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I've been interested in nature, wildlife, and scenic photography all my adult life. But the first time I pointed my camera at the sky (deliberately, anyway) was the 2017 solar eclipse. I was in the 98% totality zone, so I bought my first piece of astro gear (a solar filter in a cardboard lens sleeve) and took some images. The lesson learned is that there is a world of difference between 98% and 100% totality. It shall always be a great disappointment in my life that I was too lazy to drive a few miles south that day. Next came Comet NEOWISE in 2020. I drove out to the badlands to see if I could catch some images - and surprisingly, I could! I went out again the next few nights, and got some decent results. It was fun, and challenging, which I enjoy. (I show images to friends, and they will often remark that it sounds like a lot of work. I say, if it were easy, it wouldn't be any fun.) I tried more targets, read a lot, bought some entry- and intermediate-level gear. And now I have a new hobby. Besides, it would be a shame not to take advantage of the wonderfully dark skies we have here. I am a daily visitor to APOD. I would look at the incredible images and wonder, "Wow, I wish I knew how they did that!" Then, last Tuesday, I clicked the link under Neven Krcmarek's beautiful "Seven Sisters versus California", and lo - there were the acquisition details! Just what I was looking for! So I ponied up for the Ultimate membership. I am particularly interested in the advanced plate solving feature - often my biggest problem imaging DSOs is just finding the darn thing. But I am also appreciative of a community that seems especially tolerant of eager, if ignorant, newbies like me. To all who took the time to slog through this lengthy intro, my thanks. I hope to become an active, and perhaps in time, even useful, member. I've posted images of the above-described adventures, plus some newer ones, to the public area. |
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Hi Don, I'm your neighbor to the south in Colorado and relatively new to astrophotography also. Welcome to Astrobin. Would love to see some of your work. Dark skies and enjoy !-) Tom |
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Tom, thanks for your warm welcome. Your shots of the Heart and Elephant Trunk nebulae are what I am trying to achieve. Bravo, sir. (Went back and upvoted them because I forgot I could do that.) I hope for dark skies but am afraid we will have cloudy ones tonight. Good wishes to you, though! |
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I Don and welcome! There are some really amazing and talented folks here. I look at images people capture here and think what talent is here and what a wonderful technological time we live in to enable amateur astrophotographers to create these fine images. Sounds like you are fortunate to have beautiful night skies at tour location. That is a huge plus and gives you the resource to capture outstanding images. Best of success and looking forward to seeing your work! Jim |
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Welcome Don! You will find this sight very welcoming along with many that love to help and share experiences that will guide you through this wonderful hobby! Dale |
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Howdy from Paris, France! CS, Frédéric |
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Don, When I started this hobby finding targets and having to select 2 or 3 stars to align the mount and scope was really difficult for me as I couldn't always tell if I was looking at the right star. After quite some time I bought an astronomical camera to replace the DSLR and used Sharpcap to control it and also plate solve. It was so easy compared with what I used to do and it placed my target right in the centre of the image and aligned the mount and scope at the same time. David |
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Thanks to all for the welcomes! You certainly know how to make a body feel at home! Juno16: >> what a wonderful technological time we live in I know, right? I can't even begin to comprehend what a challenge it must have been to capture these images on celluloid. (I'm old enough to remember film photography.) And I have the nerve to call what I do "challenging"! Frédéric : Bonsoir, mon ami! (I took German in high school, not French. Dank sei Gott fur Google Translate!) Moorefam: David, you have anticipated my first question, which I will post to the "Equipment" forum soon - how to best spend my tax refund. I have used my guide camera (ZWO 120) to image with SharpCap, and the results have been pretty good. |
