How has your astro career progressed over the years?

@Chase Davidson 

 I see you uphold the law of commenting about our name!  

Stunning images!!  I absolutely love the look of mono photography and those filters.  Getting a mono setup is a huge goal of mine...one day haha

I started with an unmodded Canon on a triplet refractor on my Gem 28 with guiding, and pretty quickly went to auto focusing, and my 294MC Pro.  Had that for a while now, and haven't been able to get much more as I moved into my own house in 2023.  So atm I am saving for the PixInsight license as I tried the trial and immediately loved that program!

@Thomas 

That sounds amazing, that's a great close up of Thor's Helmet (not to disregard the other amazing photos), that target is pretty small at my current setup (480mm).  How far is the remote observatory incase you have to go and do any maintenance?

Hello, All,

This is such an uplifting topic ~ to hear of and see the progress that we all make.  I'd love to display comparative images, but with so few clear nights in northern New England, I essentially image a target once and move on.  There are more targets in my bucket list than I probably have time for ... which isn't necessarily bad.  It keeps me hungry and desirous of more - like a kid in the candy store.

I started photographing constellations in 1968 with my dad's Polaroid.  Eventually, he let me use his Nikon S2 and Yashica Twin Lens medium format cameras, which - of course - were all film.  Those were "dinosaur days" ....  In 1971, I bought myself a used 8" f/8 reflector, and then a Cave Astrola mount (it's drives controlled by a small box with four directional buttons - state of the art at that time).  I would fasten a camera to the nose of the scope, or into the focuser and hope for the best ....

In 2015, after many years away - though I did image comets through the years ~ the fire was always within, I bought a scope and mount, but being visual was not my thing ....  So after a number of swings and misses, I purchased a Stellarvue SVX080T and EQ6-R mount.  Though, I knew the sky and how to use a telescope, imaging with a DSLR and eventually an Astro camera in the digital world was all new to me ... and I had NO IDEA what I was doing when it came to processing.  New friends, CJ Nunes and @Nico Carver set me in a right direction.  To this day, I am grateful.  And, I still remember the night in Oakham when @Marsha Wilcox  showed me how to actually guide a scope.  What a revelation [i]!![/i]

Today, I have a few scopes, a nice mount, two cameras and my wife's raised eyebrow ... and I absolutely love what we do ~ this fantastic hobby of ours.  I hope I am improving, though constantly AMAZED seeing the incredibly beautiful and technically proficient images presented herein.  I aspire to the same. 

Though a story for another day, a serendipitous association and (now) friendship with Astro mentor @Terry Hancock of www.downunderobservatory.com has almost assuredly eliminated years of trial and (lots of) error, and accelerated my journey toward Astrophotography decency.

Let's all keep those images coming and continue in encouragement throughout this wonderful AP community,

Jay

Andromeda galaxy from bortle 6, with a 70mm lens at F/2.8, untracked. Progress over 2 years.

8 minutes, 18 seconds integration, 2 years ago.

Added 400 frames, now 15 minutes integration, about 1.5 years ago:

Same 15 minutes of data from 1.5 years ago, new processing of my best revision, today. Appearing to show some dust around the galaxy?

My last one might look a little crappy I know, but I'm still stuck with Photoshop right now, so this is the best I can do.

I love this topic Chase!! In my personal journey moving from an unmodified DSLR on a tripod to a full astro rig was a huge jump, but hardware aside, I'm realizing that my biggest progression over time has been in processing - developing a repeatable / reproducible result and personal taste to how I like my final images to look and feel. It's amazing the learning that can be done online now a days. I love this hobby. 

Progression before and after:


M42 Reprocessed


M42 The Great Orion Nebula


The Flame and Horsehead Nebula


IC434 Horsehead and Flame Nebula


M45 The Pleiades


M45 Pleiades


M31 The Andromeda Galaxy


M31 Andromeda Galaxy 4 Panel Mosaic

I am loving all the sharing of the images!  

I just thought about the fact that possibly my current biggest progression, is that in 2023 I made the move out to the outer suburbs of the Twin Cities!  This was a move from a bortle 8 down to a bortle 5, only 10 minutes out of the bortle 4 transition.  This of course has helped greatly with broadband targets in the short time I've been here.

