Like so many hobbies it starts off such that you are usually very happy with your results and achievements and usually happy with your gear...but then for many they stop looking at what that have achieved either by way of observations or photos and start to find fault with most everything and no longer happy with an overlay of desiring improvement.
And so ...many folk want bigger better, a darker site, better cameras, better software etc and now when they look at their photos it is the oval stars they see not the fact that they are producing an image that family and friends find unbelievable who dont notice slight errors.
Now although I have gone rather over board with two observatories, three mounts ( and maybe another on its way?), two narrow band camera set ups, one OSC astro, and a decent wide field camera and lens... and four ( or more??) scopes these did not come from lack of satisfaction in either my equipment or my photos... just sortta happened...Others can find fault with my images or set up but not me...I am entirely content.....I remember where I came from ... A uneducated, very poor kid in a country town where to learn chess or the guitar I had to teach myself..where you had to fight bullies for being different and wanting to say play chess or have a microscope and chemistry set..no wonder I ended up a good fighter..you did or had nothing ..it has been always hard for me cause of so many fights..but never lost which only means they seek you out... and so I am so proud of all I have done without help...never part of the mob..so for me I find my astro stuff most rewarding and pity the folk who just want better rather than enjoy what they have done.
So its been near 12 months with no action and a pile of new gear to sort out and it looks as though I will be doing it all from a wheel chair...my legs just are not coming back so far..and with health issues its easy to give up..so my next images will be very hard won.
I should have explained why the fights...it was a small town..everyone had their place and the only pastime was football..if you did not play football you really were up against it...and envy...I had a guitar and a microscope...s real outsider.
Alex
Psychologists state that the ability of perception of nature and arts’ aesthetic is one of the points of evidence of human intellect and health.
Not only the result of photographing itself (it might be very problematic not only for astrophotography, but for taking photos of nature on the ground). Making a plan, going with a map, searching sites, being focused on the art away from daily haste is already a cure as well as wandering somebody's story-telling pictures.