I posted about my "new" hobby years ago, but here's are some more recent images I took. Needless to say, I've gotten a lot better and now run a YouTube channel helping others to learn how to take images like this. Most of my images are taken from an observatory I build next to my house. Overall exposure times can be as long as 40 hours. The more time, the better the image. There's nothing like smoking a cigar while watching the individual images come in. I just have to keep the smoke away from the gear.

I'd be glad to answer any questions about the images or what goes into taking them. Enjoy!


The Rosette Nebula
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Skipping Across the Rosette Nebula

The Crescent Nebula
Image
Crescent Nebula

The Andromeda Galaxy
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M31 - Andromeda

My gallery...
http://www.astrobin.com/users/Footbag/
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Wow! Would it be okay to take one for my new desktop background? I love pics like these and the quality is amazing. NASA should hire you.
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Would be cool to see some snaps of the observatory you built -- the space pics are outstanding!
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Absolutely! I don't mind at all.

NASA doesn't hire us "pretty picture" guys, but they do recognize our work. A few of my friends have been recognized recently. I'm still hoping I'll get my chance. For now, I just love sharing.
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Excellent
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Here's a link to a thread on an astronomy board that I made as I built it...

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/41...r-observatory/

It's a roll-off roof, not the typical dome that you are used to seeing. For me, the roll off roof made more sense. Domes need more expensive control hardware to move the shutter and rotate. A roll off is simpler and doesn't attract the same attention as a dome.

It was the first time I did any exterior construction, and I'm pretty proud of my work.
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Just did a quick run through of your observatory build --it's things like this that send me into a deep, dark, 5-thumbs with zero man-skill depression. That is quite the piece of work!
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Very cool!
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Literally blown away. I just moved back to FL and thought it was great to be able to go out at night and see a couple hundred stars instead of the dozen or so you see when living in Boston or other big cities, this though is just amazing, wow.
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Don't give up hope. I had done some very basic interior construction before, but I learned most of the stuff I needed to know about building the observatory on YouTube. The hardest part was starting, then I had to finish or I'd have a bunch of chopped up wood and trees in my yard.
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Thanks guys! One of the benefits of photography is you can really see a lot more in light polluted skies then you would ever hope to see otherwise. Through an eyepiece, it's basically just faint fuzzies.
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These are very cool. Well done!

M
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Very impressive, Adam.
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I am super impressed, Adam! Very cool.
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Thank you thank you all, but I really can't take all the credit! oh ... :-)
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Those are wonderful, thanks for sharing!
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Wow! can't stop looking at them. Absolutely stunning and thanks for sharing.
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Fantastic!
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Stunning and beautiful.
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thats awesome
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