|
Just starting out on that journey myself, but I enjoy the fact that the images can be manipulated to bring out various aspects of the details, and that they are permanent, not ephemeral. So what I see in the planets, for example as they boil away, or in a nebula with averted vision, becomes solid and unmistakeably 'there'. I also like that there is a record of what was up there that night. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy visual too. The dream is to become proficient enough that I can set the photography rig going and step away to do visual until I feel like going to bed. Or even, maybe some nights to have my rig 'tag along' cataloging and taking photos of the stuff I'm looking at visually. In this way it can work as a visual aid, where it shows details I may want to stretch my eyes to try and catch. In this case, the objective wouldn't be perfect imaging (more like 'Astrogram'), and would need careful use of an eyepatch to be worthwhile. Haven't actually tried it yet, but I think this could be fun.
But apart from that, there is a joy in being able to share what I'm seeing with other people, especially people who don't realise that you can see this stuff from earth with amateur gear.
I also like the technical challenge (and find it equally frustrating too). I like learning about new things, and learning new aspects of things I thought I knew about. For example, cameras are an entirely new ball game when you are talking about astrophotography.
I like experimenting with data, finding different ways to squeeze out better images.
By way of example, the other night, I screwed up completely and only managed to get a handful of L, R & G subs of M42. I thought I'd have to wait till next time, till I realised the blue was inherent in the luminance channel, and managed to pull an image from the data that was far better than I imagined I'd get.
Another aspect of it that I like is the fact that it saves you time at the eyepiece. I took a lovely crescent moon shot the other night. Identifying all the craters and finding out how big they were would have taken ages. But with a quick photo, I can pore over it to my hearts content later on, and pick up on things I might have missed out on in the moment at the eyepiece.
That's my 2cents, anyway. Wait - we're talking about astrophotography here. That's my $10,000 anyway. :-D
|