My initial experience with EAA was a bit of a whirlwind. It was more of a spontaneous test than a planned session, aimed at figuring out whether investing in a dedicated astronomy camera was a smart move. I was grappling with the uncertainty of whether my local skies had anything to offer, and I wanted to avoid splurging on equipment I might not end up using or returning.

What really caught my attention was when I upgraded to my SCT. I decided to try something different by holding up my cellphone to the eyepiece and snapping a shot of M42 one evening after I was done observing. I'd seen some folks online pull this off with stunning results. There was this one guy on YouTube who set up his dob in his backyard, took a shot through his iPhone, and to my utter surprise, captured nebulae in full-blown color! Granted, his backyard was in a seriously dark spot, so I had my doubts about how my results would turn out. But as soon as the image popped up on my camera roll preview, I could tell I was onto something. Opening up the picture confirmed it-there was this misty nebula with shades of blue and red that my naked eye couldn't quite catch through the eyepiece alone. That was the moment I decided to dive into EAA.

This happens to be the very first proper image I captured through my telescope using my DSLR. While it wasn't an EAA session, just a 30-second exposure on the subsequent night, it showcased a different side of things. If my cellphone could manage to snag such "lovely" pictures, I was pretty confident that my DSLR could step up and do an even better job. As it turns out, I was absolutely right.

I got ready to give it a shot using my trusty old DSLR camera. After some digging, I found a driver that let me connect the camera to SharpCap. Even though the driver gave me a fair bit of trouble, I managed to snag a few shots that hinted at the potential of EAA in my own backyard, given the right gear and propper knowledge of the software of course.

Without a Bahtinov mask, nailing down precise focus was a bit hit-and-miss. And concepts like flat or dark frames? Total mystery to me. That led to vignetting and dust motes showing up in my images. But despite the hiccups, the few faint captures I did get were enough to get me pumped. I just knew that with a bit more know-how and better equipment, I could go after those elusive objects that had been out of reach thanks to my Bortle 9 skies.

The images sprinkled throughout this text are the culmination of that eventful evening. When you compare them to some of the pictures in my Messier gallery, it's clear that a touch of knowledge and a few equipment tweaks can really make a difference.

And then it rained for 3 weeks.