Patience is a necessity for astrophotography. So many things can go wrong, expecially when you are a nomad without a permanent observatory. I try to be a patient astronomer and astroimager, but in reviewing last year’s progress in my journal and in my hard disk archives, the queston keeps popping into my head, “Where are all the images?” Then, however, I hit on an entry that made me smile:
May 7, 2010 – First time guiding and imaging together. Was able to take 6 minute exposures for the first time.
So less than a year ago was the first actual guided image of anything over a minute. Here is the image from that night:
First guided image, first picture of a galaxy. Hooked.
So this year, with the new telescope from Audrey, exposures will have to be even longer, guiding will have to be even better, polar alignments will have to be impecable, and certainly, the images wil be more spectacular. And surely a warm clear night will be coming soon.
Patience.