I started to become interested in the night sky in the late 1990s. I still vividly remember my first look through binoculars at the planet Jupiter and its four Galilean moons – an indescribable sight I will never forget. Later, I received a telescope for my studies and made my first observations with it. It wasn’t long before I attempted my first analog astrophotography efforts, although the results were rather modest.
By chance, I came across a book titled The CCD Camera Cookbook. It was a guide to building your own CCD camera, which was revolutionary at the time. Such cameras were, if at all, only found in highly professional settings and not in the amateur field. The design repurposed a chip from a Texas Instruments surveillance camera, boasting an impressive resolution of about 320 x 200 pixels or so. With it, I took my first images, and they turned out surprisingly decent. They are standing on my desk till today.
However, the technology back then was still quite limited, and tracking the telescope was an absolute nightmare since everything had to be done manually. Over time, I lost touch with the hobby but rediscovered astronomy in late 2012.
Since then, the advancements in technology have made everything much more enjoyable and easier, allowing for faster and better results. I’m simply fascinated by the wonders one can discover out there, even from the comfort of one’s own backyard.
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