What is your motivation to do astrophotography?

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I do it for myself mostly. I don't even share them on social media. I share them with my astro friends and astrobin which for me is more a repository than a social network tho I like the exchange of information and ideas here. I do like when people like my images, it meant something for them but if it didn't I don't mind either. 
What motivates me the most is the acquisition momment. When I'm alone in the dark in my dark sky site looking up I feel privledged for being able to contemplate how big the universe is. I feel happy that I'm able to turn small pieces of the night sky into images that I can look and contemplate with myself. I spend a lot of time also looking at images taken by people here at astrobin and thinking how big the universe is. Yeah it sounds cheesy but that is objectively what it is. 
Two examples:
https://www.astrobin.com/etnqqu/
https://www.astrobin.com/ss7plo/B/

Aside from that - atrophotography is very challenging and time consuming (and money - a lot). Being able to achieve your objectives is just fun. It is painful but it is very fun. 

I don't want to be harsh but this is how I see it:
- 99%+ of people are ignorant which is not something to blame on itself but most of them if not all chose to stay ignorant to astronomy, cosmology or astrophotography. They just want to watch the news and die. I found this the hard way when I've tried to talk about this with non-astro folks. I gave up early on so nowadays I don't talk much about what I do with "regular" people. 
- If you're expeting "regular" people to recognize your effors and feel motivated with your images you may end up very disapointed with.... people. I just hope you don't feel disapointed with your images. I still have crappy images from when I started and I remember how awesome I felt when I managed to capture them. Nowadays I have less crappy ones and I'm still very happy when I look at them specially during the imaging sessions. 

You're so young and and is already deep into this hobby and even studying astrophysics. This is amazing.
You're rocking it!

CS

Good question  I'd say some elements of what motivated me in the beginning have changed and some have remained constant. Initially I was motivated first and foremost by being alone under the night sky and contemplating the vastness and wonder of the universe. That hasn't changed. I also like the technical aspects of the hobby - striving to be better at acquiring (as has been pointed out, that often means more $$$) and better at processing (more learning curve, less $$$). That motivation remains as this hobby can be a life-long learning curve if you can stay motivated. What has changed how I derive satisfaction from showing my work to others - I have struggled with this as a motivator. Before I retired I was a professor, and even though I taught biology, I would still often start a lecture with "this is what I took a picture of last…" and I printed and sold photos in our university bookstore. I didn't realize how lucky I was to have an enthusiastic captive audience until I retired. After retirement I started posting on Facebook and that was satisfying to some extent, and I've lately become more active in posting here on Astrobin. Although that has been somewhat satisfying, I've struggled to reconcile "likes" with my own appreciation for an image. An image is a composite of the time under the stars acquiring the data, the hours spend processing to create an ideal (to me) image, and the time spent researching and posting about the object I've photographed - as a former educator teaching about the object is an important aspect of sharing. However, in this age of social media (including here on Astrobin) one knows that most people only have seconds to view an image compared to the hours that I have put into creating it. Subtle doesn't cut it - most don't have to time to recognize or value subtle acquisition and processing details. Yet to me it's perfecting those details that provides me the most satisfaction. In my most recent image I used PI's Spectrophotometric Color Calibration for the first time and I've gone back to that image over and over just because I love the star colors. I've come to the conclusion that I have to first be true to myself and get satisfaction from the hours spent on acquisition and processing. For me to stay motivated I need that night sky alone time and that solitary processing experience - if I'm doing this for likes, then I've realized that I will never be satisfied. I fight not to let a like based upon a 3 second view over-ride the hours of satisfaction I've gotten from research, acquisition and processing.

My background is similar to yours. I am fascinated by stars since I was a child.  I joined the astro club when I was in high school. There I learned about astrophotography (and photography in general), and also learned that it is physics that's behind astronomy. So I decided to study physics in college, and then astronomy for my master and phd degrees. Now I am an astronomer in a government research institute, which is the leader in astronomical research in my country. I also regularly teach graduate-level astronomy courses in a university.

To me, astrophysics is my career, and astrophotography is a life-time hobby. When I was young, my astrophotography results were limited by budget and available time. I had to prioritize my studies. I squeezed as much as possible in terms of budget and time, so I can afford astrophotography, but it was never the priority. Indeed, I stopped astrophotography several times (each time for as short as two years or as long as six years) so I could focus on my studies and my career development.

Now I can confidently say that my astrophotography is much better than 30 years ago, because of two things.

