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| I agree, it's probably the best solution. |
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I am into astrophotography because I am a passionate photographer of all what is either very small or extremely large - that´s why my two special areas are micro/macro and astro. It helps humans to set their own ego into perspective to the universe and nature and make at least me more humble and considerate. The technical aspect is that it is demanding - both - micro/macro as well as astro and it challenges my brain and my technical skills, which I like very much. Another aspect for me is, that it keeps me very busy instead of spending my days with almost nothing - I am retired now for about 9 years and in the mid 70´s...Alzheimer or dementia has no chance to get me... :-) |
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For me it was always the complexity of the hobby that kept me motivated. I started about 30 years ago with a Olympus OM1 piggybacked on a Tasco reflector and it was just as motivating as it is now with the remote observatory. In the last years the hobby has changed very much with the bias on image processing, too me that is just a small part of it all. So I wouldn´t be happy if I wouldn´t have planned built and setup my observatory. Sure it is a challenge that keeps you busy , but isn´that what its all about. Getting likes on social media is nice but in my opinion should never be the main motivation for this wonderful hobby. Wolfgang |
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The main driver for me is my own personal growth. Is this image better than the last one I did? What did I learn? What worked (and didn’t)? What can I do to improve my next project? Of course it is just human nature to ‘compare’ with others on a social platform like Astrobin, but I try to always remind myself to rather see it as ‘learning’ than mine is worse / better than person x or y’s. And if I dont get hundreds of likes or one of those cool little marks  next to my image, thats also ok, as long as I see improvement and learning from my last effort, I am content.
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My first pics were +30 years ago with film at a school observatory... What a struggle. Then my study, career (travelling a lot, living, working in foreign countries) etc so forgot about that hobby, but was still member of my observatory club. Returning back (as well COVID related) I started pointing my Nikon to the sky and I could see a nebula! Only now I started looking at the hobby and realised how far AP has come. Personally, I just do it for myself. I find it fascinating, how a deep sky target emerges, then collecting more and more data, finally processing and try to get most out of the data. I love looking at the picture that I made, reading up on it and understanding the complexity of our universe. I look at many pictures of others as well, some are much better than mine (better sky (well I only have limited good nights in a year), better equipment, better processing skills...), but then I return to my pics and enjoy them. I often ask myself, why do I do it. Most targets have been shot thousand times, and now I do the same... for me it is fascinating to experience that I can capture these amazing deep sky targets with my own set-up. Make money from it - no! Pay money that others can look at it.... still struggling with this concept. So just a hobby that I really love! |
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Honestly, I’m not sure any of us know what IT is….. When you look at the money we spend, the time researching, studying, discussing, the sleepless nights, more time processing, relationships sacrificed, failed attempts at walking away, the emotional cost a simple USB failure can have……we’re not motivated, we’re driven! And not in a way most would consider healthy…… : ) My advice is run if you can, but probably too late…. once infected, IT will find you wherever you hide….bwahaha! Cheers, Scott B.O.A.T: break out another thousand O.T.A: 1,000, that’s all? |
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My motivation is that I genuinely have a passion for astronomy. While I do post on a few different social platforms, that's not my motivation, as my pictures only get maybe a dozen likes lol. My favorite place is Facebook, as one time when I saw my Grandma, she told me she loves my pictures and thanked me for posting them, and that felt really great to hear. As for my motivation, I will always find myself looking up, and wanting to learn about the universe. Being able to actually set up, photograph and process my own images is really satisfying for me. It helps me learn a better understanding of where these objects are within the night sky, and gives me specific targets to read about. |
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Hi @Tomás Andonie, Motivation could be hard to maintain if the target is not the correct for you. Of course, we're talking about astrophotography, but that word has implicit other acknowledgements like astronomy, computer, robotics and of course, if you want, social medias. So it's a very rich and complete hobby, in my mind. So, what I mean about the target? In other words, the aim or the purpose of what you're doing. If all the efforts are uniquely to achieve likes that are free-given, and I mean what other mate has said that people remain only few seconds (and plural of "second" is maybe very optimistic) viewing and analyzing pictures and most of the time is done in mobile phones in a minimum size (that means the capability of doing those analyses are ridiculous) then frustration has the door open to your mood. And that frustration has nothing to do about equipment, weather or other problems in the capture sessions or in the post-processing. Maybe we can do a poll to find out, here at Astrobin, where we see and analyze the photos that our colleagues share here. Perhaps fewer people than we expect actually view such images on a tablet, laptop, or desktop computer with a large screen (greater than 21"). Mobile (cell) phones have too little of a screen to appreciate anything about the quality of details. Of course, recognition feeds our ego and that in a certain way makes us feel good, but it should not be the main motivation, rather a reason to be happy if the case arises, but not for trying to find that situation at all costs. In my case. I was (and I'm) a passionate about landscape photography for more than 20 years, but my job (in fact my