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Hey! I'm not actually that new to astrophotography, and got into this hobby back in February of 2023, and hell, I'd even say I got good within just a few months. I won't lie, it helped that the nearest Bortle 2-3 transition zone was a mere hour drive down south (that's the best thing about Canada being so vast and empty), and pairing that with the good old 135mm f/2 lens from Rokinon/Samyang, and yeah, no wonder I got so good so fast. Good data is good data, and that's probably the single best contributing factor to producing great images. Also it definitely helped that I bought PixInsight and used BlurX and Noise X, which singlehandedly skyrocketed my processing ability to allow phenomenal images. But I digress. My point is, I'm not new, and so you may be wondering why I'm posting in the "Introduce Yourself!" forum. Well, here's the thing. Money's not flowing in consistently yet. I'm only 19, and am in my second year of university, and pairing the expense of university with the fact that this hobby is quite up there in terms of expense, and you get my situation back in May 2023 where I faced a decision. I needed a car to commute to university, but to get a car, I would need to sell all my astro gear. In fact, I had put so much $$$ into astrophotography that selling off all my gear alone would fund an entire car, and so considering it was summer (summers in Canada mean basically no astronomical night, meaning mid May to late August is pretty much hands off for astrophotography), and a car would do me much more for QoL than astrophotography, I decided to sell off all my gear. For those interested, I sold the following: - ASI533 MC Pro - EQM-35i Pro - Askar FRA 300 Pro - Rokinon 135mm F/2 lens - Nikon D5300 - My 2" 7nm dual-narrowband filter (SVBony SV 220) So yeah. A lot of real good stuff. Stuff that would consistently produce some darn fine images (check my "Deeper Dive into NGC7000" image, and you can see just how good my setup was), but money's money, and I needed a car. But hey, it funded my first car! an NA6 Miata! Driving around with that thing led to some great summer roadtrip memories, and I do not regret that purchase at all. But damn. Slowly but surely as the nights got longer and longer over the summer and consequently autumn, I would look up at the night sky and think to myself, "darn man. I wish I still had my stuff. I want to go back!". This effect was greatly amplified on nights where it was COMPLETELY clear, and my astro-instincts of "ooo! A clear night! I could image!" would kick in, but then I'd remember, "oh wait. I don't have my gear anymore...", leaving me longing for this hobby that much more. My last image was completed on May 7th, 2023, the aforementioned NGC7000 image, and since then, I didn't do a single bit of astrophotography. But that changed recently. Fast forward to just a few days ago, it was one of those perfectly clear nights, but I still had no gear. Those same astro-instincts kicked in, leaving me hopeless as I wanted to go out and image so badly but I just couldn't. However, a friend who had a DSLR agreed to let me borrow his, and so I decided, "darn it man, it's been too long", and so I picked up his DSLR and went out! And... well, it was a failure. I forgot that, while it was a cloudless night, the full moon was high up, and so I basically got zero good stackable data (I was hoping to get some wide field milky way imagery). But, there was one good thing that came from that night, and it was the fact that it utterly and absolutely re-ignited the pure passion I had for this hobby. The drive out to the dark site, the feeling of being alone with the stars, and the feeling of seeing your data come in and thinking to yourself "I wonder how this is gonna look all stacked up!", and next thing you know, fast forward to now, and a Star Adventurer 2i, a Canon T3i, a Samyang 135mm F/2, and a power station is on its way to my house, and I will be diving back into this hobby! FINALLY!!! My gear won't be as advanced, but I took some phenomenal images with the setup I just bought (my very first Orion wide field, in fact, also on my profile), and pairing this setup with the good old Bortle 2-3 zone I mentioned, and I'm confident I can dive right back into all of this and get back to producing amazing images once again! It helps that I still have all my processing software, as it was all non-refundable, and so processing will be just as easy and awesome! So yeah, for the first time in over 6.5 months, and after months of wanting to get back into this hobby, I finally re-ordered some of my old gear, and am hoping to get back out there and begin imaging again in a few weeks! To all of those who read this far, first off thanks for listening to my story, and second of all, maybe some of you have been through what I've been through. Selling off your gear, only to regret it down the line and re-introducing yourself to this hobby! If so, leave your stories here as well. I'd love to read them. Overall, I'm just so glad to be back. I already have some future projects planned, and it is just in time for my 3 week winter break before my winter semester begins. I'll have plenty of time to get some great photos once again! |
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Ah, a fellow Albertan! I am going to hazard a guess that the "hour long drive south" may or may not be to a lake in the foothills south of Longview, haha You would be surprised what you can do with a DSLR, Sammy 135 and a Star Adventurer. |
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Ah, a fellow Albertan! I am going to hazard a guess that the "hour long drive south" may or may not be to a lake in the foothills south of Longview, haha Ha! You may or may not be right, but you already know the answer ;) Truly though, a simple DSLR, 135 f/2, and an SA 2i can do some serious magic. I'm basically restricted to wider fields and/or very large nebulae, but at least I can get some phenomenal photos of those things for less than $1500 all in (used market is a godsend). Of course that does not include the price of the processing software but that's a whole different can of worms. Whereabouts in Alberta are you at? Down in Calgary over here. |
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Carl Elgario:Ah, a fellow Albertan! I am going to hazard a guess that the "hour long drive south" may or may not be to a lake in the foothills south of Longview, haha Just uhhhh... beware the cougars out there! Nothing wrong with wide fields. I think they can be a lot more versatile with framing if you are creative enough. At F/2 you should just be soaking up the photons and it won't take long to reach a respectable SNR if you at a dark site. I totally recommend PixInsight as your next step though, if you do not already have it. Calgary here as well; but I spend 8 months of the year stuck in Montreal for university. |
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Carl Elgario:Ah, a fellow Albertan! I am going to hazard a guess that the "hour long drive south" may or may not be to a lake in the foothills south of Longview, haha Haha yep. The few times I went there last year to image (truthfully I didn't go enough... such a good dark site), I heard the coyotes howling. Definitely wouldn't be surprised if I encountered a cougar one day. I can probably just hop in the car if that ever happens. Thankfully I already have Pix. Bought it last April after the trial ran out and I realized just how screwed up my workflow and processing quality would be (that's how they get you haha) if I didn't buy the full license. It really is worth it though. You can not only process way quicker than other programs, but Pix does it so much better in every way. Maybe with the exception of how slow WBPP can be. But at least it stacks better than others. What do you study? I'm in my 2nd year of software engineering here at UCalgary. |
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Carl Elgario: Well, I can tell you that I have seen (and heard) cougars, a bear, some moose and of course coyotes within the park. What can I say, its a happening place! I study Political Science and History at McGill. Unfortunately that is not really conducive to producing quality astrophotos. I used to haul a bit of my gear out East with me but it was a losing battle for me trying to do astro in the middle of one of Canada's biggest - and cloudiest - cities. So, usually I wait until I head back to Alberta for Christmas to try and crank out an image here or there. Not this Christmas though, since all my stuff is currently sitting down in Texas with family for the big show in April 2024! |
