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'2020 has been a pretty unbelievable year for me in astrophotgraphy' I thought, as I saw the year out, precariously balancing on a fence, shooting this.
I'd started astrophotography (AP) in 2015/16, but hadn't got very far. In 2017 my son arrived, and life generally was too much. Lockdown gave me some space, and I started back with some digiscoping. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1246167533390123009?s=20
We'd moved in to a new place just before lockdown in March, most of my stuff was still in storage. By this point in April it looks like I'd got my DSLR out, and I was clearly rusty, making mistakes like this: https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1252873623527800833?s=20
My old house didn't have a garden, this place does, so things are easier. Scope and mount out of storage now, relearning planetary AP. Following Venus' apparition was an awesome thing to be a part of, it was a global collective experience on twitter. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1255222030682730500?s=20
As I was figuring out lunar photography, I had this mishap with Hugin (stitching software). This accident was just the tip of the iceberg of problems I was having. I thought this was pretty amusing though. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1258511349585375232?s=20
In May there was a supernova, and I thought I'd give it a shot. Had no idea if it would come out. It kind of did, and seeing M61 showed me that more was possible than I expected with my set up when it came to deep sky AP https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1260964779692380160?s=20
Tried M101 next. I should really go back and reprocess this because I've learned so much since this attempt. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1262775597153030144?s=20
Tried Mercury. At the time, I couldn't successfully process this video. The atmospheric prismatic dispersion is pretty strong, nearly looks like 3 separate objects! It did come out though, I would use this for the Solar System collection later. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1263060503913541633?s=20
Maksutov telescopes are known for being brilliant at planets and the Moon, I don't think it's as well known that they are also great for clusters. I think it's noticeable here that I'm making progress with processing. Surpassing here my pre 2017 level. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1266403891140321280?s=20
This was the first time a tweet of mine took off a bit. Maybe it was the earnest and reverent framing that was the cause of its success? I have no idea. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1268581509667205126?s=20
This is where I solved those difficulties I was mentioning with lunar image processing. It took weeks of struggling with software bugs, crashes, user error. I did enjoy solving it though. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1271548521125117952?s=20
Further experiments, more progression. I used a trial of an AI de-noise software which took things up a level. I didn't buy it though, still not sure if I like the effect or not. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1276634274138112000?s=20
This is when Neowise showed up. I still haven't processed the data which is being collected in this picture 
. It's bad data because I didn't know what I was doing. I'm ready for the next once in 20 years comet now though 
https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1281419405289824256?s=20
. It's bad data because I didn't know what I was doing. I'm ready for the next once in 20 years comet now though https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1281419405289824256?s=20
A night I will never forget. Noctilucent clouds with a naked eye comet. This was the 2nd night in a row staying up till dawn. I have some health issues, and this showed me that I was stronger than I thought. It did take me a few days to recover though. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1281773119565434880?s=20
Still not knowing really, how to shoot comets at this point, I salvaged a time-lapse. Learned the value of just being like 'this is amazing' rather than, 'well...not what I was hoping for' in tweet text. I think people prefer that. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1282333251693150210?s=20
As far as I can remember, it was just curiosity that lead me to try shooting Uranus. I didn't know if it would work. Possibly noticing a bit of a theme here - trying things without knowing that they'll succeed. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1297575920325328897?s=20
Neptune was next, I fully expected this to be beyond the capabilities of my gear. I'm using a pretty venerable DSLR for planetary imaging. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1300148273508950016?s=20
Pluto. This took a lot of care, and patience. More characteristics that I didn't used to associate with myself, and I'm still not convinced to be honest. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1310534589501276160?s=20
With Pluto, I had completed a family portrait of the Solar System. I didn't the slightest idea at the start of the year that I would have achieved this, I wouldn't have believed you if you'd told me. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1311627137355575296?s=20
Capturing a Martian Sol was the largest scale AP project I've ever attempted. Check out my YouTube channel for more on this. I really enjoyed the struggle, and difficulty. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1319749228126736384?s=20
The Orion Nebula was one of my final projects of the year. Indeed, it was something I'd shot untracked through a dob near the very start of my AP journey, so it made a good fit with the how it's going meme. https://twitter.com/StargazerRob/status/1335649151829282818?s=20
This wasn't even close to everything. I feel so lucky to have been on this journey, let alone in such as year as 2020. I've met so many awesome people on here, and everyone is so wonderful and supportive, it's really humbling.
Wishing you all clear skies for 2021 and beyond!
Wishing you all clear skies for 2021 and beyond!
