My name is Edward Dewolf. For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by space.  Not that I wanted to become an astronaut.  But the science behind how the universe works and the sheer beauty of deep space has just intrigued me forever.

I am living in Brussels Belgium, probably the worst place in the world to live as an astronomer, due to light pollution. I live in an apartment in the city, with the wrong orientation to put up my telescope at home. The garden is surrounded by very tall trees not allowing me to set up outside either.

So I have to drive quite a bit to find reasonable conditions. This has greatly impacted the way I practice this hobby. My setup is one that needs to be transported, that needs to be set up completely before, and broken down completely every single time I get out. So I not only had to balance cost and quality but also ease of use.

How I got started

Learning about space is easy.  There is a wealth of websites and videos to watch that try to explain how the universe big-banged into what it is now.  Finding the most beautiful images from ground-based and space telescopes on the internet is easy too. Just search the internet for Hubble images and be amazed!

But I discovered that amateur astrophotographers can take pictures that are breathtaking also?  A few years ago, I decided to see what it would take to capture my own pictures of space … and then I ran into a world of troubles.

Although I wanted to start buying equipment right away, I realized very quickly I had no idea what I was doing and had to do some research first.  Some research … that was what I hoped for, but it turned out a lot more complicated.

Yes, I had a Canon D700 DSLR camera, but I never was an expert photographer, leaving my camera most often on ‘automatic’.  I did not even know what DSLR really meant!  It turns out for astrophotography, depending on what kind of pictures you want, not just every camera will do, and you need to know a lot about the details that ‘automatic’ hides for you.

Deciding what telescope I needed was even harder.  Different types of telescopes for different types of objects?  Just to understand the vocabulary around telescopes made my mind spin: focal length, telescope speed, barlows, …

So as I discovered this whole new world myself, as I came to a decision on how to get started, I wanted to share my journey here, hoping it will help someone else like me one day.