Welcome

Hello :)

This will be my first post &; outlined are some thoughts about what I might be posting in the future.
    Therefore I'd like to welcome you to the blog! This blog has been set in the couple of weeks after an idea of creating a Lebanese astrophotography blog to serve two main purposes:

• act as an archive &; reference for Lebanese astrophotographers, &;
• for everyone to benefit from the contributors' experiences

As such, the blog is licensed under a Creative Commons license (please see the Permission of Usage page). This means that you are free to share, distribute, &; modify the material on this blog under the "only" condition that you "attribute" the work to its original author &; blog &; linking back to it. Note that the images in this blog are the sole work of its creators &; all rights are reserved to them unless otherwise stated. Please write to the corresponding author(s) in regard of image permissions.

    First, I'd like to start by thanking astroZ, my kind friend &; astrophotographer, for his Welcome post. It is really exciting to be able to mutually share our experiences on this blog &; share it with you, our fellow readers. We hope that this blog brings something new for you to benefit from on your route towards imaging the night sky. I also like to add that he's been doing a great job hitherto; and I believe he will continue to do so hereafter!
Personally, I've been busy with several things most importantly my studies, Ubuntu testing and other related chores. For the same reasons I have not done any astrophotography, or photography in that matter, since last summer. I just wanted to write this introductory post in hope of following it with some useful posts later on.

    It is interesting to know that astroZ &; I share the same start, relatively speaking. I myself started in astrophotography with a Solar eclipse as well! The only difference is his early start. In my case it all began around March 29, 2006 during the partial solar eclipse (see below for some images from that day). My start was, like astroZ, with a "film" camera; a Canon EOS 750QD to be precise.

    Just a quick note: In regard of software, I mainly use open-source software which you may or may not have heard off or used before. In any case, I will do my best to keep things both readable &; applicable as much as possible. To clarify, I use open-source software since I am not required to pay a hefty price for or use illegal copies of commercial software.

Last but not least, I'd like to make a convention with you: When you read "astrophotography" or "astroimaging", it is the same meaning. Just wanted to make this clear.

Finally, my next post will be on the Fundamentals of (astro)Photography. I will list &; briefly define some terms used in photography &; some preliminary concepts on astrophotography.

Thanks for reading :)

and clear skies!