The first interview in our astrophotography series for you, with Andrea Dievernich

Hello fellow stargazers! Today, the first interview in our astrophotography series is with Andrea Dievernich.

Enjoy reading!

A big thank you to Rudi and Karl Kloß for letting me be a part of it! 😍😍😍 A passion was born! ❤️❤️❤️ I've been involved for a year and a half now, and I have to say, the learning curve has been very steep, which I also owe to the many members I constantly consulted.

How I got into this hobby:

Photography is my passion. Through it, I met the professional photographer and amateur astronomer Windried Berberich, who was enthusiastic about my pictures.

There was a planned lunar/Mars observation, and I received an invitation to his observatory.

My first glimpse through a telescope of Mars, Saturn, Andromeda, and M13 was indescribably beautiful.

That evening, I photographed the Milky Way for the first time.

There were other amateur astrophotographers present, taking pictures through their telescopes.

I was really excited and wanted to try it too.

Winfried advised against it. Too expensive, Andrea. From €5,000 upwards. Then you spend nights photographing an object and just as much time processing the images. Better to forget it.

The next day, I joined a group called "Astrophotography for Beginners."

I started by looking at the beautiful pictures and came across the famous Horsehead Nebula.
Love at first sight! ❤️❤️❤️ I absolutely had to do this, no matter what anyone else thought.

I then continued studying the posts. What equipment were they using? How long were the exposure times? Then I finally realized what terms like gain, APO, and ZWOASI meant. This led to some initial doubts about whether I could do it, even though I also read that I could start this hobby with my existing camera equipment.

So I started googling and asking members for advice. After half a year of research, I decided, "This is it." After thorough research, I opted for an HEQ5 Pro GoTo mount. That was at the end of September 2020.
In October, I set up my first telescope. And there it was: NGC 7000, my first target. Only one minute per image, but... I was so happy! Next up were the Pleiades and Andromeda.

Then the weather was bad until Christmas.

Finally, on Christmas Eve, I was able to observe my object of desire again! 😍😍😍😍 I realized I needed to learn to guide.

I bombarded the members with questions again. Finally, I decided on the MGEN 3.

However, I couldn't set it up again until April. There was a very long break in between. But everything worked perfectly.

After setting it up about seven times, I decided to buy a telescope.

My criteria were light weight, easy setup, very good star images for a full-frame camera, and a focal length suitable for all the nebulae I was interested in.

So, it would be an APO. I opted for a new model from TS, which, however, was still unavailable after six months due to supply shortages. So, I decided on the TS100Q, which arrived at the end of December.

A dream come true! The device was exactly what I wanted. I attached the narrowband filter and off I went.

Finally, no more star mush. Finally, the Hubble palette! 😍😍😍 Such beautiful star images! 😍😍😍

I thought to myself, now you can photograph at night, but that's not so often, why not photograph the sun? 😊🙃

Well, I continued with the Lunt 60/500. The first pictures were very disappointing. It didn't work. And everyone says it's impossible with a Canon. Now I'm looking into a planetary camera. I haven't decided yet.

What I want to say about image processing is that it was a difficult, rocky road that almost drove me crazy. I watched many tutorials by Daniel N. and Frank S. and finally found my workflow.

When starting this fascinating hobby, you should first... Be clear, everything is possible; you need self-confidence, perseverance, patience, and diligence. Learning by doing.

One step at a time. Good things take time.

With that in mind, always CS