Hmm interesting Glen, and you are probably right, Personal Astronomy has certainly come a long way, and to be honest I just cant keep up with the processing stuff like i once did.
It is just beyond me, and hence gave imaging away some time ago, however just in the last few days have had a go at some simple Tripod Wide Fields just for fun.
The image taking was not that hard after a few stuff ups but now if i want to keep going I have to learn that stacking and processing stuff again.
So i will see what happens and seeing that i haven't done it for a long time it wont be too hard to walk away again.
I did enjoy and took it very seriously in the past and have great memories of the cold frosty nights and some nice photos hanging on the wall.
Leon