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by recipe19 325 days ago
What you're describing is the domain of a very, very small number of hobbyists with very deep pockets (plus various govt-funded entities).

The vast majority of hobby astrophotography is done pretty much as the webpage describes it, with a single camera. You can even buy high-end Canon cameras with IR filters factory-removed specifically for astrophotography. It's big enough of a market that the camera manufacturer accommodates it.
3 comments
bhouston 325 days ago
> What you're describing is the domain of a very, very small number of hobbyists with very deep pockets

Sort of. The telescope used for the Dumbbell nebula captures featured in the article was at worth around $1000 and his mount is probably $500. A beginner cooled monochrome astrophotography camera is around $700 and if you want filters and a controller another $500.

There are quite a few people in the world doing this, upwards of 100K:

https://app.astrobin.com/search

Various PixInsight videos have +100K views: https://youtu.be/XCotRiUIWtg?si=RpkU-sECLusPM1j-&utm_source=...

Intro to narrowband also has 100K+ views: https://youtu.be/0Fp2SlhlprU?si=oqWrATDDwhmMguIl&utm_source=...

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looofooo0 325 days ago
Some even scratch of the bayer pattern of old cameras.
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tecleandor 325 days ago
You don't need very big pockets for that.

Today you can find very affordable monochromatic astrophotography cameras, and you can also modify cheap DSLR cameras or even compact cameras to remove its IR/UV/low pass filters. You can even insert a different semi permanent internal filter after that (like a IR or UV band pass)

I've done a Nikon D70 DSLR and a Canon Ixus/Elph compact.

Some cameras are very easy, some very difficult, so better check first some tutorials before buying a camera. And there are companies doing the conversion for you for a bunch of hundred dollars (probably 300 or 400).

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looofooo0 325 days ago
You can even do the conversion diy.
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tecleandor 325 days ago
Yep. I did both myself, as I was using old cameras that I had hanging around and if I sent them for conversion it would be more expensive than the cost of the camera.

Conversions done in places like Kolari or Spencer run about $300-500 depending on the camera model.

If I were to buy a brand new A7 IV or something like that, I would of course ask one of those shops to do it for me.

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tomrod 325 days ago
And the entire earth observation industry, which doesn't look the same way but uses the same base tech stack.
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