obligations) and the fact that I have a child complicate my spare time availability to dedicate it to myself. So, during many years I had to leave photography in pause. And I had a personal blog where I used to write posts related to my pictures and share them. And also I had a gallery. Of course, I was very happy when someone commented them, but my goal was simply to share and to have the best quality pictures and the most aesthetic I was able to achieve. Astronomy was always on my mind during my university studies (I'm a chemist and an enthusiast of computers) and after. I did some astronomy courses, but maybe my teachers were very bored, or they explain the topics in a very boring way because I didn't get engaged, and also I thought that maybe I wasn't "clever" enough to appreciate it. And the only contact in astronomy practice during my college stage was in visual, and I confess, visual frustrated me a lot because only seeing non defined shadows didn't pay the effort (it's just my opinion). Landscape photography was the way to introduce me into night photography. Early I rejected light painting and felt in love with landscape night photography. But even at that moment, start with astrophotography, that was frequently in my head, seemed to be for other people more gifted than me. But who pursues it has a big chance to achieve it and during the COVID lockdown I had my opportunity with more time to read and watch videos, online astrophotography courses... and after the lockdown I started with a Star adventurer mount, my Canon EOS 7D non modified and a 70-200 mm f/2,8 lenses. After that, a year after, I changed to an EQ6-R Pro mount, then less than a year after I bought a ASI2600MC... and... there's no limit! So, what are my goals in astrophotography. Foremost, enjoy it and use it to escape far from my mental job problems and be free for some time and feel good with that. Then, try to learn, learn and learn. That's the way to improve my skills in capture, using the programs and processing techniques. And If I can, meet people with great knowledge who wants to share it and also share my knowledge with other people no matter their level. To sump up, my goal is to evade far from the life problems, job problems, human relation problems and try to enjoy the most I can. |
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| I enjoy the technical challenge of getting all the telescope and data capture side of things to work - well - and the learning entailed. I also enjoy the process of making and processing images. Mostly though I enjoy the Astronomy - the contemplation of and learning about what it is that each image represents. |
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I put my images on Facebook and the Facebook astrophotography groups. some images get many hundreds of likes and a large number of comments. thats Ok. I like that people actually see them, and some people enjoy them. I have never done instagram . I think art is about sharing, and we need to do that. whatever platform you want to use is ok. |
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| For me, it started because I wanted to take a photo of a comet. Since then, my motivation now revolves around using astrophotography as a way to see things that we simply can't see with our eyes and wanting to learn more about the universe. The processing side is also fascinating. I didn't know going into the hobby that stacking images is a statistical process. I design analytics software for my career so it was a natural fit to my interests. |
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Well, I think that I have 2 reasons: - because the beauty of the sky and its "hidden" objects - all the challenges that are involved with it: learning a lot of things from different areas (astronomy, photos, optical stuff, eletronic, processing images, etc) and also how to get money and time to solve all of these things. Resuming: you have always to challenge yourself. |
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I just like it. No other reason. i like the night sky, the tech, the fact that i can dream about owning a tak telescope. |
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| The perfect hobby: stars, computers & gadgets. What else do you need? Matthias |
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I do it mostly for myself: - I've always aspired to make something beautiful. This is the first thing that fulfills that aspiration. - It's challenging and complicated. I get a kick from mastering it - I like tinkering with complicated machinery. There's a lot of stuff to DIY in this hobby. - I got to know many fantastic, eccentric people in real life. |
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The perfect hobby: stars, computers & gadgets. What else do you need? Matthias in a nut shell... what he said.Combines a few life long interests.Art/photography,computers,electronics,astronomy/physical phenomenon..And i'm a night person. |
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| Ive always been passionate about space and science in general. I am also a tech nerd that worked as an aircraft mechanic and now electrical engineer. I love the technical aspect and learning more about the different things that makes our gear work. I also like learning about the objects I am imaging, how we think they formed and how we use them to extrapolate cosmic evolution. Being able to set up in the front yard and have the neighbors come over and get curious gets me excited at he possibility that it could be the catalyst for some of these kids to get more interest in science and engineering. |
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Tomás Andonie: *** I loved astronomy as a kid and reconnected with it in lockdown. I went to an event with my local astronomy society and I saw the images some of the guys were producing. I bought an 8 inch SCT and gradually got sucked into astrophotography. My motivation is to capture beautiful images of our universe, whether it's the planets, nebula, galaxies, star clusters... Etc. I also want to learn about the science underpinning astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology. I do is as an end in itself, but like yourself I also like to share my images with others and eventually I want to record tutorials on YouTube and possibly even sell prints (not quite there yet). I should add there are other avenues to sharing your work. Consider posting links to your Astrobin account on Facebook and setting up a Flickr account. *** |
