Hello everyone

[Retired-Not-Dead]

I am retired military and under (pandemic) house arrest so I decided to move my photography from wildlife to astrophotography. I have followed (AKA: Stalked) the forum for a while to pick up some tips on the gear needed and to get a perspective on what is possible in the way of astrophotography. I don't expect to have my pictures on the cover of a magazine, but would like to have something more than a bunch of glowing lights in the night sky. At the very least, I will be able to piggy-back my camera (Nikon D810 or D5300 full conversion) on top of the telescope to take some long exposure night shots. 

[fwm891]

Welcome @Retired-Not-Dead to the forum. Best thing to do is keep things simple to start with. Take lots of shorter exposures and use a free program like deep sky stacker to assemble the stacks and play (and I mean play) with the images as you go. You'll make loads of mistakes, want to throw the whole thing out the window etc (been there) but gradually you'll get a handle on the amount of 'playing' you need to do, you will become more structured in your processing, you'll lengthen your subs, start taking darks, bias, light darks and flats and your processing will blossom.

You'll probably want to change kit too, but until you get some experience you could be just chasing rainbows. Stick with it.

Above all enjoy the hobby 👍

Edited January 9, 2021 by fwm891

[PeterCPC]

Hello and welcome.

[Mr Spock]

Hi, welcome to SGL 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Welcome to SGL. I hope this helps with the enforced house arrest we all seem to be under at the moment 🙂 

Steve

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL.

[banjaxed]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

[Floater]

Welcome. Hope you have lots of fun and success with the AP.🙂

[sloz1664]

Hi, and a very warm welcome to the Lounge. Remember Youtube AP tutorials are your friend 

Steve

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi there and welcome. 

[PXR-5]

Welcome to SGL, thanks for joining us.

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire 🙂