first time to this blog? Why not visit the introductory page first at https://undersouthwestskies.blogspot.com/2025/01/welcome-to-my-new-astronomyastrophotogr.html
So, here I am. I don't know about you, but I always like to know a little about the people whose blogs I read. So this is a little about me. You can skip over it, ignore it, read it in depth. Whatever works for you.
This is not my first blogging effort. I’ve written a very successful, well regarded and well-known
dinghy cruising blog for fifteen years (Arwen’s Meanderings). It is
accompanied by a highly regarded, what some subscribers have kindly described
‘tongue-in-cheek’ as ‘a world-famous’ dinghy cruising YouTube channel (Plymouthwelshboy).
Dinghy Cruising is a niche field! Worldwide, there aren’t that many of us, but
we are a great adventurous bunch, for sure. Less well-known is the motorhoming
blog I co-write with my wife (wherenexthun). More of a diary at the
moment but with useful advice pages for beginners to motorhoming, this has been
a new adventure for us. A steep learning curve. A truly life changing escapade.
So, a question: “why am I now now writing a third blog, this time on Astronomy and
Astrophotography?”
Well, a combination of factors, starting from retiring early from teaching and then purchasing ‘Bryony’ our motorhome from where I spent many evenings stargazing whilst residing on various motorhome sites. Through the Covid lockdowns when I was unable to escape and my garden became my refuge. To now and selling my beloved cruising dinghy ‘Arwen’ and so a need for a new absorbing hobby. Astronomy and astrophotography do seem such a departure from walking, mountaineering, travelling, motorhoming and sailing, do they not? But actually they all provide the perfect opportunities for nights under the skies if I get the right type of kit! Astronomy and astrophotography rigs designed with lightweight travelling in mind.
Astrophotography in particular! Capturing those nebulae, galaxies and milky way landscapes has been a deep-dive, intellectually challenging passion, for just over three years now. An exciting, incredible learning journey of problem solving, profound thinking and upping my learning skills development frequently! I pride myself on being a lifelong learner; but this journey is a roller-coaster of emotions! Entertaining, frustrating, confusing, rewarding. Complex, technically challenging, at times baffling! If only I didn’t have memory retention problems, it would be so much easier 😊
But what were the causes of this new learning journey?
It was lockdown that really moved me forward on astronomy and astrophotography. The pandemic. No travelling, no sailing.
House bound for so long. I dusted off my old DSLR and tried to get some images
of the moon one night, from the back garden! And then some stars the following
night.
The start of my astronomy and astrophotography adventure!
Out under the skies for a few nights, I decided it was time for a telescope. I
mean how long might we be on COVID lockdown restrictions for? I researched and
brought that telescope – a skywatcher Discovery 150i WIFI GOTO along with some
basic but good value eyepieces and a x2 Barlow. So many more lockdown nights out in the garden
exploring the heavens. Planets, nebulae, galaxies and star clusters. I was besotted
with it. My new love. The telescope came
with us when we finally escaped to do more motorhoming. It lived in a huge
plastic box protectively wrapped in bubble wrap and stored within the shower.
But visually exploring, observing the heavens, as fascinating and exhilarating as it was, something was missing!
And then one day, on YouTube, I came across videos by Trevor
Jones, Alyn Wallace and Peter Zelinka. And that was that! Complete revelation!
That missing ‘gap’, filled, just like that! I was a closeted imaging astronomer
– who knew? Astrophotography, the art of capturing images of our beautiful
celestial bodies with the help of a camera and telescope. Oh my! Fantastic stuff. Go figure! Of course,
it was only then that I realised the current telescope I had couldn’t be used
for imaging without some radical surgery! That took a little explaining to the financial
director, aka SWMBO!
I have since spent countless hours researching and learning
about both fields, astronomy AND astrophotography. Techniques, settings,
equipment needed; such a steep learning curve. My first successful astronomical
viewing and astrophotography photo other than the moon? The Orion nebula!
Followed by M45 Pleiades. Mesmerizing! Pure joy! A new, challenging and rewarding
hobby. A new lifelong passion emerging.
“And what kit have you now amassed, three years on”,
I hear you ask?
This is my kit now in January 2025: visual astronomy
- · Skywatcher star discovery Newtonian telescope 150i WIFI GOTO
- · Skywatcher 12v 7amp Power Tank and power cable
- · Stainless steel tripod for above telescope
- · Various eyepieces – Starguider ED at 8mm, 12mm, 25mm
- · M48 mm adapter ring for DSLR along with T adapter 1.25mm
- · Red dot finder
- · Adjustable smartphone holder clamp
- · Table top skywatcher 100mm dobsonian telescope
Astrophotography:
- · Canon 800D unmodified camera
- · Samyang lenses – 14mm F/2 and 135mm F/2
- · Canon 24mm F/2.8 and 50mm F/1.8
- · Zenithstar 61ii refractor telescope
- · Skywatcher star adventurer 2i wifi with spare counterweight and William Optics wedge
- · Ioptron Skytracker pro camera mount
- · ASIair mini and ZWO guide cam 120mm mini
- · RVO 32mm F/4 guide scope
- · MSM laser guide
- · Power banks
- · Intervalometer
- · Canon dummy battery pack
- · Carbon fibre Benro tripod
- · GoPro Hero’s 5 and 9
- · Optolong L-Pro filter
I have digressed haven’t I? I will write a more detailed blog post soon about all the equipment I have amassed over the three years but for now, let’s return to how I have
arrived at the twin passions of astronomy and astrophotography.
