There really is two types of observations, two types of amateur astronomers: those who take pictures of objects they like, and others that stick to regular eye observation. Both are very distinct actually, because it’s not the same feeling you get.

Personally, I’m part of the second category. Even though I do like photography in everyday life, enjoy and maintain a huge collection of astrophotographies, from Hubble and Amateurs alike, I’m not interested in taking pictures of nebula, clusters, galaxies, planets or comets. If you ever went out on a clear, moonless night in the mountains or contryside and gazed at the stars, you’d have noticed that there are so much that you cannot embrace all of them. Certain Clusters, like Messier 13 or the Perseus double cluster, as well as the Orion Nebula and many others, are just breath taking. You feel tiny and insignificant, a little crumb of bread lost in a deep thick ocean. Gazing at the stars puts humans back at their place. It reminds them who they really are, because we tend to be a bit pompous about ourselves. You feel squashed. And this is something that I don’t get in most astrophotos, even though I’ve got to admit that they really are beautiful.

On the other hand, taking pictures of the sky at night is extremely rewarding, but can, I think, be extremly frustrating too, especially when you’ve spent an hour or so outside waiting for the picture(s) to be taken. Plus you’re freezing cold, even in winter. Astrophotography, to me, is better suited at creating admiration. They are beautiful (some say that galaxies look like inside a stomach… ).

Most of the time, if you want to take shots of nebula, comets, clusters, galaxies, or planets, you’ll need a pretty nice scope with an equatorial mount. These are expensive. You can take wide angle astrophotos with just about any camera, or you could build your own equatorial mount for your camera. But you might feel overpowered by Hubble or other observatories. Anyway, you’ll still have the pride. You’ll get to see all the nice colors that are absent from what you see through your eyepiece (unless you’ve got a 400 mm + scope).

But to me, visual observing makes you feel awed, makes you think about the meaning of life, reminds you who you are and where you are. Clusters, Galaxies, Nebula, Planets, here I come!