12 facts you must know before becoming an amateur astrophotographer!

Rare image of an astrophotographer being caught in full action!
(Image: Thomas Shahan)

After three and a half years of  amateur Astrophotography, I feel obliged to warn the aspirants to this wonderful hobby about what they will find. All that awaits you from the moment you actually start practicing astrophotography:

1.Many people will ask you what's the point of making images with your telescope if there's Hubble.
2.half of your friends will ask you if you have once photographed a alien.
3.You will aways find people who will tell you that the way they practice astronomy is better than yours and you are not a real amateur astronomer.
4.You will get stressed during capture, a large number of times and with high intensity.
5.On many nights, when you finish assembling your equipment, the sky will get clouded, and after you finish to guard all the equipment, the sky will open immediately wonderfully!
6.Many astrophotographers will produce better images than your because they know more about Photoshop than you.
7.Many people will stop commenting your pictures because you not comment on them.
8.After a full night of deep sky astrophotography, during the time to put everything away, at five in the morning, you'll wonder what the point of all that, while trying to stay awake (or lucid).
9.You will realize most of the defects of your image after you post it.
10.York most popular image will be something that you thought many times before publishing. Your favorite image will receive five likes and one comment from your mother asking if you will be at your aunt party.
11.The only time you will actually make money with astrophotography, is the time to sell your equipment.
12.When you stay long without take pictures, your will forget all eleven previous items, feel an immense nostalgia of those nights under the starry sky, claim for a clear sky and get crazy to ride your setup again.

Many astronomers have a hard time accepting mood when it comes to amateur astronomy. But this text is a tribute to all amateur astrophotographers, who practice the activity only because they love it. So I hope you have not hated this text and have at least found it interesting. If you're an astrophotographer like me, I imagine you will see that we have many things in common.