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Hello there from Canada! My name is Nicolas and I am a HUGE star wars fan (I hope you understand the hello there reference/joke). Since I was a kid I've always been intrigued by astronomy but had never taken any measures to get into this hobby. It wasn't until June 2021 that I've decided to explore this hobby in greater details. I now enjoy and do both visual and astrophotography. Although I am a complete begginer still. Here is my progress. In mid June 2021, I started looking up and wondering and developing a greater passion for the night sky. I contacted my local astronomy shop and asked for recommendations on which telescope I should buy for a begginer in the hobby. I explained to them that I was completely new into this hobby and had very minimal knowledge. I told them that I knew how to find the big Dipper and that was about all the knowledge I had. The man on the phone recommended a pair of binoculars as it is a cheap and good alternative for begginers. Two weeks later, I received my celestron 15x70 skymaster binoculars. I was amazed by what I could see with the binoculars. I remember looking at the planets and being mezmerized. Then, I found my first DSO with a pair of bincoluar. Andromeda Galaxy. I will always remember the first time I saw it. It was truly out of this world. I've officially fallen into the rabbit hole. I want more. Couple month goes by and I become more and more eager to own a telescope. So I call my local astronomy shop again. By this time, they were starting to know who I was, and me and one of the employee started to become friends. Today, he is my mentor/consultant and one of my best friend and the best astrophotographer I know today. I told him I wanted to buy a dobsonian for visual astronomy. He then recommended me another telescope. Because of covid 19 and the major disruption it caused in the supply chain, 5 months later I received my first ever telescope. The celestron omni 150mm XLT with the CG4 equatorial mount. Like Darth Sidious did to Anakin, the grooming to the dark side begins. Learning astronomy without a goto mount and with help of books and apps like stellarium, I was improving my visual skills rapidily. The best recommendations he's made to a begginer as I had to learn the night sky while learning how to use an EQ mount. Perfect for begginers. My knowledges starts to expand. I quickly learn different constellations and many DSO'S location ( althought still very few, don't forget I am very new to all this). I still remember the first DSO I found in my telescope. M81 and M82. I screamed like a 5 years old girl alone in my backyard. I was hooked. The grooming continues. By then I start watching more and more astrophotography YouTube channels and my mentor keeps on sending me images he's taken from his observatory. I've fallen deeper into the rabbit hole. I reach out the my senpai again and ask him what do I need to get started in astrophotography. Couple weeks later, I own a used canon T3I, a used star adventurer pro pack (no wifi) and a zoom lens. Winter is here. M42 here I come. I set up my camera on my star adventurer and start imaging for the first time. Total disappointment. I had no idea how to use my set up. The images were terrible, yet I was still happy with the results as it was my very first image in my life. The grooming is almost complete. My mentor brings me to his bortle 2 observatory and teaches me how to use my gear properly. After that weekend, just like Anakin, I've fallen to the dark side and officially joined the astrophotography world. The grooming is complete. Again I want more. The zoom lens is not enough. I contact my mentor and ask for advice. He recommended me a small refractor like a Redcat or WO Z61. We're now back to present and a year as gone by. I find this used WO Z61 with a field flatner for 650$. The deal of a lifetime. I am looking forward for all the wonderful adventures and memory visual astronomy and astrophotography will bring me. Let the learning journey begin. I have still a few upgrades I'd like to get. -modifying my DSLR-filters-all kind of other stuff ( you know how it is ... It never ends.....) As a begginers, I have made a list of target that I wanna capture this summer. To me this list is ideal not because they are beautiful targets but because they are easy targets to find and frame. They will provide a great learning experience and practice for any begginers in this hobby. Here is the list. -M16, the eagle nebula in Serpens-NGC 7000, the north American nebula in Cygnus-IC 5070, the Pelican nebula in Cygnus-M31 Andromeda Galaxy -M33 the triangulum galaxy-NGC 6888 , the crescent nebula in Cygnus My goal here is to learn. Not get great images. That will come in time. So far I've only taken 2 images. The western veil nebula and an attempt at M81 and M82. If you are an expert or a begginer, please provide feedback and recommendations. Wether it is towards my gear upgrade, target list or anything else, I am open to anything. If you are a begginer like me, I hope that we can get in touch and learn together. Share our knowledge, share our mistakes, compare our data and learn and improve together! I'd like thank @Trevor Jones and Dylan O'Donnell ( which I can't find) for being a great source of inspiration and providing great content that helped me developed this passion but most importantly I'd like to thank my mentor and great friend @MasterTy not only for introducing me to this wonderful hobby and guiding me and teaching me all I know today but also for your patience. You're the man and happy birthday ;) Cheers and may clear skies be with you, Nic |
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| Great intro Nic and welcome to the dark side. |
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| Welcome to Astrobin, Nic. |
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| Welcome and many happy landings to you! |
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Hi Nic, this is a great story. of how to start. I wished I had a mentor on my side when I was starting. I would have saved a lot of money  Because I publish some of the images I took, it happened occasionally that I got responses from some interested people. Some of them are astronomy teachers and one is working part time in an observatory community. It always happens by accident. But they all live far away from my place and I keep working alone. I tried to contact a nearby astronomy club, but because of Covid I guess, I got no response. There used to be an astronomy club in my town, but it does not exist anymore. Thats sad. Beside the fact, that I'm basically exclusively an astro photographer, I always was interested in the science behind the subjects in my frames. But there seems to be only few people around my place, that share the same interest, I guess. I'm just getting a bit sentimental... But nevertheless, I totally understand your passion and it is nice to read about your experiences. Thanks for sharing them with us. I'm really happy to hear that things are going well for you. Even trying to keep thinking positive, there are so much problems in this world. But if you look to the stars and the universe, they all seem ridiculous and totally unneccessary, didn't they? Clear skies to you... Christian |
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Christian Großmann: Hi Christian! We're on the same page me and you ! Since I started astronomy I've never read so many science book to try and understand what is going on in my pictures instead of citing the wikepdia definition of the target. That is unfortunate about the astronomy club. I guess they all took a big hit because the same thing happened to me in my town. There's a club and local observatory maybe 15 minutes from me but it is closed due to covid and oh yeah, someone built a HUGE house right beside it ..... I was very lucky to find a mentor to guide me. At least it's fun to know there are some people around that you may be able to meet and make friends with when it opens again. By the way, I love you images !! Very talented. Mine a very very bad I will be uploading them soonish. The feedback some people will be able to provide will be very valuable and also it will have be fun to see the progress overtime. Cheers ! And clear skies. Nic |