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I like your images...you are doing very well with the tools you have. Keep up the good work. I've been in the hobby for the same amount of time. I've learned so much and there's lots more ahead. I might suggest joining an astronomy club. It doesn't have to be in your area. Any astronomy club will do. Pick one that has an active website and FaceBook/Instagram/group email environment. That's a good way to share, get commentary and advice, and build friendships. Here in the US I've joined the club in my state (Indiana Astronomy Society), as well as one from the college in my town (Indiana University Astronomy Club). If you are lucky enough to find a club in your area, even better. You can join everyone in person when they meet. I shoot the stars for some of the reasons you mention. I'm active on Facebook (I know, it's thought to be old fashioned. Older folks engage in longer conversations and FB is a bit superior for this over other shorter platforms). I regularly publish my images to FB and IG and have developed a following. A few friends, in turn, share my images with their friends, which is flattering. I share my posts with the two astronomy clubs, too. As a result, I've started publishing notes along with the images. Easy to read descriptions of what the image is, and its significance. Several people have even suggested that I should start a blog or even publish a book. And the primary fulfillment I get from the hobby is that I get to be outside, stare at the stars, listen to the birds and crickets, and dwell on why we are all here. It's a private time and I like being busy when the rest of the family is asleep. |
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| My sister recently asked me why I do this hobby? She pointed out that I could go on the internet and download photos that are better than mine. My response was that I could also go to a fish shop and buy a fish better than anything I could catch, that's not going to stop me going fishing. AP is cosmic fishing to me, its about time, patience, equipment (and lots of it!!) and a lot of luck sometimes as well. Sometimes the results are disappointing, sometimes I am amazed at what I can see, I get annoyed at satellites, aircraft, mosquitoes, -20c temperatures and my own stupidity, but then I get to capture something amazing. Its just for me and my own satisfaction. I share images with a couple of friends and family and have posted a few shots on Astrobin, but the adulation of the masses on social media is not a motivator for me. |
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| I just think it's fun trying to capture what's up there. I'm not very good, and until I get a couple trees taken down I'm limited in areas of sky I can see. But in the summer time I like sitting around outside looking up, why not have a camera doing it too. Then in the winter, it passes the time during the long nights. Now if only I could get some clear nights when there's not a full moon. |
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@Ivan McClelland You gave a very good explanation (and clarification) there!  |
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Sounds like burnout. It's ok to take a break for a bit. As for sharing photos, share them amongst your friends or join a local astronomy club and share your knowledge with the other members or maybe a photography club. I like spending time outdoors. Astrophotography is another way I can connect with nature while camping. It's literally the best thing in the world to me when I'm camping with my family under the stars and the next day I get to show them what I captured. Clear skies! |
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When you share your photos on a site such as astrobin, you're going up against people with high quality equipment, long integration times, and access to dark skies. All these factors come into play when it comes to image quality. Just glancing through your gallery, I can see you're still using a kit lens on your Nikon. Unfortunately kit lenses are very bottom of the barrel when it comes to image quality. Combine that with your bortle 7 sky, and you'll be tough pressed to produce an image that wows anyone on a website full of folks who dedicate lots of money (I'm guilty of this as well) on equipment, living in rural dark areas. *** Very well said. Comparing results to other people's work is like comparison apples and pears. Different standards of equipment, post processing, light pollution and weather, and skill level/knowledge all impact on the quality of the final image. First and foremost we should enjoy astrophotography as an end it itself and then I think it's ok to want to share photos with other people. I guess part of the problem is we all live in a world of instant gratification where people post pictures for likes and attention (not just a problem with astrophotography). I say enjoy the moments when you have set up your kit and you get to kick back and watch the images roll in, revel in the journey and what you learn and enjoying sharing the passion with others ... *** |
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Hello Tomas, I understand your point of view. The social network is for me a false mirror. I prefer to share my images on astrobin, on my club forum & a very little french forum. I prefer the quality of the like & the constructive remarks. After 10 years in astronomy, test a lot of scopes & invest money, I have got a good setup for my small astronomy level. Yes, it is important to share, that's why I suscribe to Astrobin. If you share with people that share your passion, the exchanges are more rich. Most of the people are not able to understand the beauty of this passion. If you are unsastified of your last images, it is perhaps your point of view has changed. If you want more, change progressively your setup. When I like an image, I always look the setup ... if one day, I want to progress. An other way to find new motivations could be change your practice: solar, nightscape, planetary, ... Astronomy offers so many possibilities of images. Techniques are different but it is always the sky. My passion is born with the Cassini images ... color images with mono camera. Sometimes, I made a pause of several weeks or several months. The setup stays in the cabinet. I could read or see videos about astronomy, that's all. When I come back, motivation is present, new challenges in my mind. You are young so you have time for you, take the time to find a new way. Mika |
