My 2011 Week Under the Stars: The Astrophotography Journey Begins

Our Epic Astro Week 2011: Friends, Stars, and a Surprise Shake-Up!

This year, I once again hosted a mini star-party at the observatory with my good friend Julio, who came all the way from Spain for the occasion. We were joined by Mikel, also from Spain, and Mathieu, a long-time friend who traveled from Monaco. The week’s agenda was pretty straightforward: astro, barbecues, beers, and some pool time! Given the July weather we’d had in the region, the odds of clear skies in early August seemed pretty slim. And yet, out of six observation nights, we only had one with a few passing clouds. How’s that for luck!

Julio spent a good chunk of the week on wide-field photography, armed with two Canon 350D cameras, a pair of Canon 50mm F/1.8 lenses, and an Ha filter on one of them. His mission: to complete the giant Milky Way mosaic he’d been working on for months. Mission accomplished! I’m really looking forward to seeing the final result, but I know the massive processing work ahead will probably keep him busy for months!

Mikel, a truly fantastic astrophotographer, continued his ongoing project: a mosaic encompassing the Crescent Nebula and its delicate surrounding nebulosity. He captured subs in LRGB Ha and OIII. I just received the final image, and as always with Mikel’s work, it’s absolutely stunning. He’s rocking a Takahashi Sky 90, a field corrector, an Atik 383L camera, and a filter wheel. Pre-processing and final tweaks are all handled in PixInsight.

Mathieu joined us out of curiosity, eager to dive into our little “crazy world” of spending nights under the stars, snapping photos of the cosmos. It seems he really enjoyed it, and I’m genuinely hoping he’ll be back next year… you know who you are! 😉

On my end, thanks to Mikel, I had a bit of an epiphany. To make truly beautiful astrophotos, I really need two key things: top-notch optics and an excellent camera. Sounds obvious, right? But sometimes you need a little nudge to realize it. My current gear is good quality, no doubt, but it’s just not quite suited for the type of images I’m aspiring to create now. So, I decided to start by dismounting my C11 to lighten my mount, with the plan to sell it and invest in a high-quality refractor that offers a large, perfectly flat field. A good portion of my other equipment is also going up for sale to help fund this future purchase, and potentially a new CCD camera. This week was also a great opportunity for me to do my very first Ha trials!

We stuck to the week’s program perfectly. As a little bonus, we even got to experience a small earthquake, around magnitude 4, right in the middle of an observation session! My autoguiding system definitely did not appreciate that surprise shake-up! All in all, this year has truly been packed with astronomy adventures.