[DobDobDob (Ron)]

Originally Posted by Garyh

Hi Tailwag...
Got your PM. What sort of things would you be interested in imaging?
Cheers Gary

Hi, I saw a fellow take an image of the Sombrero galaxy about 7 years ago, we were on a mountain top, he had all the latest gear then and it took about 1.5 hours in total I think. He had a car battery and his computer, all the software and of course the knowledge and before my eyes that image came to life and looked extraordinary.

I would love to do something similar, (don't forget I don't have the telescope yet) but I do have the cash, but am waiting to test a few telescopes under real dark site conditions. I just downloaded RawShooter and am up to page 10 of the 71 pages of the read me which is in PDF format. I'll finish reading it tonight, I also have Photoshop somewhere on a HDD as well.

I love the way that galaxies and Nebula look in images, I feel that it extends humans because we can't see these objects nor the colours with the naked eye, that means that this field of astronomy (in my mind) goes beyond looking at single stars which at the end of the day just look like white dots of varying size against a dark background.

Perhaps I am showing my ignorance here and that is understandable because I am totally a beginner, well I haven't even take one shoot yet, so I am pre-beginner

I am willing to learn however, and it seems that reading unending volumes of technical literature is part of the deal, but that's okay with me, if that's what it takes. I suspect however as soon as I start going to the local amateur astronomy club, then to one of their regular dark site observing nights, that I will quickly hook up with other astrophotographers and then by me simply observing what they do, how they do it and by me asking questions, that eventually the whole thing will drop into place.

In the meantime I'm asking questions here (IIS) and reading as much as I can by way of background info, so that I might speed up my learning curve a good deal.