Hello all,
First of all, thanks for providing a platform for us amateurimagers to exhibit our skills - no matter where we are on the learning curve!

I have been interested in astronomy for as long as I canremember. I grew up in India in a town that is regarded as the birthplace for
India's space research and had access to some of the research laboratories that
housed many astronomy related artifacts. I was also lucky to grow up at a time
when, if you looked up in the night sky and assuming it was clear, you could
actually plenty of stars and make out whatever arm of the Milky Way was visible
at the time. Coupled with my curiosity, I was naturally drawn to astronomy.
Photography was another interest of mine growing up, especially photon
collection and I have retained that hobby as well. I combined the two,
formally, sometime in 2004-2005 timeframe. I already owned a couple of
telescopes by that time, and hooking up a DSLR to the back of the telescope and
taking my first astroimage was mesmerizing. I have also been part of Astrobin
for a long time (6 plus years and counting)! I use it for various purposes,
many times to marvel at the images that people capture, but also to learn about
what I can do with my own data.

After moving to TX (from IL, no less) in 2011 - theastroimging hobby has gone up a notch - weather in TX is a lot more conducive
for such pursuits. I am also very lucky to be living in the midst of some
really good astrophotograhers - I truly believe the Greater Austin area in
Central TX has by far more astroimagers per capita than anywhere else in the US
(okay, I have no way of quantifying that, but you get the point - there are
many talented astroimagers in Central Texas), from whom I have learnt a lot
more about image processing than by reading any books that may be out there. I have also been part of the Austin Astronomical Society and for a briefperiod held the post of Treasurer with AAS.

Of late my pursuits have taken me to explore the imageprocessing side of this hobby - I find data processing to be a lot more
challenging than data collection. Data collection, for the most part can be
(and is, in my case) fully automated. I just click a few buttons and my
equipment, which is housed in a remote observatory in West Texas, will acquire
data. However, every target is different from a data acquisition standpoint and
I truly get a lot more satisfaction in understanding how to use various modules/functions
in different image processing tools (mostly PixInsight for me).

I welcome you to look at my images here on Astrobin, however,you will quickly realize that I am still learning the art of image processing
(but I can make out what is good and what is not!). Either way, I am satisfying
two things for myself - I am satisfying my curiosity of the space and Universe
in which we live and having fun!

Once again, many thanks for having this platform and if thereis a meaningful way for me to contribute, I will be ready to help out.

Thanks and Clear Skies to all!
Dhaval Brahmbhatt
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