| Chris: You don't know me, but I know you. I've known you for a long time because your images precede you! That speaks highly of your skills...and that 3-tail comet image is the best of this Comet season...nothing comes close, regardless of medium. Don't despair too much. There will always be less expensive alternatives to this hobby (to any hobby). Check out the postings in the yahoo groups digital_astro forum over the last week...a lot of posts of images taken with digital SLRs without the IR filters. Plus, many are now posting on how you can remove these filters yourself. Therefore, as of today, you can buy a Canon Digital Rebel camera body for $700, and perform a mod that will give you a killer astro camera (if you can hyper film, then you could certainly do a simple mod). And the quality of these images aren't as far from th e STL-6303E that I'm currently using..at least not a difference of $12,000 worth. As for RCs and the like...good optics are good optics. I'm continually amazed at some of the images taken with less expensive, but high quality, glass, such as with the C-11s, Mak-Newts, and the Vixen VC200L. And the venerable big Newt still produces some of the worlds best images...Hallas, Wendel, Middleton, and McNeil come quickly to mind. Like the others said, any hobby can cost TONS of money. This one is no exception. jay ballauer www.allaboutastro.com From: Tony Hallas [mailto: tonyhallas@foothill.net] |
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