wvbirder

David, I really enjoyed reading reading your post! Our travels through this hobby/obsession are similar. I've lived in Maryland and West Virginia for most of my life. I started keeping track of what I was seeing in July of 1988 with a 10" Meade SCT. I fell in love with galaxies with their subtle differences if one took the time to look deeper. I went to a couple of star parties in the late 1980's and saw a new generation of lighter weight Dobsonian's and got aperture fever. I've owned several dobs since that time ranging from 18" to 24" (truss type) and my current big scope is an Obsession UC 22", a retirement present. I, like you went to MS Access and wrote my own database and reporting programs using the built-in Visual Basic and queries using SQL. I created my database tables to be compatible with Chris Mariott's SkyMap Pro (no longer being upgraded) which I still use today as my primary program. I can import my observations into SkyMapPro. I took some breaks during the last 35 years to chase other interests but came back to astronomy 5 years ago. My first 1,797 observations we're all "star hopped" but with the Obsession everything (2,213 more objects) since 2018 has been GoTo (UC 22) or PushTo (with a Starmaster 11" f/5.4). Total number of galaxies logged thus far is 3,367. I completed the Herschel catalog in June, 2023, a 35 year project (The base liine object list was via the Astronomical League Herschel Society and I've also referenced Mark Bratton's book and Wolfgang Steinicke's eweb site for additional targets). I didn't know I had started my Herschel journey with NGC 891 on 7-31-1988. I continue to seek out more faint fuzzies and am working on the Hickson groups and other galaxies that Lewis Swift discovered. I know I won't be using the big scope forever as age is becoming a factor but I'll enjoy it while I can and then revert to a smaller scope to carry on. Best of luck in your on going adventures and clear skies, Matt Orsie - Hedgesville, WV

You can avoid burnout of M 42's core by taking short captures. The trade off is more noise in shorter exposures but that can be mitigated with noise reduction software. Here's a 5 minute shot of M 42 from my Bortle 4 skies last week. Post processed in Siril and Photoshop.