Here is my first attempt and my most recent attempt at the Pleiades!  2021 was just over 5 hours, and 2023 was just over 6

2013:


2018:


2023:

Peter Merrick:
Some really stark differences over the years here! I think an interesting co-question is what portion of the difference is technology cameras / scopes / processing tools changing, and what portion is the person improving.

That is a great co question! Thanks for that!

I think for myself, it's maybe 60/40, equipment/my improvement.  Going full astro camera with filters was a huge help, especially when I started on an unmodded dslr.  But also since I'm only a couple years into this, I learned a lot in processing.  Its been an amazing journey!

Can't really call it an astro career, but... discovered lots of previously unknown names and nicknames of astronomical objects beyond the solar system. And thanks to ASTROBIN, the search goes on, almost every day a new name or nickname! (perhaps, I really don't know, it could be that I have the largest collection of this sort of nomenclature, and I wonder if there is, on our planet, somebody else who has the same hobby).

I started in July/August of 2022, realizing I could see the milky way with my bare eyes from my backyard.     I started playing with cell phone pics, but alas they just aren't going to do it for me.     I had a history with photography so I did have some idea how to play with photos initially.   I tried running my old Nikon D200 on a tracker, but it still wasn't doing it for me.

By September I had purchased an ASI183MC and an SVBONY 80mm scope.    It was around that time I joined a few astrophotography discords to learn some tricks.   My results were not satisfying from the camera/scope combo, so with some advice from the discord communities, I went all in.

Near the end of September 2022, I had purchased an EQ6R-Pro, QHY268M, Antlia filters, and an 8" newtonian.   It was game on.

Having quality equipment, not cutting corners, took my abilities to new levels.   Clean data sets earned me an AAPOD by in November for my Elephant Trunk image.   That small reward set me down a path to push myself further and further daily.   Utilizing Discord communities, I processed anyone and everyones data for practice.   At least one image a day.   My North Carolina skies have always been very forgiving, almost consistently opening up to clear every summer night, allowing me to gather more and more data.

By February 2023, I came across a man on Discord that took me under his wing and taught me alot of advanced processing techniques, particularly for narrowband addition with broadband data.   These techniques took a little bit of practice to master, but have taken my abilities to advanced levels.   

Always spying for deals, I found a new EQ6R Pro in box for 800 bucks, which opened up the possiblity of running dual scopes.   Soon after I purchased the Esprit 100, and another IMX571.    Loved the Esprit 100 so much, I ditched my newtonian and picked up a second Esprit 100.   This has all been within the past 5-6 months.   This move granted me the ability to grab insane amounts of data every night, only feeding this addiction even more.   



Just over a year I went from just learning, to earning my first IOTD.   I hesitate to post on threads like this because this clearly comes off as a brag.   The reality is I want to inspire some folks to join Discord communities where you gain real time feedback from advanced processors.  If it were not for the people I met on Discord, I would NOT be where I am now.  I have them to thank.   I didn't take any of my knowledge from Youtubers or CloudyNights.   Knowing what I know now, I disagree with most advice given on these outlets.   Make a friend, get under their wing.   Find data sets to practice on...  practice practice practice!    Get feedback!   Save up a few bucks and purchase good equipment.   A modern sensor will take you much farther than previous gens.  Switch to mono ASAP.  There's so much to say, I know Astro gear is not cheap, but there ARE options.  




I was going to post one of my first absolutely horrible photos, but Astrobin is  having issues right now and won't allow me to upload.   So I'll share my oldest image on AB.  There has since been a revision to this image, which is much more appealing.



and I'll share one of my more recent photos that is one of my absolute favorites.    These two images are almost exactly a year apart:





Feel free to check out more in my gallery.

I started with astrophotography back in the early 90's when I was about 13. I would spend hours manually tracking a cheap equatorial mount with an srl camera, wide angle lens and hypersensitised film. The results were mesmerising to me but looking back the quality was truly awful. Eventually I cobbled together an 8" dobsonian out of bits of scrap wood. I almost set fire to it whilst observing the sun :-) Its something I've come back to over the years, getting better at it each time. Recent development have made the hobby really accessible as you can image beyond what I would have ever thought possible 30 years ago. You forget how hard it was even when I got my first digital camera - Canon 10d. Getting focus was hard with a lens, never mind a telescope as there was no such thing as live view. 

Mars 2005

Mars 2020