DO NOT READ THIS BLOG
If you’re here to learn more about astrophotography I strongly suggest you stop reading now and go Google cat memes or puppy pics.
You could always find a nice novel to fill your time.
Bike riding is a healthy hobby.
The grass needs mowing.
Hang gliding?
Weed?
No? You’re going to continue reading? Ok, but you have officially been warned. This hobby, nay this obsession, even with a little toe dipped into the water may be detrimental to several key components of your healthy human lifestyle.
First, your wallet will be affected. Depending on how big your wallet is, how close to 750 your FICO is and how resourceful you are, this fact may be a deal breaker. Astrophotography (AP) Is not cheap. For example: there are pieces of glass the same size as a half dollar coin that cost 800 bucks, used. You will want one, you will want many of them, you will justify them, you may learn how to use PayPal to hide the purchase of them. A significant other may never understand or approve of such an expense. If money is no object, then congratulations on making great financial choices up to this point! But you better prepare your psyche for some budget busting shopping sprees! The more disposable capital you have, the bigger your dreams will become. Part of the goal of this blog will be to help limit the number of bad choices you’re going to make. I’ve made a bunch; I know others that made some whoppers. I can’t/won’t make your decisions, but I will share my experience how I started AP with hopes to enlighten your decision-making abilities.
Second, your personal relationships will take a hit. Yes, you will bore your friends and your family with news terms like Focal Length and Full Width Half Maximum. You’ll see their eyes glass over when you explain the principle of auto guiding and the benefits of flat, dark and bias frames! And don’t forget the acronyms. AP, GEM, CCD, CMOS, FW, and OAG just to name a few. Your daughter may roll her eyes when you show her science teacher your newest SHO narrowband image of the Pickering’s Triangle during her curriculum night. Your spouse may protest the seemingly magically appearance of newly framed images of your latest deep sky targets. You will find yourself spending a clear moonless January night out in a frozen field rather than spent in your heated home. At least until you build your remote obsy.
Which leads us to the third detriment to your life, your overall health. You will most likely lose sleep. More likely, you’ll lose lots of sleep. If you’re lucky enough to be able to shift the rest of your life to the right 4 or 5 hours after the all-night imaging sessions, then congrats this may be easier for you than I. But if you’re like me and weekday mornings always start at 5:30am you will undoubtably lose sleep. You will save the all-nighters for the moonless weekends, but there are no free lunches when it comes to sleep. Making up this deficit during the days off work and you will lose time for the lists of things most of us must complete on those weekends. Sleep will be lost; you won’t get it back and it can affect your health.
This has been my warning for those beginning Astrophotography. Not deterred? Good, then let’s go on a journey that will allow you to capture and record photons of light that emitted from galaxies millions of years ago. Timeless particles captured by a slice of silicon the size of a postage stamp and then processed in a computer with your own hand, eyes and mind. Welcome to Astrophotography.
-Jeff G.