Thanks so much for the kind words everyone. I am proud of this photo
It is funny how each time I create a picture, I am very happy with it, but then you look at others and you notice how much more detail, or less noise, or nicer stars, or better contrast, colours... the list goes on. The scope for improvement is as deep as you want it to be. Its a real rabbit hole.
As for doing it for years and years.. I wish! I wish I had gotten into this hobby sooner lol. The information online allows people to really learn extremely quick, however it has not come without many disappointing nights under the stars and frustration that's for sure.
I have had so many near misses with the scope nearly crashing into the mount overnight and so its amazing I still have equipment. I think most those issues are out the way now. Again, every small issue I have, I read about every possible cause and go through the whole process of elimination which is painful to do and it hurts to waste time under clear skies to trouble shoot. But, we all need to start somewhere.
I read forums every night, its turned into a bit of an obsession over the last 12 months.
I do keep a separate HDD. I was blown away by how much Space ummm Space? lol takes up on the PC.
I keep all my subs and files labeled well, but I haven't taken any details or logs on processing yet. At the moment I am doing a little bit of fiddling around in photoshop. Most photos I have been following Trevor Jones's guide on processing and recently a little of Astro Ed.
I have read that its best to keep a log. I do save my main Photoshop files with the layers, so I can always go back and see how I got a result.
I think writing it down would be beneficial though