Has anyone started doing any photometry with the new Celestron Origin? I haven’t seen much on the topic other than a brief article from Richard Berry quoted on Celestron’s website (Using the Celestron Origin for Science | Celestron). The article is positive but very short and doesn’t go into much detail. I’m curious if anyone has tried and would love to hear about their experiences.
One thing in particular I was wondering about is the “clear” filter that comes with the scope. I read someone say that this served as an IR cut filter (which to the best of my knowledge is an important thing to have for accurate photometry) but I don’t know if that’s accurate or not and haven’t been able to find anything “official” on the subject yet. If it does not block IR then is it possible to just use an off the shelf IR/UV cut filter in the Origin? I’ve read that very fast optics may not work well with filters not specifically designed for them, and the Origin in an f/2.2. (The only filter that Celestron sells specifically for the Origin is a nebula filter.)
Hi Brian,
Richard recently started mentoring an AAVSO member with an Origin, so I know of at least two people who are doing photometry with it. If there is enough interest in this topic, we could consider starting a special interest group.
It should be noted that AAVSO also has a Smart Telescope Working Group that is developing tools and guidance for how to use these devices for science. This group is chaired by @mcraig and @mark_munkacsy . That group is making good progress developing an application that vastly simplifies the photometric pipeline for smart telscopes.
Until that is done, my advice has been to look at the DSLR Photometry Manual because smart telescopes are fairly similar. The CCD/CMOS observing guide may also have some advice.
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the info, that’s very helpful. I’m glad that the AAVSO is looking into developing guidance for the use of smart telescopes for photometry as I think that would be of interest to many people (myself included, obviously).