Hi John, you sound like me all those years ago when i started astro-photography, but it was film in those days digital haden't been invented then, (well maybe it had), but i knew nothing about it.
i didn't even know what a computer was.
In those days the first one i saw was a Commadore 64, which took ten days to load a program
I think i just about used all the film that Kodak had, and most went into the bin.
Anyway welcome to this site i'm sure you will enjoy it.
Leon