What turned you to the Dark Side?

[TheThing]

Just curious really.

I never really had any interest in imaging. To me, it was a black art, similar to majik. I would look at these beautiful images in magazines and on the web and then read about 1000 x 15 min exposures; auto guiding, drift alinging, darks, flats, hot pixels and it made no sense to me what-so-ever! They speak in tongues!

I was quite happy to go out and just spot a couple of targets at a time with my eyeballs and that was that. I was a visual observer and have been for probably 8/9 years now.

Once, the idea of imaging crossed my mind, when we needed a new camera. I thought about a DSLR so I could take some 'star piccies' too, but it seemed an unecessary complication when a digital compact was so much simpler.

And I was afraid.

I admit it. I was scared. Not just by all the technical speak, but by the fact that I thought I could never hope to produce anything nearly one millionth as good as the pictures displayed here (and I can't, but more on that later).

I did a little bit of moon afocal (don't we all?) and found that fairly satisfying, but just for personal use. It was easyier to compare the photo to a book to put names to craters.

Then, someone called vinny (God bless you, vinny!) put a swap up for a Meade LPi. I Googled it and before I new it I had offered him an EP in exchange (a very good EP, mind). I expected him to say no, but he didn't! The deal was done and now I have an LPi.

I've used it once in anger so far and been clouded out the rest of the time. You can see my pathetic attempt in the Planetary imaging section.

BUT.....

...it was a revelation! First time, I got something recognisable (small, but recognisable!) What's more, nice people that SGL members are, they posted word of encouragement!

I can do this (not as well as some, but early days!)

It's fun!

I stand by the back door, face pressed against the glass willing the clouds away. I want another go (this time use a Barlow maybe?)

In one fell swoop, I gone from fear to love. From ignorance to what ever is just marginally above ignorance.

Clouds willing, I'll be out tonight, Jupiter set firmly in my sights.

So, what's your story? Be interested to hear.

(By the by, what IS a hot pixel? One that's shapely? Fair of face?)

[rikyuu]

in Feb 08 I bought a 10" dob and looked at Saturn. I thought it would make a good photo and snapped it afocally with a compact cam. It looked quite nice.

Then I thought I want to photo nebulas and galaxies too. So I had to get a GOTO mount with 8" SCT coupled to a modified DSLR with a CLS filter, autoguided with a C80ED with a Mintron camera, all connected to a laptop along with dew heaters, timers, battery packs, mounting brackets, rings etc etc.

That's how it happened, more or less.

[milan]

The images on here! The wife has had a scope for a few years and im always amazed at Jupiter. The photographer in me just wanted to try and capture images like you guys produce. I like a challenge....

p.s. ive not actually captured an image yet! the last piece of the jigsaw puzzle arrived today (Bahtinov Mask)

[Ford Prefect]

Thats easy, Meeting SteveL got me into imagining

[jgs001]

Well... looking at the moon through binos got me into this, which lead to trying to capture afocally and widefield (not so good with a bridge camera). Then my birthday came around and I got an SLR... I could then combine both of my hobbies into one glorious technical mish mash of optics, physics, control computers and photography... I must be mad ...

[SteveL]

<sigh> Oh its all my fault, isnt it

I got into imaging for a few reasons.

- looking at things through a scope was "fun", but the techie in me wanted to image. Ideally, i would have two rigs, one to image and one to observe, but I know that what would really happen is that I`d end up with two imaging rigs.

- when a non-astro workmate asks me what I did last night under a clear sky, I could tell them what I saw (and they would yawn), or I could show them colour print of what I managed to image (and they would ask for copies!)

am sure there are more reasons...

[Vega]

A short story... Matt's VERY VERY slippery slope (smothered with oil lol)

I had my first Scope in 2005.. Was blown away by just about everything I found and viewed. By 2006 I was doing Afocal shots with my point and shoot camera on the moon. I remember trying out an EQ6 Synscan in 2006 and thinking... WOW what a wonderful peice of kit, shame I'd never have one of those in my wildest dreams. I found myself on that slippery slope when I got my DSLR in 2007 shooting away at DSO's with my trusty EQ3 mount and motors.....quickly learning my limits. I bought a 250px dob and had the EQ6 Synscan GOTO by summer 2007 lol. Through 2008 I was well and truly in to my DSO and planetary imaging big time having to learn that beast of a procedure called 'good drift alignment' (eeek).

My next famous statement was when I was talking to friend who was interested in my astro photo's. I explained the limits to my exposure times even with good polar alignment. "The best way to overcome this problem is getting a second scope, dovetail bars and camera for guiding" I said. "Its an expensive business and I would never dream of getting in to all that" I said. So here I am in 2009... well pictures speak a thousand words.... :-D

Since jumping on the the TRUE dark side that is guiding.. I've entered a new learning curve again. As for post processing... well Im still learning the ropes there after 3 years!

(All credit to SGL and its members which have helped me in countless ways as I have slipped down this slope )

Matt

[Doc]

Well there was a moment I did contemplate it but then I looked in my wallet and said NO

[Psychobilly]

Drifted into it as all I wanted to do originally is capture starflelds to add into night time city scapes... havign been taking photos with SLR's and more lately DSLR's since the age of 8...

Found that Visually Fuzzy grey blobs did nothing at all for me... so decide to replace the weakest link with something better suited to capturing photons...

