I am a beginner in this extraordinary hobby. I became interested in Astronomy whilst collecting a part-work that built up an Orrery from 52 weekly magazines. I purchased my first telescope, a Meade ETX 125PE in March 2009, and was quickly fascinated with observing Saturn and the Moon. I had purchased the Celestron NexImage as part of the package and was soon using this to take images of these objects.

It was shortly after this that I realised the other wonders of the sky, the so called Deep Sky objects. Images available on the web, taken with relatively in-expensive equipment were stunning. I was hooked, I wanted to take similar images to those. That was when the fun and frustration started.

The websites I used to research this Deep sky stuff all stated that Astro Imaaging is the most difficult form of photography. I can remember thinking, "Why - surely you just set your camera up to some special parameters and click away - simple". After many hours spent late at night and in cold conditions later, I realised how steep the learning curve was for this hobby, and how accurate those websites actually were.

I began to try understanding what was happening, asking the usual question of "Why should I do this?" rather than just accepting what is being said. Some things like how long should I take an exposure for and what effects does a focal reducer have on the image were key items to look at. Answers to all these questions and more can be found on this website, described in an easy to understand way.

I hope you find the website useful and welcome any constructive comments.