Better late than never....

When I got started with my new telescope earlier this year, my intent was to document my progress through a blog or my own dedicated website. A decent website costs money so I started looking around at all the different blog sites out there. I signed up for one and later didn't like it, signed up for another, then started getting overwhelmed in CSS and HTML stuff. About the same time we started remodeling our kitchen, which caused my blog, and my astronomy hobby, to be put on the back burner for a while. Well, the kitchen turned out great even though it's still not 100% complete today. Still have some backsplash to install but we are almost there. Another side effect of the kitchen remodel was my aggravation of an old shoulder injury. Even after all the hardest work was behind us, my shoulder continued to hurt for a couple of months. This made hauling my telescope, an Orion XT10i Dobsonian, a difficult chore. The XT10i collected dust during the summer while the weather was too hot and humid for viewing. As fall approached, my thoughts turned to astrophotography, which meant lots of new equipment to buy, and lots to learn. The dob was a nice telescope, but my light-polluted suburban Atlanta skies made viewing frustrating and disappointing. I had a good collection of accessories including some Siebert and Hyperion eyepieces, a NexImage webcam, and a Moonlite CR2 focuser. This would probably be a killer setup in dark skies. In my skies it was still a pretty good performer, but I always was left wanting more. I kept thinking about astrophotography, which my original budget did not allow. In September I was finally in a financial position to afford a decent starter rig. That's when I got started in what has turned into a full-blown obsession for me. The dob is gone now, but new set of toys takes it's place. This is where I will start documenting my journey into the world of astrophotography, and finally get around to getting this darn blog started.