Kenward Vaughan avatar
I recently retired from teaching and now can focus on things I really enjoy, like astrophotography!  smile  I dove into astronomy about 35 years ago with a Meade 10" LX-6 and a film camera, but shortly afterwards life tugged me elsewhere for quite a while.  Nonetheless I really liked the 15' image I made of  the Orion nebula (of course…).  Back then CCDs were thousands of dollars (a big deal that many years ago!) and relatively unknown to the amateur.  

Several years ago I spotted an image in a magazine which I thought was certainly another of those from Hubble, only to find that some amateur had taken it.  Since my job/income had changed substantially over that time and I had an understanding wife, I got back into things.  It's one of my primary activities now in these latter years.

Totally portable at this time (don't see that changing anytime soon) and have several good dark sites within about 4 hours of our lovely Bortle 13 skies (haha) in the southern San Joaquin Valley. 

Like many others, I am hesitant to show anything I have done outside the normal circle of sympathetic friends and family, but have decided to join AstroBin for the information and feedback I might get. 

Cheers!


Kenward
Engaging
Steve Solon avatar
Hi Kenward, and welcome.
​​​​​
You've come to the right place. Imagers of all experience levels live here, so never be hesitant to show your work. This is an ever-evolving avocation, not only from the personal-learning standpoint, but also in terms of software and hardware. There isn't a month that goes by that there isn't an improvement in some aspect of our pursuit. Take for example the wonderful process tools BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, etc. Even six months ago, they were unheard of, and now, they've revolutionized and simplified efforts that were frustrating to we imagers in the past.

AstroBin is comprised of folks who are free with their knowledge and experience; questions are never considered elementary, and are usually answered by more of us than you'd imagine, so ask away.

You're going to like it here.
All the best,
Steve
Well written Respectful Engaging Supportive
Related discussions
How Far We've Come: Comparing old 200" Hale Images with Modern Digital Images
I recently had dinner in Montana with a couple of my former grad-student buddies from "Optical Sciences". As we were finishing dinner, the subject of my telescopes came up and like many of us, one of my buddies had gone into optics by way o...
Compares historical film photography with modern digital imaging techniques in astronomy.
Jul 7, 2025
Hi everyone!
I have been a beginner/casual astronomer for several years now and just yesterday got my telescope back in service. I had some questions about my collimation so a asked them here this morning. I couldn't believe that I had answers to my questions wit...
Fellow amateur astronomer returning to hobby after time away, seeking telescope advice.
Sep 19, 2025