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A belated hello!

rocketandroll

By rocketandroll
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rocketandroll

rocketandroll

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Hi all!!

Having jumped straight into the advice forum to chat about what equipment to buy... I completely forgot the bit about introducing myself!

I'm Ben, currently residing in Ipswich in sunny Suffolk....

In real life I run a toy design company and a special effects company specialising in rockets and rocket propulsion for TV and film. Beyond astronomy, my other all consuming passion is amateur rocketry.

I've always had a significant interest in space and astronomy and especially in deep sky images... I've wanted to get involved for years but always thought that I wouldn't be able to capture any deep sky objects without living in a dark rural location and setting up my own garden shed observatory with several thousand pounds worth of equipment.

It's only the last few weeks (with a little encouragement from SG live, like most of the newbies) that I have finally got off my backside, seriously looked into it and found out I could actually get a fairly passable DSO imaging set-up using my DSLR and less than a grands worth of equipment.

I joined my local astro group last week and intend to use them and this forum to soak up as much info as I can before spending a penny... but my aim is to have generated a recognisable (if not that beautiful) image of a DSO before the end of this year.

I think that about covers it! :-)

Ben

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi Ben and welcome to the forum.

Looks like you're of to a good start with joining a club and of course, joining here. On the imaging front can I recommend a book "Making Every Photon Count" by Steve Richards (FLO £19.95) which will provide you with a comprehensive guide on what to buy, what to use and how to do it to get the standard of images that you're after. Like everything else, you get out what you put in and the only black hole you might be imaging is the one in your wallet.:):D Seriously though this book is very good and in fact might save you money!

Clear skies and plenty of researching/observing till then.

James

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rocketandroll

rocketandroll

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Hi Ben and welcome to the forum.

Looks like you're of to a good start with joining a club and of course, joining here. On the imaging front can I recommend a book "Making Every Photon Count" by Steve Richards (FLO £19.95)

James

Cheers James

The book was the first thing that was recomended to me when I posted a question about DSO imaging last week... I ordered it on the spot and have read about 2/3rds of it in the last two days :-)

I was previously hopeful that I could get some start made in DSO imaging without a guide scope and camera... but having read the book so far, that looks unlikely.... if anything, the book has unfortunately dissuaded me from getting involved in DSO imaging (I fear the intent was the opposite).

The issue of having no choice apparently than to bring my laptop out into the field to focus the DSLR too is a big shock... this was something I was hoping I could get started out in on a modest budget (under a grand) and with a lower level of hassle and pfaf and slowly add in cost and complexity as I learnt.... it seems that you need 90% of the pfaf and 90% of the cost just to get started.

I'm starting to re-think whether I should even begin trying to work towards DSO imaging as, although I'm very interested in it, it's something I'd need to be able to do at relatively short notice by driving to a dark site locally.... If I could do that with a scope, a decent EQ mount and the camera then great... the moment there's a computer involved in the field it all gets a whole lot more of a chore and more difficult to achieve.

Anyway... that's my problem :-)

I am considering just getting a scope to do some observing first and then jumping in to the imaging lark later on when I can go at it properly.

Ben

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