Just wasted $500 on an 'astro-mod' telescope filter set

I got suckered into buying a set of those fancy narrowband filters from a guy at a star party in Flagstaff last month. He claimed they'd cut through light pollution like magic and make my images pop. Spent $500 on the whole Ha, OIII, SII set and after 4 frustrating nights of shooting I got nothing but dim, noisy messes. My buddy's $100 dual-band filter from a no-name brand gives him better results with half the exposure time. I feel like I paid for marketing hype and a fancy box, not actual performance gains. Anyone else been burned by overpriced astro gear that just didn't deliver?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_taylor7d ago

Fell for that exact same pitch last year at a swap meet in Tucson. Got the three-filter set and spent weeks trying to get anything usable out of it, just ended up with hours of data that looked worse than my old broadband shots. Learned the hard way that a lot of that high end gear rides on buzzwords and a nice presentation.

burns.brooke6d ago

Three filter set, jeez. That Tucson swap meet guy must've made a killing off folks like us. Sorry you had to go through that, it's such a bummer when you get all excited about new gear and it's just junk.