Every person has a story to tell, and I will make an attempt to become a good story teller. One can always pick up something good from another's story and below I present mine.
I was born in the year 1984. India was just picking up the pace in science and it was only a few years since the first Indian satellite Rohini had been launched by an indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle. I for one, was completely unaware of these developments. It would be a good few years before the starlight would enter my eyes. It so happened that I used to visit an aunt in a relatively remote part of the state of Kerala, and her house was neatly perched on a small plateau without much blockage of the night sky. Venus shone bright in the West and from a dear Uncle, I came to know it was "Shukra-Venus". In the North shone this beautiful object, stretching its tail half way across the star filled sky. It was 97-98 and Hale-Bopp ruled the skies.
Entering high school was beneficial to say the least. My science text book was filled with three chapters about The Universe, Stellar Life Cycle, and Rockets and Spacecraft, everything a child would need to become a budding scientist. High school went by, so did college. I was an active member of the Association of Bangalore Amateur Astronomers and built my first telescope. It was a Newtonian Reflector with a 150mm aperture mirror and 1500mm focal length. This telescope gave me many hours of enjoyment and I observed the Moon, Planets, Deep sky objects like galaxies, Nebulae, Star clusters and also took my first photos of the moon.
I was born in the year 1984. India was just picking up the pace in science and it was only a few years since the first Indian satellite Rohini had been launched by an indigenous Satellite Launch Vehicle. I for one, was completely unaware of these developments. It would be a good few years before the starlight would enter my eyes. It so happened that I used to visit an aunt in a relatively remote part of the state of Kerala, and her house was neatly perched on a small plateau without much blockage of the night sky. Venus shone bright in the West and from a dear Uncle, I came to know it was "Shukra-Venus". In the North shone this beautiful object, stretching its tail half way across the star filled sky. It was 97-98 and Hale-Bopp ruled the skies.
Entering high school was beneficial to say the least. My science text book was filled with three chapters about The Universe, Stellar Life Cycle, and Rockets and Spacecraft, everything a child would need to become a budding scientist. High school went by, so did college. I was an active member of the Association of Bangalore Amateur Astronomers and built my first telescope. It was a Newtonian Reflector with a 150mm aperture mirror and 1500mm focal length. This telescope gave me many hours of enjoyment and I observed the Moon, Planets, Deep sky objects like galaxies, Nebulae, Star clusters and also took my first photos of the moon.
What you see here is just one of my first Lunar images taken with the six inch telescope and a Chinese 2 mega pixel camera held in the hand. Many such images later, I moved onto Barn door Astrophotography. It was also a fun and learning experience.
Several years passed by and I was mainly into observing the night sky with my binoculars or telescope, but not proper astrophotography. I lacked the access to equipment that could track the sky for long duration.
I shifted to Manchester, England in 2009 for my masters in Aerospace Engineering, completing which I joined Opticstar Ltd as a Design Engineer. There I got to learn about advanced equipment and needless to say I equipped myself with a new Celestron C8 schmidt cassegrain telescope on a CG-5 GOTO computerized mount. Astrophotography could begin at last!
Several years passed by and I was mainly into observing the night sky with my binoculars or telescope, but not proper astrophotography. I lacked the access to equipment that could track the sky for long duration.
I shifted to Manchester, England in 2009 for my masters in Aerospace Engineering, completing which I joined Opticstar Ltd as a Design Engineer. There I got to learn about advanced equipment and needless to say I equipped myself with a new Celestron C8 schmidt cassegrain telescope on a CG-5 GOTO computerized mount. Astrophotography could begin at last!
I soon realized that there was some inherent fault in the driving mechanism of the mount and my stars would not turn out right in the images. I therefore sold the setup and purchase the Sky-Watcher 200mm Explorer telescope which has a parabolic mirror of 1000mm focal length and a dual speed focuser for photography applications. It is mounted on the much sturdier and more accurate HEQ5-PRO goto computerized mount. I continue to experiement in astrophotography and refine my skills. Many of the photos I have either taken or processed from borrowed images can be seen in the gallery section.