Ad Astra Observatory

A,

Sigh. I wonder what I would have done if I’d started doing astronomy now
instead of 4 years ago.
This guy went from a Canon 400D + Orion ED80 + Orion Sirius mount on Dec
2007 to a STL-11K + FSQ + Tak EM-400 on Dec 2008.

I mean, he traded a couple grand worth of gear that frankly kept me

happy for several years, and traded up to $6k camera, $4k OTA, and $8k
mount, in one year. Not to mention the extra filters and software and
who knows what else.

There are times when I do feel like if I could just throw money at the
problem, I could get better results. And this guy’s shots do have some
serious detail, even before the brand new rig he got a month ago.

I think that if I would spend the time to put in the time to get my rig

portable and get to dark sky sites, I could probably be getting better
images. I’d be better at polar alignment, too. (:

I put into astronomy the time and money and energy that I have to spend
on it, and I think that I get pretty good results. I could do better at
processing. I don’t have a lot of skills there, and I think that I’m
leaving a lot of detail sitting on the table.

OK, enough grousing and feeling sorry for myself. I do good work out

there and I really do enjoy it. I just like feeling like I’m one of the
best amateurs out there, and every so often I get smacked in the face
with someone who just blows my stuff out of the water.

Having said that, the guy does some interesting stuff — he has a couple
of shots that include like 17min subframes and shooting Orion and the
Lagoon through a 4x Powermate, and all kinds of other crazy stuff that
is actually quite inspirational if I can get over how goddamn *good* his

photos are. I mean, essentially, some of those photos were on the exact
same equipment as me, but his processing skills are, like, wow, man.
Stuff to learn.

J