First Year of Astrophotography / What I Like and Don't Like About This Hobby 

Great video, Bruce. I'm just getting started in astrophotography. Like you, I purchased the Skywatcher 102mm refractor. I got the go-to mount. I'm capturing images with my iPhone right now . Planning on a dedicated astro camera in the future. For me, the steep learning curve of the software and the weather are my biggest cons. I can see where this can become a true addiction. LOL Your images from your first year are awesome. I can definitely see where your photography background was beneficial.

Thanks for all your videos. Really inspiring

Great 1st year review. As an Astrophotographer who took a break for a number of year and started back up about a year ago. The stuff you mentioned is spot on. I hate when the guilt factor pops up.. if only we had clear skies and new moon every night. clear skies.

Hey Bruce I'm about a year in too and I think you've nailed all the points. I'm also up to 2 telescopes and a lens for this hobby and onto the second mount. I liked the guilt factor, I've certainly felt that one :-)

Enjoyed the video and perspective. I'm deliberately not heading towards astrophotography - and sticking with EAA. Interesting to notice it eliminates many of the aspects you don't like about the hobby: 1) Cost. For EAA, costs are lower. You can start with the camera/gear you already have (cameras/lenses = no dedicated telescope) and use free or cheap software (albeit limited to Windows PC). Of course, a tracking mount is a must, so probably an additional $500 goes there... but can go on top of a reasonably sturdy tripod. Also, for the 5-30sec sub-exposures, you can do without a guide scope and guide camera... but certainly, it's a slippery slope, and you can continue. 2) Panic and guilt (avoidance), since you're not "accumulating light" for just the right shot, and need all the available clear nights for these shots, you go when you want to observe (EAA, that is) and improve. You can go out with the moon if it's not totally in the frame. Window of opportunity is much larger. 3) Clouds - yes, that sucks for EAA too... but they don't ruin the night, and you can just try to move to other targets. 4) Satellites and Airplanes - actually, they are nice things. Sigma-clipping live stacking, and you don't have them. Also, you don't throw out many frames for them. And it's actually nice to have them in the frame from time to time... I'd add to this 5) Time... the amount of time to capture and process. You see this as a positive, and I can see that, but it's also nice to have the ability to do something bite-sized at times. True, setup of the mount (polar alignment and then at times star alignment), can take time. And it sucks when you get clouded out. With EAA you usually don't get a photo you can blow up to large print - deliberately, but you get very sharable photos for device viewing. That said, there are also those cases where you can reprocess the subs and create a photo after the fact. So all the raw frames can be continuously captured, and after you see that you had a great set of subs gathered on a target, you can decide to post-process it. Also can be used for time-lapses for transitory events. Tx! Loved the photos.

Hey Bruce, didn't know you were a gamecock fan. I'm from SC currently living in NC. Was able to give a little grief to the wine and cheese crowd UNC here over bowl game. lol. Great video.