How long did it take? - Forums

Hello!

As the topic subject suggests, how long did it take to actually capture and process a decent astrophoto (by your standard of course) from the moment you began with the hobby? For me, I believe that my last captures are half decent but it took almost a whole year for this to happen (find my mistakes/minimize them/learn more etc) and I am very far from what I want to achieve!

Well, for me, fortunately, I was doing AP long before I joined AB or CN or anywhere else people published their images. I had no expectations, just wanted to see what I could get. And I was amazed, the very first time. I bought a Celestron EQ4 with motor drive and used some of my nature photography kit - Canon 5D3 + 300mm f/2.8 lense. Of course, I wouldn't publish those images now, but then I was quite happy with the images.

Joe

I haven't captured (and processed properly) a decent astrophoto yet after four years, but I believe I will in the next twelve months. I had a gap of more than two years when I broke my ankle badly and couldn't get the gear out, but since last November am back trying.

Some of my friends tell me to give up and just look at Hubble photos, but I think they are missing the point.

It was a progression – started with fixed tripod and stock camera lens and worked through getting a small tracker and then moving onto a small refractor and EQ mount. The first nice image took maybe 8 months But now after about 2 years of learning and experience, I can produce images from my little tracker and DSLR that are better than my early refractor/EQ mount images. One thing about this hobby is that equipment does matter – a good astro camera will outperform a DSLR, and a good mount with good guiding will produce far superior images than not having them.

As far as mistakes go, you hope you never make the same ones twice – but you might. I left my Bahtinov mask on my tracker set up the other night for 30 minutes before I realized it – things still happen! Although in terms of mistakes you only make once, I forgot we had turned on the sprinkler system last Spring and mistakenly left the set up running when the sprinklers came on in the early am. THAT is a mistake you only make once!

Actually I don't know. I started back when film was the only game in town, for all practical purposes. Fumbled with hypering kits with the help of more experienced people and took some pictures which weren't all that bad for the standard of the time I suppose. I remember the hours spent guiding with the eye glued to the EP in the cold of the night (that wasn't much fun). I decided the visual was a better game and then someone, somewhere glued a Philips Toucam to a film canister and started the digital astrography revolution for the rest of us and I got into it in a flash and started my digital photography journey which is still ongoing. The point isn't about the destination but in the journey itself as you realise it is all about the journey and the destination is ephemeral at best as you always add, improve and learn something along the way.

It all depends on how you define "decent"

I went easy on myself and started with a short focal length refractor combined with a star tracker with an unmodified DSLR. Keeping exposure times at 90 seconds helped with tracking issues quite a bit. After a week of setting everything up, I got this photo, which by my standards today is pretty terrible, but at the time I was floored with how "awesome" I thought it looked:

It helped watching tons of YouTube videos to learn how to improve my acquisition and processing. So a year later (plus upgrading to an astrocam and a better mount), I was able to progress to this:

Upgrading equipment certainly helped, but there's no substitute for practice and experience. So similar to you Dimitris, it took basically a year before I was taking "decent" photos.

In this game, the term ‘decent’ seems perpetually elusive…. By the time I reach the standard it defined for me, that standard no longer suffices as there are always others showing how much better it can be done. I know we should just enjoy what we do for it’s own sake, and not constantly angst over what could be better, but really, we’re just not that sort of people…..: )

Cheers,
Scott

I think it took about a year before I made my first 'non-embarrassing' image, but I was still rather inconsistent and my decent images from back then were more flukes than anything else. It was probably two and a half years before I started consistently making images I'm still (mostly) happy with. Most of my recent imaging has been redoing targets I didn't do well from before that period.

For me my first image that blew me away was a 3hr exposure of the Lagoon Nebula only four months into AP with my 8" sct and Canon EOS Ra on an AVX. This was also using the Celestron f/6.3 reducer and the L-Enhance filter from my Bortle8 yard. Wild stuff. I'd say it was decent compared to what I do now, but at the time when I was neck deep in learning AP with a long focal length it was pretty cool.

I started the hobby mid of September last year and I'm still not there due to getting caught in the equipment trap. I hope I manage to deliver a sensible image until end of this year. It's encouraging to hear that I'm not alone in the struggle. Of course it not only depends on what you call "decent" but what you count as astrophoto is obviously relevant too. I like my image of the moon Waxing gibbous moon at 73% (iOptron Skyguider Pro first light) ( kuechlew ) - AstroBin but I believe capturing the moon is way easier - at least on the image scale at hand - than deep sky imaging. So I don't count it. Starting lunar, solar and deep sky imaging in parallel was probably not the best idea either and certainly didn't help speeding up the process. But it's just too much fun to miss out on it ...

Clear skies
Wolfgang

I'm always thrilled when the first subs come in and later when the finished image is in front of me on the display. But usually I have the first things to complain about the very next day.

Astrophotographers are like the donkey that follows a carrot on a stick: We are constantly striving for a goal that cannot be reached, but in the process we are steadily making progress.

For the really frustrating days, here's a tip: take a look at photos of the big Earth-based telescopes from the years before 2000. It is unbelievable what our small telescopes in the backyard or on the balcony can do.

I've been doing this for over 3 years and I still don't feel like I've captured a good picture, maybe me being cynical and over-criticizing myself but hey, gives me something to reach for!

In the beginning I was very happy with the images I got. Then I tried longer FL and that kept me in a continuous circle of replacing some piece or other of my equipment for almost two years. I think I've excaped from that loop now - the problems with my images are mainly in processing (and lack of exposure time compared to the LP level here): Each time I "finish" an image, I am content. The next day, I find a multitude of issues. So I try and work on those, but on the next image, as I usually can't motivate myself to start from scratch with the same data. As others have said: It's the journey.

Torben van Hees:
In the beginning I was very happy with the images I got. Then I tried longer FL and that kept me in a continuous circle of replacing some piece or other of my equipment for almost two years. I think I've excaped from that loop now - the problems with my images are mainly in processing (and lack of exposure time compared to the LP level here): Each time I "finish" an image, I am content. The next day, I find a multitude of issues. So I try and work on those, but on the next image, as I usually can't motivate myself to start from scratch with the same data. As others have said: It's the journey.

This totally rings true to me about liking an image you have created, but then seeing only issues with it the next day. I like an image, then wake up the next morning hating it, then reprocess, like, sleep, hate, repro.... etc

It's constructive to stand back and be critical of your own work, but it can get so compulsive.

Think the biggest trick is that my standards keep moving. Have been only seriously imaging for about 2 years and for now I keep going back to the same targets because i learned something new and want to improve, I am however happy with all captures that teach me something.

CS,
Sean