No products in the cart.
Astrophotography by Shawn Nielsen.
This was my first image taken upon returning to the astrophotography hobby and astronomy after many years. It was summer of 2008 and I found an urge to explore the cosmos again and meet up with old friends, the stars of the night sky.
I had decided to purchase a new telescope and try my hand at photographing the night sky. How things had changed. When I dabbled in astrophotography as a teenager, computer control of telescopes, for amateurs anyhow, was in its infancy. What was an autoguider? I recall “guiding” manually by having to keep a guide star at the center of an illuminated cross-hair eyepiece that I’d have to keep looking through the entire time I was imaging. Apparently technology had taken leaps and bounds for amateur astronomy and imaging.
I have to admit being a little overwhelmed and caught up in the bells and whistles the new telescopes offered. Having a little knowledge of things and some money to spend, I ventured head-long into the cosmic imaging abyss. Sure I didn’t have all of the needed equipment and definitely not the right equipment for a beginner, but that didn’t stop me.
The above image of M31, the Andromeda galaxy, was taken with the CPC 800 8″ SCT I had bought. It was an F10 long focal length telescope and I had no autoguiding. Would seem like a recipe for disaster!
I did end up buying a focal reducer which brought the telescope down to F6.3 (wider field of view) which was a little more forgiving for taking images of deepsky objects. I also had a refurbished stock Canon 350XT DSLR I bought and a wired remote shutter release for doing long expsosures. All things considered, I was so thrilled with what I saw. I had been bitten by the astrophotography bug!
Little did I know then, that it would be a good 2 years before I perfected the art of astrophotography. I kept persevering and was always excited for every clear night that came along. I joined the local astronomy club and met new friends. I even was able to go to dark sites for imaging. I would reach a big highlight around 2011/2012 when my images were winning awards and being featured in publications which was very satisfying and exciting.
Looking back over the years now, I realize you never perfect the art but continuously learn and refine your imaging and processing skills. I’m still learning even today, new techniques and with new equipment or software. I image now with equipment I only dreamed of owning and I do it from the comfort of home – computer controlled and even automated at times!
My astrophotography is a wondrous connection to something bigger, more mysterious and filled with emotion and passion. To this day I still feel the thrill of the hunt capturing ancient photons of the cosmic past and discovering the treasures of our night sky within the visible dark.
My story began more than 40 years ago looking up at the Moon with a small telescope my Father had. Encouraged by my parents, who bought me my very own telescope, a 4.5″ reflector, I began to explore the night sky from my family home backyard. Today I do astrophotography from my home in Kitchener, Ontario and also with remote telescopes located in New Mexico and Australia. Some of my images have won awards and have been featured online and in magazines.
