6 months later ....

I started astrophotography almost as soon as I got my scope, which means it has now been 6 months since I took my very first astrophoto ... I am almost ashamed to show my first few shots and processing of them.

The first ones of M31 and M13 were not focused (shooting a DSLR through a long focal length scope with no Bahtinov mask and no Live View ... soon made a mask and dont have such a focus problem with the Nikon anymore) I did get some acceptable attempts at the Lagoon Nebula, Swan Nebula, and Double Cluster - especially since I had no idea what I was doing and what darks and flats were, etc. ... but I dont have any recent ones of them to compare so I will just show the comparison ones to save on space here.

This is M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, from the second day of attempting astrophotography and from almost exactly 6 months later (3 days shy of it to be exact) ... I cropped and oriented them about the same to get a fair comparison.

Its come a long way! Although it is still not perfect, I know a lot more about what I am doing and improving with every night I spend imaging. I look forward to seeing the progress another 6 months will bring!