Trying to avoid being dragged into mono narrowband imaging with a dedicated CCD...

At least until the 6 numbers come up and I can at least afford to try and do it "properly"...

Peter...

[Ford Prefect]

Yup

<sigh> Oh its all my fault, isnt it

I got into imaging for a few reasons.

- looking at things through a scope was "fun", but the techie in me wanted to image. Ideally, i would have two rigs, one to image and one to observe, but I know that what would really happen is that I`d end up with two imaging rigs.

- when a non-astro workmate asks me what I did last night under a clear sky, I could tell them what I saw (and they would yawn), or I could show them colour print of what I managed to image (and they would ask for copies!)

am sure there are more reasons...

[Aza]

I never have been an observer. I just jumped straight into imaging.

I saw some images on the internet and when I realised that amateurs were capable of taking these pics, I decided I just had to take them too. I had always had an interest in the Universe.

But crikey, I never realised it would be such a steep learning curve! Glad to have stuck at it though, I really enjoy it, and feel a real accomplishment when I am happy with an image I have produced.

[themos]

Light pollution and dodgy eyesight.

[George]

The light pollution is that bad here anything other than planetary is a no no, that left imaging.....that's why I do it Plus I like the technical challenge and the constant fiddling that goes with it.

[arad85]

The images on here!

Yup... me too. Didn't even have a dSLR before I was on here....

[Beardy Bob]

Visual just was never enough for me. Once I'd seen it I'd seen it. With imaging you're always improving on what you have and bringing out more and more detail and colours etc. It's more progressive than just looking for me. Then hopefully, one day, I'll have enough data to print something out and put it on the wall and say, "I did that". But how I'll know when any image I have is a final, definitive version is another matter entirely!

[Sam]

My interest in imaging is directly related to observing. I really enjoy imaging targets that I have observed. An example recently was IC342. I observed this through the 16" where the core is just faintly detectable but certainly nothing else so I wondered what it might look like imaged and the surprise of seeing the spiral arms appearing out of the noise is quite neat - and being able to link it back to an observation is quite rewarding. I like being able to look back through my images and remember the observation of those objects as well. Sometimes I don't actually see the object I end up imaging because it's just too dim but this is quite rewarding as well as I spend so long trying to find the object the star pattern around it becomes quite familiar and it's quite nice to see where the object appears.

Sam

[Catanonia]

I dived straight in as usual for me.

I was well into photography, with a good DSLR for about a year and decided I wanted to give astro a go.

Bought a rubbish goto and mount, swapped out in a week for top of the range I could afford. EQ6Pro and ED120 / ED80 pro skywatchers.

Quick learner, and with help from these guys and an empty wallet the rest (4 months) is now history.

I guess a career in computers and many years of photoprocessing has helped alot for me.

I got really lucky over the summer with great skies, but now, with work and the clouds, arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..

[Lester]

I enjoyed the challenge of photographing the night sky since the early 1970s after I found out more could be seen on a photo than through the eyepiece, with colours of nebula. Now with digital far more can be captured and revealed with image processing than I would have ever dreamt of in the old dark room.

Some people enjoy fishing, I like many on here enjoy capturing the splendors of the night sky.

All the best.

[Sparrow]

I suppose my story is similiar to Matt (Vega) - It originally started 35 years ago with a visit to Jodrell Bank with my French exchange student - I spent the next few years fascinated with astronomy and using my tiny spotter scope to see as much as I can - then came a 34 year break in favour of wine women and song!!! - Then 18 months ago, I needed a new camera and bought a Fuji S8000FD and decided one night to point it at a full moon - with an 18 x optical and 5 x digital zoom I got some pretty pleasing results. That was the start of my troubles!!! - Next I decided a telescope would be a nice birthday present from my wife and took delivery of a Celestron Firstscope 114. Then came the Meade LPI - I didn't have a laptop so it was hooked through umpteen USB extensions (Goodness knows how it worked) and had to keep diving in and out of the house to centre Saturn and focus it. Then I decided the Firstscope just wasn't cutting the mustard so I pursuaded my wife to let me buy a Celestron Nexstar 6SE - I also got a cheap laptop (Acer) and I was away imaging Saturn and the moon. I even had a go at M42 the following winter - the LPI has a maximum 15 second exposure and boy oh boy is there a lot of pixel noise with it - but it was fun and I was well and truly bitten by the hobby. Next came a 2nd hand Meade DSI from my mentor (who I met through SGL) and I enetered the magical world of DSI. I managed to push the Alt Az mount to 1 minute exposures with acceptable results (pretty poor really but acceptable to me and great fun).

This year has been the big progress year but also an expnesive one - I've really had to keep my budget to a minimum so there are compromises but I now seem to have a setup that works reasonably well:-

CG5 mount

Celestron 8" Newt

Skywatcher startravel 80 as a guide scope

The Meade is now a guide camera

Canon DSLR EOS1000D (unmodded)

LP clip filter for the Canon

As if this wasn't enough, my mentor has also got me in to guided imaging now - I thought it would involve further expense but it turns out that I was able to connect to the mount handset with a serial to USB adaptor (already had one) and guide through that - it seems to be working pretty well.

Just taken my first 15 minute subs the other night on M45. All in just over 18 months.

The main challenge now is to master the art of processing - I think that is going to be the really hard bit.

Shopping list for the future:-

"Make every photon count" book

MPCC filter