Whether you are beginning astronomy, beginning astrophotography, or both, you will sympathize with much of this. We all seem to start in a very similar way and this is my story.
My fascination with all of this started as a kid, as I am sure it did with most people. Since I was born around the time of the great race to the moon it was only logical that I was star struck (pun intended) with everything space related. In that time it was hard not to be. Model rockets were all the rage, and everything was advertised in some way with astronauts and space related themes. I don’t think it is possible that anyone will ever be brought up in such a space nurturing environment.
Fast forward to where I got my first “real” job, which I define as a job that not only pays the bills fairly well, but allows for enough extra cash to blow on not-so-cheap hobbies. I was really into photography so I had several camera bodies and a few lenses and I thought wouldn’t it be great to join that with my love of the stars? After much reading and many phone calls (this is pre-internet mainia so no web surfing involved) I bought what at the time (1996 or so) was supposed to be an awesome telescope for beginning astronomy and had some accessories. It was a Celestron 114EQ reflector like this diagram:
I really wanted to like the scope as it cost me a small fortune and had me thinking of what all was possible. Unfortunately, despite what the salesman said, this was not a good telescope for beginning astronomy and even less so for beginning astrophotography.
I did however take one picture:
I hope you enjoyed my beginning astronomy story!
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