Astroimaging from mono camera question

[euphony]

Hi guys,

I had a few hours messing around with my Mintron mono camera and recording a set of different short AVI's with individual red, green and blue filters.

I haven't had time to process the AVI's yet (hopefully I'll get on to that tonight), but the strange thing I noticed was that I could clearly see M13 (for instance) large and clear on the monitor before I started applying the filters, but when I applied each filter the image almost disappeared, and you couldn't actually tell M13 was on the screen.

It was even worse for M57! I couldn't see anything at all. Yet as soon as I removed the coloured filters it was there in the middle of the screen again.

Is this normal for me to not be able to see anything (or very little!) on the screen when I have the filters added? I would have expected it to still be in mono, so I found this a little strange.

Any clues anyone?

(and apologies of this a dumb question!)

Chris

[riklaunim]

Were these true RGB filters or color visual filters?

In general echo of those filters pass only 1/3 of the visual light so the object gets dimmer (even dimmer sometimes as the IR gets cut too). Nebulae will usually be visible in green and red, while not always in blue (depends if the filter will pass H-beta or [O III]). The same thing happens in color cameras.

[euphony]

That makes some sense, thank you.

I'll have to check whether they are colour visual filters or not as they were given to me. It could be that they are only colour visual ones, I hadn't really looked into that to be honest. If so, looks like I'll have to save some pennies up if these are useless!

Thanks for your quick reply

Chris

[euphony]

So, let's say that these filters I was given are for general observing purposes, would they be of any benefit at all in getting some colour out of my mono camera? Or basically a waste of time? If I can make do with them while I get to learn the ropes and save up for the proper filters then that would be ideal. I can spend my time getting used to the settings and all the software, basically experimenting until I get the best filters I can afford, by which time I can hit the ground running.

[Atlas]

Your color filters are great for planetary imaging with a mono camera, the true narrow band filters (ex: OIII, Ha, and others) are best for DSO's.

[euphony]

Excellent, thank you for your help

[ollypenrice]

Can you identify the filters? Or post a pic?

Olly

[euphony]

They're Antares filters. If that helps?

[euphony]

They're probably a load of tosh, hence why I was given them for free!

[euphony]

They're Antares filters. If that helps?

Any more words of wisdom on here?