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Thanks, guys. That means a lot to me.

Hopefully, if everything goes as it should, I'll order my new setup next month. My dream for a first shot with it would be the Orion Nebula once again, but we're getting close to the end of its visibility period. I might have to wait until next winter.

Okay, since Teague is pushing it, I'm contributing now. I'm going to take a little look back on my "career" in astrophotography; this is why the first shots are going to look quite bad. When I started, I knew about nothing in technique, both in processing and in photography.

I've always been in love with the stars. But I really started calling it a passion when I was around 15. I started reading magazines, looking at the sky and trying to identify the planets, the brightest stars, constellations and stuff.
And since I was also into photography, I eventually began to take pictures of the stars, with an Olympus bridge camera on a shitty tripod.

But it really took off when my father gave me his telescope - an almost brand new Meade LX90 :

He had never managed to understand how that thing worked, and figured I would have better use for it. The old man was damn right. Every time I could, I would get the telescope out in the garden and look at nebulæ, galaxies, star clusters, planets, etc.

Since then, I've spent time to understand how astrophotography really worked. It is a difficult thing, even more demanding than traditional photography. It takes time, money, and technique - a lot of each. There are two dimensions of equal size in astrophotography : taking shots, and processing them.

Thus, in a year and a half, I've produced very few pictures I can say I'm proud of. In such a field, you must learn to be very, very patient. Plus, my telescope stays at my parents' house, and I'm away most of the year for studies.

I'm not gonna show every single picture I've made so far. There are some images that don't grow old well, as my knowledge wasn't so advanced then.

Here's my very first actual shot made with the telescope (July 2010), and my previous reflex camera, a Sony A100 (boy don't I miss it) :

Jupiter and its four galilean satellites. This is actually the most I could get from the planet with my camera. There are other imaging techniques better suited for this.

A pic of the Moon :

September 2010, I tried deep space for the first time; shot one of the two star clusters in the constellation of Perseus.

The following January, I shot a classic in astrophotography : the Orion Nebula.

Colors are all wrong; there are some post-processings things I didn't know back then. Not to mention the awful noise. But you should have seen my face when i discovered on my APN rear screen all this gas and stars I had managed to capture.

Summer 2011, I got to work in an astronomy center (observation nights and stuff). Here's a star trail picture I made in the observatory there :

And finally, during last Christmas holidays, I took the best shot I think I've made so far : a wide field shot of the constellation of Orion. This is also the first astrophotography picture I've made with my Canon 60D (and I also opened a Flickr account, feel free to follow it; I would be really interested in following yours if you have one)

For many reasons, this picture doesn't show as much as it should have for me. But I'm still proud of it, and I think I'm now entering a new level into astrophotography. I spent the last year and a half learning theory, and practice is finally starting to pay off. This is exciting.

Other random stuff :

The Moon during the total eclipse last June :

The Moon and Venus last December :

To be honest, there are so many more things I wish I could show you guys. Most of all, planet shots. I've been trying for months to get good pictures of Jupiter or Saturn (and I mean, close pictures, with the planet rings and all), but this is a whole other field and technique.

Right now, I'm about to sell my telescope. I've grown frustrated with it, because it's not suited for astrophotographers. When I buy my new setup, things are going to get serious. I just can't fucking wait.

Sorry for the big reply, but you guys asked for it! It could be interesting to talk about technique and stuff. Feel free to ask if you have questions, I'me not a pro but I'm starting to know some things about astrophtogoraphy.

It amazes me how well I am able to look away because I am a fan.

That's it. I'm moving to LA.

Easier, also. I've become a master in that particular art.

This guy makes me feel stoned just by opening his mouth.

I just watched the first episode of the Tommy Wi-Show. It's absolutely awful.

Gotta love the Balrog Burgers.

I am surprised and quite shameful to realize that X-Men : First Class is the only movie in this list that I've watched.

I do not want to see it win. I don't remember its VFX at all because I was too busy killing myself.

That's an awesome story drewjmore.

I can't really remember it, I was something like 8 or 9, and my family and I were driving back home from Paris (my grandmother lives there). And as always, on the highway, we could see truck drivers trying to overtake one another in the most stupid and dangerous ways.
As I said, I don't remember it much, but my father told me that at some point, one truck went to overtake another one... except our car was in the left lane (the highway was two lanes wide at that point). My father had the reflex to slow down very quickly, and it was for the best, because otherwise our car would have been smashed against the guardrail. It seems to me we could have died that day.

Do you still have hobbies some could consider to be childish? (I'm still deeply fond of Lego Star Wars)

I thought you were pretty cool in the chat the other night. Then I read THIS atrocity. Time to re-evaluate my stance.

You can't know how good it is until you've tasted it. Believe a frenchfag.