Did it truly start just like that during lockdown? Or
were the ‘seeds’ sown decades ago in my psyche suddenly allowed to emerge?
Any interest in space didn’t just suddenly start three years
ago. Of course it didn’t. After all, I’m a child of the early ‘60’s. Nuff said
then! If you know, you know!
Like many of my generation, it started with the moon
landings in 1969. I was seven. One morning, at my small primary school, we were
brought up to the main hall by our excited teachers. Older students were animated
and had all moved to the front; sat at the foot of the stage, on which was one
black and white TV, on a table. In my seven-year-old head I remember thinking
something very important was about to happen on that TV and I needed to be at
the front to see it. And so, I spent 15 minutes pretending to be a snake. I
literally slithered on my belly through the throng of cross-legged other
children sat on the cold floor. Desperate to get to the front and equally
desperate not to be caught by the teachers, alas, I was rumbled early on. The
Headteacher spotting me, stepped over the assembled throng, and cut into the
crowded floor space. Grabbing me by my shorts belt and lifting me upwards, I
was parallel to the floor, hovering above the heads of the older children ahead
of me. Crushed and so miserable, I knew I was about to be returned to the very
back of the hall from whence I’d started my slither ten minutes earlier.
But sometimes we get surprised in life. Instead of heading
backwards, I was propelled forwards, flying like a de-caped Superman; lifted
over the heads of those in front of me and unceremoniously plonked right at the
front. A kindly headteacher smile and winking eye, his finger to his lips, a
very slight perceptible nod of his head and he was gone; away to admonish an
unruly older boy who clearly had failed to grasp the historical significance of
the unfolding moment.
Right at the front, those grainy black and white shadowy flickering
images, so difficult for my seven-year-old brain to make out and interpret. Was
that a man descending a ladder? Why were teachers gasping as he jumped
to the ground? Teachers in tears as the man uttered a sentence I found
difficult to hear or comprehend?
But I knew! There and then, I knew something significant was
happening. Something world changing. Men had landed on our moon. People had
left our planet. We were exploring our night skies! My seven-year-old brain
could process that. I knew this was history in the making!
‘Star Trek’. ‘Lost in Space’, ‘Thunderbirds’. ‘Captain Scarlett’ and ‘Dr. Who’. I watched
them all. Cult viewing! The Apollo missions of the early ‘70’s? Annuals,
sticker books, Airfix kits, got them all.
I was hooked! Officially a sci-fi space geek! And, I’ve been
a ‘space geek’ ever since.
I think back to when I did my first solo night under canvas as a 9 year old, deep within the Llanberis Pass in Snowdonia. I spent most of that night with my head out of the tent, staring up at the skies above. How many stars were out there? How did space form? How far could I go before I reached the edge of space? What was beyond the edge? Who was out there, who was watching me watching them watching me? Why did stars shoot across the sky? simple childhood curiosity, it has never left me. And, I fervently hope it never will!
Failing my Maths ‘O’ level several times was heart breaking.
Getting a ‘C’ for physics, similarly so. Any dreams of a career at NASA or in
the space industry, cruelly dashed 😊! So, I studied Biology, Geography, Geology
and ended up teaching geography, the alternative ‘best thing ever’, for
thirty-five years until I took early retirement in 2017. During this time’, expeditions
to various parts of Africa, climbing various mountains and ranges, family off
road driving holidays in places ranging from Costa Rica to Crete and from
Namibia to New Zealand. So many holidays spent sleeping under BIG open, star
studded skies.
And then came that lockdown. The pandemic. No travelling, no
sailing. House bound for so long. I dusted off my old DSLR and tried to get
some images of the moon on clear nights from the back garden! The start of my
astronomy and astrophotography adventure! I researched and brought a telescope.
All that space geekery stuff finally let loose!
So, “Why have you become so fascinated with these twin
passions Steve?”
The creation of a stunning astro image fascinates me. The
mystery of its location/formation in our night sky is intriguing.
Am I grabbed and engrossed by the way my camera and
telescope work? Not really! Sorry! Do I enjoy technical aspects like learning
new apps, software and developing observing and astrophotography rigs? Yes! Absolutely!
I am a little bit of a ‘techie geek’. Linking up an ASIair and star tracker, delightful!
Enthralling!
