Hello, from metro Atlanta Introduce yourself! · John Hudson · ... · 3 · 33 · 0

Hi, my name is John and I recently moved to the metro Atlanta area from Ohio. I've actually been a member of this great site for about 8 years now, but I was not a paid member until recently. 

My astrophotography hobby came around as a result of my traditional photography journey. I became seriously intersted in photography in college in 2004. After getting a small camera and taking a film class, I was hooked. I spent a lot of time doing photography in my 20s, both as a hobby and as a part-time profession. I traveled the world and got to do some fun things. 

In 2015 I was getting interested in AP because of social media I think. It made sense to me to aim my cameras up and see what I could see. A couple images really lit a fire under me. One was an image of the Jupiter, Venus, Mars conjunction where I could also see Jupiter's moons. The other was a shot of the Milky Way I made from the beach. I got very interested and did a lot of experimentally wide field shots of things like Andromeda and Orion with my Canon 6d. I got a used 80mm refractor and an AVX and learned a lot, but the software and education was lacking in 2016. Without an optimal setup and good visibility, my images weren't great and it was a struggle. Polar aligning sometimes would take me an hour. The walking noise was incredible. Life got in the way and I didn't do a lot inbetween now and then, but I did learn more about Lunar and Planetary photography with a c90 and eventually a c6. 

Recently I moved to the Atlanta area, but far enough out in the burbs where its about bortle 6/7. I sold my older gear and got a FF65, AM3, 2600mc duo, l-enhance filter, , EAF and ASIair mini. The automation, the workflows, the simple hardware, its been revolutionary, combined with all of the learning i've done watching the great youtubers we have now. That and Pixinsight and learning how to use it has added up to where I am really enjoying what i'm making these days and can't wait to do more with more advanced gear.

Tracey Monroe:
Welcome to the ATL!  The weather is crazy at best and when you get a clear night (or two) you better take advantage of it!  Cheers and Clear Skys.

It's been great in October!