We are excited to announce the launch of our new forums! You can access it forums.aavso.org. For questions, please see our blog post. The forums at aavso.org/forum have become read-only.
Welcome to the world of variable star observing and please remember that there is no such thing as a dumb question.
To directly answer your question the definite answer is that YES you need to use photometry filters, and at a minimum a Johnson prescription "V" filter, which will surfice for the majority of your needs for some time to come. NO to the "color" filters if referring to the RGB filters intended for making a color compositie image.
"Different models of CCD chips have different spectral responses. Because of this, it is vital that one use proper photometric filters when observing variable stars:"
Please read section 2.3 of the CCD manual regarding filters!
Rookie,
Welcome to the world of variable star observing and please remember that there is no such thing as a dumb question.
To directly answer your question the definite answer is that YES you need to use photometry filters, and at a minimum a Johnson prescription "V" filter, which will surfice for the majority of your needs for some time to come. NO to the "color" filters if referring to the RGB filters intended for making a color compositie image.
"Different models of CCD chips have different spectral responses. Because of this, it is vital that one use proper photometric filters when observing variable stars:"
Please read section 2.3 of the CCD manual regarding filters!
http://www.aavso.org/ccd-observing-manual
Also pay special attention to section 2.2 since sampling tends to be an issue with new observers plus a really smart idea to read the whole manual.
Tim Crawford