Am I artistic? Sort of! I thoroughly enjoy the creative aspects of developing an astro image from stacked data. Do I do it well? No! It’s a love/hate/frustrating relationship with Affinity Photo. I get SIRIL, Sequator and GraXpert! But post editing in Affinity Photo? Huh! The Devils work frankly! A painful necessity on the way to producing a work of art! But don’t lose heart. I have mastered the basics of SIRIL, GRaXpert etc quite quickly because, and here is the key point, so much of these programs is one click icon tools. Automation of complex tasks; some even using AI. And so many decent YouTube tutorials to accompany them as well.
You will have noted from my equipment list above that I opted for a reasonably priced first telescope with GPS GOTO capability. It tracks my selected deep sky object and is controlled from my smartphone. I can still learn the basics of star hopping celestial navigation and where possible I tend to do this most nights out. But, I’m not adverse to using the simple, convenient GOTO technology on occasions. The navigator bit within me thoroughly loves doing the celestial star hopping navigation stuff during observing astronomy sessions ad that will never change but to be truly honest, I lean more towards the astrophotography bit more than just the visual. With this in mind, next on my list of future purchases? The GOTO skywatcher star adventurer tracking mount to replace my existing wifi one. But that is a story for another blog post. Will I go down the route of a dwarf S30 imaging scope? Not my cup of tea. That's too automated for me.
"What about your astrophysics ‘spacey’ knowledge?"
Yes, I like learning the basics behind universe structures
and processes but I’m not obsessive about this. Just need enough to understand
the processes behind the formation of the object I have just observed or
photographed. Could I talk much on relativity, gravity wells, black holes, dark matter or thermodynamics. Nope! Will I ever be able to? Nope! Cant retain it all!
Do I stand under a clear sky and marvel at the heavens above me? Always!
All my ancestors before me who have walked beneath the same skies
and, like me, just marvelled at the vast incomprehensible universe above.
Ancestors, who through the course of time, have wondered and been enthralled by
scientific space related discoveries of their particular time. To be able to
understand now, that when I stare at a distant star, I am looking back in time.
Galactic time travel! Light years! How lucky and privileged am I to exist in
this age of great space exploration? 13 billion years of universe evolution
being scrutinised, explored, thought about, and valued. How JWST allows us to
explore beyond our own galaxy to distant galaxies that were formed billions of
years ago in the past. The age of reusable space craft. The extraordinary
contribution of the ISS. Voyager craft out into interstellar space! Should we
be actually doing any of this exploration of the heavens and search for
extra-terrestial life elsewhere in the universe – well there’s a philosophical question
up for discussion at another time!
Here is the thing about astronomy and astrophotography - it’s a hobby, a rabbit hole we can disappear
down. We make it as simple or as complex as we like. I gain great delight from just
arriving on a night location site for a simple milky way shoot with just a DSLR
camera, wide angle lens, tripod and intervalometer in my backpack. I get the
same thrill, operating from the back of the car, with a rig that includes a
small refractor scope, an autoguiding system, a narrow band filter, various
power supplies and the same DSLR camera - chasing down an elusive deep sky
object in the heavens above. The joy of just setting up a large Newtonian and
red dot finder and star hopping from one constellation to the next; selecting
just the right eyepiece to view Jupiter and its moons? Wonderful. And, back
home, stacking the data gained that night. The first appearance of an image.
The post editing frustrations and revelations as I stretch the data. Such
happiness.
And it has been made all the more special when I have
attended outreach programmes down at my local beach; put on by members of
Plymouth Astronomical Society. I’ve learned a lot just seeing their equipment
and listening to their talks and passion about various night time astronomical
events. And soon, I will be taking the next big step – joining the society and
attending their monthly university night meetings.
Out beneath a clear sky. No wind. No clouds. No light pollution. Just me, wrapped in peace and quiet. The monotonous clicking of the camera as it builds up a ‘lights’ library of data. The faint whir of the tracker as it makes its infinitesimal movements. The rustle of a bush by a slinking fox. The snorts and snuffles of a passing hedgehog. The pleasure of pre-planning an observing or astro shoot session - weather, moon, seasons, access, safety, equipment needs, clothing and food requirements, interrogating Astrobin; soliciting advice on a target on forums like Cloudy Nights. I am a ‘researcher’ at heart. Learning new shooting or observing techniques. Going solo or taking a friend along, me imaging and my friend using the telescope to explore the heavens above.
It is all rather calming. A detox from the pressures of
daily life. That logical challenge of star hopping to find the target for the
night or working out an appropriate shooting sequence. The frequent frustrations
of balancing the tracker, polar aligning and problem solving the ‘falling out
internet connection’ between tracker and ASIair! All part of the exquisite experience
and magnetism of astronomy and astrophotography isn’t it!
Are you a beginner in these fields? New to them and want to
find out more? Want to give them a try? Come join me. Let’s do our learning
journey together!
Steve
if you would like more insight into why I have taken a deep dive into these new twin passions of astronomy and astrophotography, here is a link to a post I wrote on our motorhome blog giving further insights into what I perceive are the joys of astronomy: https://wherenexthun.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-joys-of-astronomy-is-it-hobby-we.html
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