Back to some Astro

I haven’t really done any Astro during 2024 – it’s been a combination of several factors, the skies weren’t great when I had the time to shoot, and they were clear when I didn’t! I started to get a bit cheesed off with the setting up and long sessions, then finally as summer approached, I found myself preparing to move home so was a bit pre-occupied.

So now here I am in my new place – it’s stunning and I really love it, but it’s more difficult to set kit up and take Astro shots – my old place had the South facing bedroom window that gave me many decent shoots without having to step outside. I don’t have that here. I’d long planned to put all the gear in the car and head of to some dark sky area with a blanket and a flask of coffee, but it never really happened and seemd like an awful lot of hassle! So to get the Astro mojo going again, I’d been toying with the idea of picking up one of these new Smart Telescopes, but wasn’t quite sure.

I managed to get shots of the Aurora (Northern Lights) in May then again a couple of weeks ago in early October, and I tried to get the latest celebrity comet (without much success), but met someone shooting the comet on a said smart telescope. An experienced Astronomer, she reckoned it was great value and amazing to use. Certainly the comet shot she had blew my phone pic out of the water!

So I ordered one that night (a few days ago). It arrived in less than 48 hours (big up First Light Optics) and within half an hour of unboxing, I’d got a few solar shots (my first ever!)

So check out my next post for a bit more info’ on my new toy – the Seestar S50