LOOK UP!!!

So how did this whole astrophotography fetish start? Well, I've always been interested in Astronomy and stuff from "out there". I remember watching the first moon landing on TV and visits to the planetarium. I later took an astronomy class in college and got my first view of Jupiter and its moons -- very cool! I've always gone outside whenever there has been comets, eclipses, or meteor showers. I've seen the Nothern Lights stretch from horizon to horizon up near the arctic circle. THAT was amazing. I also remember being really blown away when comet Hale-Bopp made an appearance back 1997. You could see it in the daytime! Unfortunately, that's also the comet the Heaven's Gate folks tried to catch a ride on. Anyway....

After working my butt off for many years, I'm enjoying a more leisurely pace and catching up on life. So when comet Holmes made a surprising appearance last winter I once again climbed my roof to take a look. I was having a hard time finding it so I checked an online astronomy site and found some local astronomy clubs that stage "star parties" (where a bunch of folks set up all kinds of telescopes and allow the public to come have a "look see").

So I went to my first star party and not only saw comet Holmes, but whole BUNCH of cool stuff I never saw before! I immediately bought some binoculars and started learning the night sky. A couple of months later I bought my first telescope -- a Celestron CPC 800. I heard that folks actually mount their DSLR cameras onto these scopes and take photos so I thought I'd try it...

WHAMO! That was just TOO cool! I was instantly hooked.

Here is my first astrophoto of the Orion Nebula. It is a single 30 sec. exposure (not great by any stretch, but enough to get me going). Thus it begins.