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Originally Posted by Wavytone
Secondly I notice so many are endlessly photographing the same few hundred objects over and over again, which is quite frankly utterly pointless. How many photos of M42 does the world really need ?
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Yeah, you're right. Everest has been climbed. Channels have been swum. Marathons have been run. We should all pack up now and go home ... back to our pre-packaged television shows, pre-packaged microwave meals and pre-packaged lives. Don't bother trying to achieve anything for yourself. Life
should be dull, dull, dull.
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Which leaves the fourth category. After a few mistakes (which I have sold) I eventually acquired a dream scope for lunar & planetary, which is fine where I live. While it is great to occasionally visit a dark site to point this at some DSO's and galaxies etc I don't take it too seriously anymore.
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While I agree that lunar and planetary (and solar for that matter, if you go that way) is the easiest thing to do from the typical suburban back yard, you can still get reasonable narrowband AP results form the suburbs. And even though LP will diminish quality, LRGB is still achievable - I do it, just for myself. But, yeah, there is a disproportionate amount of lunar/planetary done from my back yard.
I recall a conversation I had a with a few astro club members a few years ago. The point (to us) about AP was two-fold: you capture with a camera what the human eye can't see even in a large dob; and, you have a record of your achievements to return to or share with others. That, for me, makes it worthwhile.
And as for camping, I've been to plenty of dark camp weekends and I've never had to spend time with "rough blokes" or sleeping in a tent; bunk beds yes, tents no, and we had cooked meals and a glass of wine or a beer every night.
