Hey Ed,
It's really awesome having you here.
I am in a similar boat as you, though I did start doing AP 3 years ago, but with just my normal camera gear. I did buy a $400 StarGuider Pro to see if I would really enjoy it, but that was all I had bought and used that for 2 years with my Nikon D850 and a Tamron 150-600mm lens. I was doing my stacking in DeepSkyStacker, and my processing in Photoshop.
Then last Christmas I got an early Christmas gift of an iOptron Gem28 mount. I was pretty good at manually finding objects with the SkyGuider Pro, but after 2 years I was ready for a real GoTo mount to find more objects I couldn't find before. But after a month of that, it was right about New Years Eve, and I decided I also wanted to increase the quality of my captures so I upgraded to a real Astro camera, the ASI2600mc Pro. So that's what I have used all of this year, and I think my quality improved a lot.
Now for this Christmas, my early gift a few weeks back was to get a real scope, and not to use my wildlife lens, the Tamron. So I picked up the Askar Fra500. And at the same time, I took a deep breath and decided it was time to start using Pixinsight. So I am a noob with Pixinsight.
My Astrophotography has been a series of steps, and I have enjoyed watching it slowly improve.
Now, I am a bit jealous about you being able to set your gear up on your driveway! That's so cool! I bounce between California and Colorado. At my daughters in Colorado, she is Bortle 5, and her rear deck gives me maybe 30 % of the sky I can image in, maybe 40%. Then in California is where I have done the major of my imaging, I would drive 2 hours out to Joshua Tree NP, and image there. I did image the other day on my small patio in SoCal, but it barely can see 10% of the sky I would guess, maybe a bit more but it's broken up by 3 story condo's and tall trees, and of course Bortle 8 or 9 skies. I am fortunate to travel a lot, and I will take my astro gear along with my regular camera gear, so I have done my Astro in New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, you name it... Any place with a dark sky.
We have some really accomplished Astrophotographers here, that I have learned a lot from. But I did want to share that you aren't alone, I am with you on this journey, and I know a couple of others here that are talking about dipping their toes into Astro. It should be fun!
