As already described under "First steps", I was conditionally satisfied with the purely visual results. How the heck could you visualise what others see in their large and expensive optics? After one evening/night, how could you preserve what you had experienced for later generations and subsequent species? Thanks to Uwe, I had the idea of buying a digital clamp so that I could connect my digital camera to the telescope and thus the first step into astrophotography was taken. But it was only the beginning of a journey in which I once again entered the rabbit hole.

With the most primitive means and a lot of post-processing, I arrived at my first result, the group around M81, consisting of M81 and M82. Actually, there was nothing to be seen in the picture. But in iPhoto I turned the brightness slider and suddenly both galaxies appeared! A feeling - indescribable. Pure happiness hormones! A loud scream! I had tasted blood...

My skills in 2011

That wasn't quite enough for me, so in May 2011 I finally bought a DSLR, my much-loved Canon EOS 1000. This gem was recommended to me by Dieter Rupprecht and Rainer Neubauer, two dear colleagues. And thanks to my astro friends Uwe and Frank (greetings to Oberhausen, my best!) I also made quick progress. The valuable tips I received saved me a lot of money and above all time. It turns out that when it comes to astronomy and astrophotography, there is no alternative to one thing: Experience!!

My skills in 2023

What I have noticed in the course of time is how many people are enthusiastic about looking into space. Or had already been interested in it in the past. The initial hesitation about whether to look through it. And that look in the first five seconds after they have looked through is simply fun to watch. Fascination. Not being able to believe. Enthusiasm. THAT is astronomy.

Space is and remains pure fascination. For young and old. The wonderful site of my astro friend Frank also reports on this:

Reisen im Licht der Sterne