How talented is astrobiscuit?

[AMcD]

No, not me @LondonNeil!  I am an amateur with a particular interest in astrophotography.  If your children get the astronomy bug it can be an interest for life.  My parents bought me a 3" Tasco refractor when I was 8 years old or so and I am still fascinated by the hobby at the age of 51.  I remember that the instruction booklet for the Tasco said that passion for the hobby of astronomy may wax and wain over the course of your life but it will never leave you completely.  That has certainly been true for me. I put aside the hobby in my twenties and early thirties as life, career etc.  took over, but found my way back to it in my late thirties.  A change of job six years ago gave me more time to dedicate to it and I have just set up a remotely controlled observatory so that I can take the hobby of AP with me, as it were.   The other great virtue of the hobby of astronomy is that it gives one a wonderfully sobering perspective on our place in the universe, as the great Carl Sagan articulated so beautifully in the Pale Blue Dot:

Good luck with your search for a scope.  

[rnobleeddy]

A random Astrobiscuit video is the reason I got in to astronomy. 

Obviously his videos hide a lot of the complexity, but that means they're also a good watch, and IMHO, probably the best astronomy videos on Youtube.

[LondonNeil]

@AMcD. AHH it was just the way you phrased your post, 'i get lots of help from...'. 😀

[powerlord]

I've been doing this 9 months now. Before that I'd never even looked though a telescope. I'm learning every week, but I already feel confident offering advice to folk starting up on various bits and bobs.

It's not rocket science. You just need to learn as you go.

I just posted this one today for example:

So, absolutely - imaging is clearly not your bag if using a dob, but whatever your aims, there's TONS of great info out there on websites and youtube. And of course the folk on here are utterly brilliant.

In 6 months time you will be boring the pants off friends and family with your astronomy knowledge just like the rest of us. 🤪

[saac]

8 hours ago, LondonNeil said:

I can see he is doing a lot of stacking, image processing is I guess as much a part of astro photography as the rest, probably far more than the 'pointing a telescope' bit these days.  Actually that begs a question, he hasn't costed his computer or any software in his '£600' or '£700' set ups, if the requirements there are costly then that is misleading.

 

 

Most of us would have had the computer hardware as part of the every day stuff we accumulate along the way. As for software , you will find that the majority if not all of what you need is freeware. 

Jim 

[tomato]

Judging by the amazing growth of his Discord forum and the progress he has made with the Big Amateur Telescope project,  I doubt  Rory has much time left to keep up with SGL.

As a small time maker of videos in another life back in 80’s I can really appreciate the skill and work that goes into his highly entertaining videos, and he sure does know his stuff on imaging capture and processing.