Hi! I’m Chris, an amateur astrophotographer based in Suffolk in the UK. I’ve always had an interest in the night sky and pondering the vastness of the universe – mostly seeded by my life long love of science fiction.
This coalesced into an interest in taking pictures of the deep sky objects in 2006 when a colleague purchased a little Meade telescope and attached a webcam to the eyepiece and excitedly shared some images of Saturn with me
As a career IT nerd the technical intricacies of the hobby appealed to me instantly – and I quickly “borrowed” a horribly wobbly Celestron AstroMaster from my brother and attached a £15 webcam. A few weeks later this was upgraded with a second hand motorised mount and a DSLR camera.
Late nights huddled outside with a laptop and a young family don’t mesh well – so after a couple of seasons with this setup, the gear was packed away in a shed and then eventually sold to fund other hobbies.
15 odd years later and my life had changed – a move to a slightly less urban environment (with darker skies), the children being older and no longer living with me, and the pandemic and ensuing lockdowns of 2020 rekindled the interest.