I have not been dabbling in astrophotography for very long. This past April, I took a plunge; a deep plunge. I purchased a Williams Optics RedCat 71 WIFD astrograph, a ZWO ASI2600MC Pro, a guide camera, and a tripod, among several other things. In a nutshell, I invested a lot in this new foray into an unknown realm for me; and, I am glad I did!

When I first started shooting the heavens, I did a few seconds here, more seconds there, and a few minutes here, but I never focused on one target very long. When spring ended here in Florida and we moved into the summer months, I packed my gear up because, well, summers in Florida equals cloudy days with rain and, usually, cloudy nights from the leftovers. I was tired of keeping my gear out hoping I could use it this night or the next. Well, fall is here and I am back to imaging!

I learned a lot over the summer from tutorials online and a friend about how to go about shooting the heavens. The longer you can stay on the target, the more detail you can get. Last night was the first night that I really tried to push the envelope of my gear and, WOW, was the result amazing! Here is a photo comprised of about 4 hours of data on the Orion Nebula: 

This is comprised of approximately 24 10-minute subs on the nebula from about 10pm to roughly 4:30am. I did lose some frames due to trees to my south and west, but I managed to get 4 of 6 hours in imaging! Now, let's see what about 5 hours of 5-minute subs looks like:

The difference is amazing! My goal now is to shoot the Orion Nebula and another target (I will have to see what is good coming up just before I can get to Orion) over the next several days, with the intention of cumulating about 20-24 hours worth of data. I mean, if the first image above is just 4 hours, imagine how much detail may be possible with 5-6 times that data! I am excited to see how it turns out!