1. 30 years ago I used film, and now I use digital detectors. It's not only the difference in detectors, but also the knowledge I learned about professional astronomical observations (based on digital detectors) during my studies. Essentially everything I learn about astronomy and astronomical observations (from statistics, instruments, image processing, to data analyses) can be used to improve astrophotography.
2. Now I have better and more stable income to support astrophotography. So I get to pick the equipments that I really like. I can even use the very good telescopes from my institute for astrophotography. (Price to pay here is that my institute will own part of the copyright if the work is created with the institute equipment. But I am fine with that. I never really use my pictures to earn any money.)

So you can see, a career in astrophysics can co-exist with a hobby in astrophotography. My experience may not be applicable to you, but at least it is a possible working model.

What drives me to do astrophotography? I like astronomy (the same thing drives me to do astrophysics) and pretty pictures. Nothing more than that. I have done it for 30 years, and I will continue to do it in the foreseeable future, probably until my health can no longer support it.

I like building stuff. Optical systems, electronics, mechanics, even ditch digging.  It all comes together in astro imaging. The imaging is a challenging way of bringing what is often years of work to fruition. Keeping a complex remote controlled assemblage of imaging systems up and running is a lot of work, Its all a great way to enjoy retirement.

A recent imager project that took more than a year:
https://cdn.astrobin.com/ckeditor-files/14617/2022/a382cb5b-489c-406e-8113-872791feb391.pdf

A recent control system project that took about 6 months:
https://cdn.astrobin.com/ckeditor-files/14617/2023/39094d85-043e-4e60-ae0c-ed3781c4852e.pdf

Dave

Deleted---Too ridiculous to leave up as a post.

This is a hobby. As such, it should be something that provides enjoyment and relieves the stress and ennui of everyday life. If it doesn't, if it adds to the stress of life, it is no longer a hobby, but an obsession. And that's not healthy.

There was a time when every clear night would have me driving to a dark sky site. A lot of other things got neglected as a result, and the consequences of that  became apparent during COVID. So I make it a point to keep it in its place, doing just enough of it to give me personal satisfaction and never placing it above things in life that are far more important.

One other point - this hobby is heavily biased towards those who have large amounts of disposable money and large amounts of time. And also access to dark skies, though that also can be bought. In other words, older and wealthy. Not to say there are not wonderful things being done with simple equipment, but that is few and far between. So keep that in mind if you are after making images that will get noticed by others especially on a site like this. Find something in this that you control and that makes you happy independent of the opinions or approbation of others. And if you cannot, then find something else that does.

I would say, but the statement would most probably encounter judgement from many here, so I'd rather not say.

@Skender Kajoshaj just say it

James:
Astrophotography is my primary hobby.  It's that simple.  

If a hobby starts to feel like work, places demands on you, creates anxiety or pressure.. then its time for a new hobby.  You owe nothing to your hobbies.

I do want to share one other thing.  When it comes to careers/work, it's often said to find out what you love, then do that as a career choice.  And that works for a lot of people... but it's not for everyone.

Back in the day, my hobby was computers.  Building them, testing them, overclocking them, trying different configurations and playing games on them.  Then I got a job in IT.  Now, outside of work.. I don't do anything with them, lol.

As you continue with your studies, and astronomy becomes a career.. don't feel guilty if you fall out of love with astrophotography. 

CS!

Well said,   if you love something, don't make it your job.   I'm right there with you!  Almost 20 years in aviation now and I'm done!

Tomas,

My advice is "Don't give up the day job".  Focus on your studies in astrophysics, and do astrophotography (if you can) as a hobby.  You can always come back to it later.

Of course, my advice is based on my experience as a professional astronomer.  It brought me money, a little bit of fame (for the odd 15mins here or there) and a fair bit of success.  But it was all-consuming - sometimes even to the detriment of my beautiful wife and my two wonderful sons - I am ashamed to say.  

Now retired, I have taken up AP, which is bringing me some money (but not enough to cover my expenses in this hobby) and a little bit of fame as the local crazy astrophysicists who does public shows. 

However, I would not have been in this position had I not been succeesful in my chosen career.   
 
We are really fortunate in that astronomy supports both "professional" and "amateur",  but if you are lucky and capable enough to have a shot at a research career in astrophysics - take it!   Publishing original research which you have been part of is a feeling like no other.   This will help put likes on AB in perspective.

Brian

PS To answer your question, my motivation to do AP is to continue to promote astronomy to the public (I now chair a charitable trust here to do that)  and champion dark skies as pat of a sustainable approach to ongoing development (I am leading our community's submission to the IDA for dark sky status).

My biggest motivation in astrophotography is to wait for a night with clear skies and low humidity.
Finally, after a long wait, the long-awaited night arrives but unfortunately there is a full moon and so I go to sleep.
And this is the sad reality of the last 6 months so I'm seriously starting to think that keeping thousands of euros of setups collecting dust doesn't make much sense.