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Greetings Astrobinians! I'm a 50-ish year entertainment industry professional who has worked in theatre, radio, television, film, and owned a recording studio. Currently, I am an Assistant Director in film and television, working mostly on location. I have a professional opera singer wife, a dog, and a cat, who hold down the fort at our suburban Los Angeles home, but I work mostly in Chicago, so have a condo there, as well. Ironically, over the past year, I have been working more in Hawaii (Magnum P.I.) and New Mexico (Big Sky, where I am currently) than in either of my residences. As a result, I find ways and places to enjoy astrophotography wherever I happen to be. I began my astrophotography journey in spring of 2021. Flashback a few months prior, to Pandemic Christmas, when my wife said, "Take $500 and buy yourself a telescope." Astronomy had been a casual interest 40 or so years earlier, but, while I was very immersed in terrestrial photography, and wondered if I could take pictures of space through my department store achromat (even tried a couple of times), my 35mm and medium format film cameras just didn't cut it. If I knew then what I know now, I probably would have fought the reciprocity failure to attempt some wide-field. I still have those cameras, and may pull them out again at some point. Zoom back to the $500 Christmas present to myself...from my wife... After three months and a ton of research, I found the scope I wanted. It was on back order and would be delivered in 3 weeks. In 5 weeks. In 2 months. When they pushed it again saying maybe 6-8 months out, I decided to cancel that order (it was a Newtonian for which I had already received the field flattener, so had to return that). In the meantime, I joined the Northwest Suburban Astronomers group near Chicago and went out to a couple of observation sessions with just my DSLR and a tripod. The other astronomers in the group were very helpful in offering suggestions on equipment. So I had a spare Canon T4i that didn't get much use since I had upgraded, and sent it to get full-spectrum modified. That added a few hundred to my budget - but it wasn't the "telescope", so I justified that I wasn't going over the $500. Pretty much everyone recommended that my first scope for astrophotography be a short APO refractor. I settled on the WO Z73iii. Okay...THAT went over budget. But only by a couple of hundred. I justified it by showing my wife pictures on line that had been taken with the same telescope. But in order to get images like those, I needed an equatorial mount. And...really...a motorized mount. One that would handle the weight of the scope, camera, and guide equipment. And a dedicated astro computer. And filters. And dew heaters. And power supplies. And...and...and....... Mind you, pretty much everything, at that point, was still on back order, since this hobby shot through the roof when people needed to social distance. Zoom forward and my $500 Christmas present had become a $12,000+ life present that's still growing.... I have since joined the El Valle Astronomers group in the Taos, NM area, and, while work keeps me mostly in the light-polluted Albuquerque area, I found the small town of Corrales to rent in while I'm here - which doesn't have streetlights, and enforces an ordinance against unhooded lights. I'm looking forward to learning much more from you all here on Astrobin, as I hone my skills. |
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| Welcome to the bottomless money-pit. Thankfully my hobby has only cost $5,000-ish so far, however I can see that growing rapidly in the future. |
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Andy Wray: Yep...it certainly has an exponential up-trending curve. |
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Michael, Welcome, this is a hobby where you can go as far and deep as you want in multiple dimensions as fast or slow as you want. Like many here I have spent a lifetime, 60+ years, in and around astronomy and optical systems. Astrobin is a fantastic group of people who are eager to share and help, you have landed in the right place. -Dave |
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Michael, Well said! |
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Thanks for such a great intro Michael and welcome to the "club." Astro-imaging is both deep and broad and it seems like you have had a great start. The money is one thing but it's the value that counts. I've got nearly $100k in one of my scopes but in the observatory where it's located in Chile, it's surrounded by scopes that cost 2x - 10x that number! So forget about what it costs and focus on the experience. This is a great place to become inspired by what's possible--and to get some help along the way. Good luck with it and I look forward to seeing your images... John Oh...and BTW, at "50-ish" you don't even qualify to join the geezer club around here! You are still a youngster!  )))))
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John Hayes: Hey John, Thanks for the welcome! It's 50-ish years in the entertainment industry...got a few more gray hairs than that  Still enjoying the ride, though!!Mike |
