The first half of 2010 was a period of research via the Internet and books about the state of the art for amateur astrophotography leading to a resolve to begin again a hobby I had left over 25 years before with good quality but entry level DSLR camera and a computer controlled telescope. This resolve came to fruition in August-September 2010 with the purchase of initial telescope and astrophotography gear and the remainder or 2010 was spent using and understanding it and the 'light gathering' and 'image processing' processes.

The photos in this gallery, established a year later in late in 2011, contain in-camera JPEG photographs from the first couple of months and then initial efforts at image stacking and the use of RAW images WITH ABERRATIONS FOR ALL TO SEE. They also show quite a deal of impatience as initially I was curious to see what was within the light grasp of an 80mm telescope in metropolitan light polluted skies (the suburb of Willetton, 12Km south of Perth centre, Western Australia). Showing these is quite intentional as it was a learning period for me and whilst I’d read about such things as light pollution filters, focusing masks, ‘darks’, ‘flats’ and ‘bias’ frames, Digital RAW images and post processing to ‘stack’ all these things, the reality of taking photographs and seeing the output helped greatly in understanding the image processing requirement. I reprocessed my initial images several times over the first 6 months as I learned and as I have loaded these to this gallery have re-processed some to show side-by-side to show that the learning process continues yet!

My plan, which I'll share for the benefit of others taking this journey, was for a three (3) step acquisition of gear over a couple of years. My "guiding principle" was that each step should be considered a possible end-point hence look for quality at each step-solution as it could otherwise result in difficulties and dissatisfaction which would either cause a loss of interest in proceeding or expedite the progression to the next step. Satisfaction with each step was perceived to allow the progression of skills at a reasonable pace and enthusiasm to continue! The Plan then:

1. Acquite a good small true-APO triplet Refractor with good quality focuser, for astrophotography without need for filters, on a solid mid-range and portable Equatorial GoTo tracking mount, short duration unguided colour photos with APS-C sensor size DSLR (Second hand to keep costs down). Possible option of Illuminated reticule finder for longer duration photos.
a) Aim to provide entry level experience of camera, camera wide field (Standard entry-level lens) and telescope optics, mount and digital processing and confirm next step
b) Budget (inc. camera) ~$3,500, mid 2010

2. Add a solid EQ mount and fixtures that can support future max 11” OTA
a) Aim is to support longer exposure times and position for larger OTA in next step
b) Budget ~$3,000, early-mid 2011 (total ~$6,500)
c) Sell initial step-1 equatorial mount. (recoup ~$700 toward budget)

3. Acquire larger OTA (8-11”) for astrophotography with full 35mm sensor or CCD capability and move Refractor to guide scope with added auto guider.
a) Aim is to support narrow field deep sky objects
b) Budget ~$3,000, early-mid 2012 (total ~$9,500)

The plan was very quickly modified and resulted in steps one and two being amalgamated into one for the following reasons:
a) Winter specials reduced mount costs to the point that it wasn’t much more expensive to buy the “step 2” mount.
b) The idea of short duration of unguided shots creates a lot more work in both image acquisition and post processing time. Auto guiders are now less than $400 and make a modest mount a very stable and usable piece of equipment.
c) A Field flattener is essential to maximize the usefulness of your APO Refractor images, even for a modest APS-C sized image sensor.
d) Imaging in a metropolitan area without a light pollution filter … what was I thinking!
e) Lots of little extras like cases for transport, QUALITY cables & cable management, dew control (yes, even in Perth) and transportable power supply.

The outcome of my initial acquisitions were:
- A second hand Digital SLR camera with good astrophotgraphy support: Canon 400D - 10.1MP, ISO 100-1600, shutter 1/4000-30+Bulb,Sensor 22.2x14.8mm,Pixel 5.7uM, no Live View, no video.
- A second hand 80mm Apochromatic (triplet) refractor for imaging: Apogee OrthoStar LOMO 80/480 f/6.0. Combined with Canon 400D DSLR gives 106' x 159' field.
- A new 80mm Achromatic (doublet) refractor as a guide scope and auto guider: Orion ShortTube 80/400 f/5 with Orion Star Shoot Auto Guider (SSAG)
- A solid computer controllable GoTo Equatorial mount: Skywatcher NEQ6
- Planetarium software Stellarium, Cartes du Ciel and Starry Night Orion special edtion. Telescope control software EQMOD and Ascom platforn. Guiding software Stark PHD. Image Acquistion software Canon EOS Utility. Image stacking software DeepSky Stacker and image processing software GIMP and Adobe Photoshop CS5 trial. All image acqusition software installed to an existing Toshiba Satellite T130 laptop and image processing software to an existing more powerful desktop.
- Actual costs ~$4500 for initial configuration rising to ~$7500 by mid-2011 as the additions noted above were made (excludes existing laptop and photoshop software)
- The plan varied in 2012. Refer to 2012 gallery for details.

Unless stated otherwise, images are from my home location in Willetton, 12 Km south of the centre of Perth, Western Australia. My favourites shots can also be found on AstroBin http://www.astrobin.com/users/scottastrophe