Hi everyone, i'd been meaning to get around to this for a while, and my partner had set up a blog and had been badgering me to do it as means to share my (primarily!) astronomical images with anyone who might be interested.

My names Dean and I've been involved in amateur astronomy since about the age of 10 when my dad gave me some newspaper clippings he'd collected from the original Moon landings. Gods, I wish I still had them , not for the value but the sentiment and the history. Anyway, i've accumulated a mass of spaceflight related stuff since then chief among which is a photo signed by the entire Apollo 12 crew my partner bought for my birthday one year - very prized!

Anyway, just starting off in my first post, one of my favourite images, Messier 42/3 and the Running Man Nebula (it makes up the sword of the constellation of Orion. Its a star forming region in which our own sun formed in something roughly like. Probably one of the most striking deep sky objects there is. In total the image was probably of the order or 3 hours total imaging time with probably about the same time in post processing - But more on processing and the equipment I use later - Lets just get some of my images uploaded first - this whole blogging thing is new to me and feeling my way - mind you, easier than a web page!