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Buddy of mine has a fairly new hobby: astrophotography. I've been out with him a half dozen times over the past winter and have been fascinated with his knowledge and skills, and the stuff he's managed to capture. I've learned about some necessary things like polar alignment, plate solving and the setup of his rig. He's only been at this for about a year and a half and it blows me away that he's been able to learn and capture incredible images of things up and out there in the sky. Some of the things are way out there. I mean, WAY out there. The shots of Pleiades and the Horse Head nebula for example, are about 5000 light years distant. Something in the 42 trillion miles away range, I think he said it was. Anyway, thought some would get a kick out of his stuff. Soundtrack included.

Nebulas he's shot include Rosette, Veil, Horse Head, Elephant Trunk, Flame. Also pics of Whirlpool Galaxy, Jupiter (check our Titan and its shadow on planet's surface), Saturn, moon and many others. I was pretty surprised at the kind of things you can see with some gear designed and priced to be within reach of the average Joe.




Here's Bill. And yes, he's yet another dude I met out with the dogs in the wee hours of the morning and blindly accosted with my questions. I think I opened with, "Hey there. Sorry to bug you but I'm curious; what are you targeting with your Photon Torpedo?"

Great pictures.

Interestinger and interestinger. You post some cool threads. Not remove your kidneys cool with pics and all but still top 5 consistently.

WOW...

Very cool hobby.

That's pretty bad ass.

Would never tire of looking at the beyond. Good for him. Terrific he shared with you, and you us.

Wow great pictures. Thanks for putting those up. I love looking at the long distance quality star system shots.

Did he give any indication on the investment $ in this hobby?

Awesome pics. Always been a fan of the night sky.

Super badass!

Wow!

Pretty cool stuff.

Hazard a guess that one does not get into the astrophotography hobby on the cheap.

Fantastic pictures. Please thank your friend for allowing us the privlege of seeing them.

Thanks muchacho. Slummy, you heard the man. You're up!

Awesome pics Kamo.

Used to have big gatherings on the U of A mall that I would always attend. See some amazing things and learn a lot!

Regards

Hello! Nice images! Great to meet a fellow Astrophotographer on here. It is a huge passion of mine for many years and a lot of my images have been published in telescope magazines and social media. Please feel free to check out my website " Blue Ridge Observatory" Here is my web address Blue Ridge Observatory [/url]https://www.blueridge-observatory.com I love deep space astrophotography, asteroid & Super Nova hunting, and Spectroscopy. Clear Skies!
Dave

I like the night sky but when I think of the distances that I can't even fathom, I get a head ache. Mind blowing distances.

As in the quote in the Road Warrior: "Speed is just a matter of money; how fast do ya wanna' go?"

To answer your question, I asked and Bill said his first setup was somewhere in the $2500 range. His current one I believe he said ran about $4500. It's also not just a matter of buy and play, and he's constantly upgrading his setup with things like filters, stabilizers, heat bands, power sources and more. In addition to the gear, the tech/software knowledge necessary has a pretty steep learning curve. He's great about explaining things to me but in particular some of the stuff was, frankly, something I'd have to sit down and work to understand. Pretty sure Bill is a software developer/IT guy by profession, so the stuff may seem kind of like second nature to him, but without doubt to run this gear you need to know what you're doing. I have standing request with him to let me tag along if he feels like company and seems OK with me badgering him with questions, smoking butts and drinking vodka. Works for me.



Thanks for the comments and by all means I'll let him know his stuff is appreciated.

To me this looks like the grim reaper on his way.

(actually semi frightening)

Sometimes those questions help us .. by trying to figure out how to present what we're doing to other people we have to clarify otherwise mushy thinking. You might be doing him a favor that balances the one he does you.

Those are REALLY cool pictures.

Night sky in high, lonesome places without much light pollution make me feel small, insignificant .. which can be freeing. The world is not really riding on my shoulders, I only make a difference in the smallest of ways. So .. I might as well fish.

Tom

Incredible photos.