Good morning all!

[Richard_]

Hey all, my name is Richard and I'm a beginner astrophotographer from South Wales, UK 😀

I started this hobby in December 2020 which was a saving grace over the Winter lockdown as I have a good sized garden and our light pollution is around Bortle 5 so I've taken full advantage of the dark skies. I've bitten the bug hard and have spent many hours since then reading forums, books and watching YouTube videos to learn all about this hobby and I feel I'm getting the hang of it now! I like learning something new and solving problems, but I also enjoy sharing my knowledge to others especially if it's for a niche problem where there are no answers to be found online. 

Looking forward to sharing some of my work and knowledge (if you can call it that), but also to keep learning from you all 😀

[banjaxed]

Hi Richard, welcome to SGL.

[PeterCPC]

Hello and welcome.

[Sunshine]

Welcome to SGL!

[Sigma]

Welcome Richard, I'm new here too

[barbulo]

Welcome to the lounge!

[JRM]

Hi there Richard, welcome to the lounge

[wookie1965]

A warm welcome to SGL 

[Floater]

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

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi Richard welcome. 

[Richard_]

Thanks for the kind words all! Here's a few pictures comparing how I started out versus where I'm at now. Hopefully this will serve as a starting point for me to look back on in future.

In chronological order:

• 15th December 2020 - M31 Andromeda
• 28th December 2020 - M42 Orion
• 28th February 2021 - Rosette Nebula
• 19th March 2021 - M42 Orion
• 31st May 2021 - Rosette Nebula
• 26th July 2021 - North America and Pelican Nebula

The first three images (Andromeda, Orion and Rosette) were shot with my Star Adventurer, Canon 600D and Redcat51. I found that many of my subs were being thrown away due to elongated stars, poor polar alignment so I decided to buy an ASI Air Pro along with an ASI120MM Mini guidescope to help with my image acquisition and keeping my stars round. Whilst that was in transit, I had been editing my rosette nebula and noticed that whilst it was pretty cool, I wished I could capture more Ha. So ponied up the cash for the ASI533MC. I re-shot Orion and Rosette in March and May using this improved set up and wow, what a difference! The amount of detail in these images in equal or less time than before is just fantastic.

One thing lead to another and after a 3 month wait I received my EQ6-R mount, just waiting on an Esprit-100 to arrive now. I got first light with the mount on Sunday last week and using an Optolong L-eXtreme I was able to get 2hrs on North America and Pelican Nebula. It's gonna look great with more integration time but I'm extremeley happy with the outcome with just 2hrs. Looking back to my first image of M31 is very humbling and shows just how much you can learn and improve in this hobby (and also how much money you can spend....).

I did say I got the bug bad, didn't I?? 😂

Starting setup (left) versus where I'm at now (right)

 

Images

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 30, 2021 by Richard_
Oops, missed out "rosette" in "My first three images"

[Sigma]

Those images look great to me, especially like the colours in Orion, good job 👍

[dave34]

Hi Richard, welcome to the lounge.

[Lee_P]

Welcome! Those are some great images, you've picked up good skills really quickly 😃

[Robindonne]

Hellooo👋🏼👋🏼

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @Richard_ and welcome to SGL. 

Nice images.

[Bluemoonjim]

Very nice images Richard. I'm inspired.
Wish I hadn't seen them though, this is going to cost me serious money 🙂

[Richard_]

26 minutes ago, Bluemoonjim said:

Very nice images Richard. I'm inspired.
Wish I hadn't seen them though, this is going to cost me serious money 🙂

Haha, thanks / my apologies @Bluemoonjim! A lot of the images above aren't with equal skill, so it would be interesting to see how my pictures would look with my starting equipment but with today's knowledge. THAT would be a good comparison on equipment vs experience and whether throwing money at the hobby makes a big impact or not! 

[reezeh]

Hi Richard  👋  and welcome 

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL. Lovely images.

[Gonariu]

Hello and welcome to SGL from Sardinia! Beautiful images, very good !!!

[Pitch Black Skies]

Welcome to SGL

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire 🙂