracking mount. The 8" Dob isnt really made for long exposure astrophotography since the focal length is long and the mount doesnt track accurately enough for nebulas. You'd still need a field flattener, a guider, or a whole different setup like a small refractor on an EQ mount. Harmonics and gears matter way more than glass for this stuff. Maybe test each piece of gear by itself before stacking things together, that way you know what's actually slowing you down. The only filters that wouldve worked with your Dob are the cheap OIII or UHC ones for visual viewing, and those are like 60 bucks not 220.