I am a geologist by profession and have long held the ambition to take up astronomy but mainly didn’t have the time; there is much in common between the two sciences and I have always found the ‘big picture’ / dynamic stuff of most interest.  In 2012 that changed and following retirement, I started to take a look at astronomy and equipment.  I did a lot of reading around and attended an excellent day seminar held by the Society For Popular Astronomy (SPA), however, at the end of all this I was just confused! The problem is that to a Newbie the jargon does not help and the endless banter on equipment did not answer the essential question – what should I buy?  I realise there are many equally valid answers to this question but as a newcomer it’s difficult to know where you want to go at this stage: viewing vs imaging, planets vs DSO, eyepieces, diagonals, collimation etc etc.

A couple of years later I went to an open evening at Herstmonceaux Observatory and even had clear skies!  So finally, after +60 years, I had my first ever view of Saturn through their 13” Astrograph Refractor built in 1890 – wow, I was hooked!  Unfortunately that was the easy part.  Eventually, spurred on by the prospect of good views of my favourite planet Saturn in the summer of 2013, I just went to my local astronomy shop and ended up with a Skywatcher 150PL Newtonian Reflector and EQ3-2 mount.  Despite all my previous research (I am prone to analyse such matters ad infinitum), I still didn’t really know what I wanted and whilst the shop offered lots of advice and jargon, I was none the wiser.  That’s OK, by now I just wanted a view through my telescope of my favourite planet Saturn from my back garden, and I got it in spades over the following weeks; this is the real beauty of astronomy – subject to clear skies – just go out your back door and look at the Universe!

Notwithstanding, one thing led to another! I soon realised the shortcomings of my set-up – no motor drive, limited field of view and poor clarity with low-end lenses, problems with stability, the need for filters and, despite my best efforts at Afocal photography, poor results; though I must say here that a long afocal exposure of the Orion Nebula later proved something of a seminal moment too, as the sensitivity of the camera’s sensor released colours in the nebula the eye cannot see.  I thus set out on the next stage of my astronomy journey to rectify these problems, with the aim of building up a reasonable but basic collection of equipment to try out various techniques on a limited budget and just learn from my inevitable mistakes.  Everything is relative but by now I discovered that astronomy is not a cheap hobby, despite what some might say.

Nearly one year on I fitted a motor drive, bought a couple of better lenses with wider FOV and decent eye relief (I wear glasses), a Telrad red dot finder (apart from the motor drive probably the most useful addition – I could now find what I wanted to look at quickly!), filters – moon, light pollution and UHC, a webcam and finally a DSLR camera + lots and lots of bits and fittings.  Despite being an experienced SLR and underwater photographer for 30 years (my other hobby), astrophotography was a whole new and difficult technique, ; despite being technically literate, the software programmes needed seemed endless and complex, to say nothing of the basic imaging problems that will doubtless take the rest of my life to conquer, if ever!

Where possible I have tried to learn, first hand, from others. I spent a day in 2013 at the excellent Norman Lockyer Observatory in East Devon attending their astro-imaging course and, courtesy of a birthday present from my children, became a member of a the Flamsteed Astronomy Club in Greenwich, London.  Despite all this I have found it something of a battle, so spent a week’s holiday in the Canary Islands on an astronomy course in 2014 doing all sorts of stuff with some exceptional equipment, which was very motivating and exciting + some great images.

Eventually,  having in part learnt from my mistakes, reading and the generosity of numerous persons on various online forums, I decided to splash the cash –  also helped by my growing desire to pursue DSO astrophotography.  As previously mentioned, I was something of an experienced photographer (with film) and for over 30-years underwater as a scuba diver but astrophotography is, as they say, a whole new ball game.

Notwithstanding, I purchased an AZ-EQ6 mount, a William Optics GT81 APO refractor and a modded Canon 550D and unmodded 700D DSLR , together with various other pieces of equipment, and successfully embarked on the next stage of my journey – slowly and with mixed and sometimes even good results!  As the bug had firmly bitten, at the end of 2016 I went to the dark side of astrophotography and purchased a ZWO ASI1600MM-Cool mono camera and x8 electric filter wheel (EFW), which has transformed everything.  It’s a lot more work but with commensurate results, most of the time! Astronomy and astroimaging have now become an important part of my life.

Nearly ten years on I’m pleased to say that progress has continued on many fronts.  Inevitably I’ve acquired more equipment, including a Samyang-135 rig and a Starfield 102ED refractor but my William Optics GT81 is also still going strong.  Unfortunately I still do not operate from an observatory but the addition of new harmonic wave AM5 mount and an ASIair Plus has revolutionised how I work, in particular, making setting-up and taking down much easier and quicker.  I’ve also just moved to Somerset where the skies are much more favourable to astronomy – it’s early days but intial imaging looks to be very promising.

As it says at the top, this blog is a personal record of events, thoughts, success and failures related to my astronomy journey – I hope you find it interesting and maybe even useful.

Watch this space!

Graham

FRAS, Member of BAA & Wells & Mendip Astronomers

October 2025