On 10 May 2010, at 18:08, Michael Vanopstall wrote:
I'm curious if anyone (on these cloudy nights) could give a succinct explanation of what is interesting about astrophotography. I have not (and will not) been drawn in, and I'm curious about what interests others.
Most everything I would have pontificated on the subject has already been posted to this thread. But I would like to add a couple of things. Why I take astroimages? To me there are two kinds of astroimages. One is what generically gets called "pretty pictures". I do some of that but when I do it's just because it's fun. Yeah, it's been done before and I'll always find a better version somewhere else (I don't have the patience or desire to spend 10s of hours exposing a single image). But, like I said, an occasional foray into taking pretty pictures can be fun. And, hey, I'll admit I have an ego (I'm sure none of you knew that <grin>) so the nice comments are appreciated. But for me the main reason I take astroimages is not to make pretty pictures but to take data. Pretty pictures are nice but usually lacking in scientific value. Happily astronomy is one field where amateurs can contribute to the body of scientific knowledge and I very much enjoy contributing. And I might also add that one can contribute with much less fancy (read: expensive) equipment and the process is much, much, MUCH easier that what the really high quality pretty pictures require. But speaking of pretty pictures, here's Tyler's just released version of the M-101 data I posted the other day. Unfortunately 101 is so big it's outer edges spread into the parts of my FOV where the focal reducer is not kind. But taken as a whole I think it looks nice. http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=68&g2_page=5 I'll add details of the image later tonight. patrick