Exactly 1 year in the hobby...

[rocketandroll]

Well... I joined Stargazers Lounge on 12th January 2011 and posted (at about this time) asking for advice on how to get started in DSO imaging....

With massive thanks to all the great people on here, a couple of star parties, more £££'s of equipment bought, sold and traded than I care to admit to.... and about 25 clear nights under starry skies... I wanted to post up a quick review of my first year in the hobby.

I'll start with my first ever astro photo.... an image of M42 taken over two clear nights in early March after I had soaked up all the advice I could and jumped in and bought a HEQ5-Pro second hand, a Meade 127mm triplet apo (second hand) and a modded Eos 350D (also second hand)....

This image was a stack of about 40 - 50 unguided subs between 10 seconds and 40 seconds in length, about 20 minutes in total, along with just a handfull of darks. The moment that first image of the nebula appeared on the screen of my camera is one I won't ever forget... the realisation "My god, I can actually do this?!" is a special one I guess we all go through.

The image was submitted to Sky at night magazine and was actually featured on their August 2011 cover disk.

My second image, taken with the help of some new friends at Kelling Heath was of M51. This was a total of an hour and a half of 50 second or so subs stacked with darks and flats and with some processing help from Cloudwatcher here on SGL.

Continuing with the galaxy theme I then shot M81/82 using a similar hour and a half of just under 1 min exposures from a local farm in April/May.

In May I got myself a 200mm Lseries f2.8 Canon lens on the advice of Olly... and got some awesome widefield shots with it at f2.8 using my new modded Eos500D which I had got as an upgrade to the 350D. This shot is one of the quickest with just 11 X 1min exposures... but proves the worth of such a fast system... this was M8 and M20 in Saggitarius grabbed from a clifftop in Felixtowe on an intermittently cloudy evening in August just before they sank for the year.

About the same time I had to sell my Meade refractor and send back my ED80 due to focusser issues... got myself a WO Megrez 72 and a FF2 flattener/reducer... and have used that as my only scope ever since. The first thing I shot with this was M31, something I'd wanted to get for ages... and this was over two hours of 1.5min unguided subs taken at Kelling and from home over September:

After trying to use a Synguider and giving up on it, my final unguided image was of the North America Nebula taken in late Sept. This was just an hour or so of 90 second subs.

In October, thanks to more help from the forums I got my guiding up and running with a Lodestar and PHD/EQmod. The first guided image I took was of one of my absolute favourite targets... Sadr and the 'Butterfly nebula'. This was about an hour and a half of 6 minute subs with matching darks and flats, having re-processed this about 20 times it has taught me more about processing than any other image:

In November I did a marathon session catching a few targets... my faviourite of them though was the western veil nebula, caught with just over 2 hours of 6 minute subs:

My final image of 2011, and of my first year in the hobby, was the same target I started with.... this time imaged with the Megrez using 6 and 10 minute guided subs, about an hour and 20 minutes in total, I shot M42 again. Although I intend to add lots more data to this... I hope it shows how far I've come from that first image a year earlier.

Having now got a 8" 1.2m fl Newt as well as the Meg, I am now keen to catch some smaller targets this year including some planetary nebulae and galaxies....

Once again, a massive thankyou to all at SGL for their help, guidance and support....

Here's to a year of clear skies for everyone!

Ben

[Stephen]

Some stunners there Ben

[rocketandroll]

Some stunners there Ben

Cheers Stephen :-)

If I manage to get half as many images done this year as last year I'll be happy... I imaged 28 objects in 2011! This year it'll be quality not quantity.... 10 - 15 really awesome pics would be good.

Here's to a good year!

Ben

[Daniel-K]

i like m51 thats what im trying to image at the moment

[Zul]

Wow your images are good I love your m31 photo

[Psychobilly]

Ben ,

It's hard to believe its been a year.. cracking set of images you have to show from it... Here's to many more...

Peter...

[lukebl]

Nice results indeed. You've achieved a lot in your first year.

Wish I had an equivalent amount to show after my 35 years in the hobby. 35 years. Blimey!

[PreludeToADream]

Lovely images, fantastic for a first year. I really like the image of M51 and the second M42.

[SJJ]

Thats a very busy year you've have Ben. Some great images in there. Looking forward to what you share with us in 2012!

[Quatermass]

Great Year for you Ben you sure have learned a lot and come along way in a short time. That is the great thing about this you never stop learning and finding new stuff, heres to another great year for you with plenty of clear skies. The people on this forum are great and have really helped me learn loads as well, long may it continue.

[MorningMajor]

What a year! Congratulations!

[Tinker1947]

Hope your 2nd year is as productive as your first, the 1st year being awesome..

[scooby007]

wow,stunnig i hope my first year in astro photography is as successful as yours brilliant.

[MikeWilson]

Well done! Looks like you've come a long, long way!