About Me and This Site

My interest in astronomy began in 9th grade in 1973, when I read about the discovery of Comet Kohoutek.  That year, the comet was supposed to become "the comet of the century".  I began to read extensively about astronomy, and purchased a basic reflector telescope.  The comet turned out to be a disappointment, and I never saw it.  But my interest in the hobby was already piqued.  I also had some interest in photography, and my family had a 35 mm Yashica camera.  While looking at the spectacular pictures in Astronomy magazine, I wondered whether I could make photos like those.  I managed to get a few tripod shots of the constellation Orion, but that was all I could manage.  I had several things working against me: I was only 14 years old, I had limited resources, and I lived in Brooklyn, NY, one of the light pollution capitals of the world.  Once I was off to college and medical school, my interest waned (or, more accurately, became submerged).

Fast forward a few decades.  8 years after having a fourth son, a fifth came along in 2002.  In 2003, my third son Alex, perhaps sensing that I was a little annoyed at changing diapers at the age of 44, asked me if there was ever anything in my life that I wanted to do and never really got the chance.  It didn't take me long to answer: astronomy!  By now I was older and had more resources, so why not?  So I began to brush up with some reading, and of course rushed out to buy a telescope: an SCT like I always wanted as a teen, a Celestron Nexstar 9.25 GPS.  Of course, the photography bug then began to wake up too, and that was not the best scope to be starting with.  I was also still stuck in the New York metro area (now in New Jersey), but I got myself a dark (well, darker than New York City) sky place about 2 hours away in the Catskill mountains.   And I started with what I had and began to make slow progress.  Because I only get a handful of opportunities each year to get up to my dark sky spot and image, my progress has been slow.  I will never be a great astrophotographer, but the progress I have made  has fulfilled a lifelong dream.  

The learning curve in astrophotography is steep, and if you only get a few chances each year to try, progress is slow.  But I  listened to advice and didn't rush.  When I got started, a revolution was happening with digital cameras, and DSLR's became able to capture deep sky images.  I used DSLRs from 2004 through 2013.  I started by piggybacking the camera on my wedge mounted NSGPS, first using a 50 mm lens, then a 200 mm lens, then the 200 mm lens with a 2x extender (400 mm focal length).  Then I got a German Equatorial Mount, a refractor, and an 8 inch Astrotech RC8, and began to do more serious work.

I took a self imposed hiatus from the hobby from 2013 to 2019, but then picked up again.  As of 2019, I started using a cooled CMOS one shot color camera (ZWO ASI071 Pro).  My mount was a Paramount MX, and my telescopes were the Astrotech RC8 and a Stellarvue SVX080T-3SV.  On the software front, I used only 2 programs: TheSkyX for acquisition and guiding, and PixInsight for postprocessing.

In early December 2020, the time had come for me to sell my dark sky property.  So the hobby is again on hold., perhaps permanently.  We'll have to wait and see.

As of December 2024, I am back....sort of.  No new observatory or dark sky site (although still hoping to get a new one), but I have decided to keep working on my processing skills by using data from the TelescopeLive site.  I am enjoing processing images again, but miss being out at night under the stars.

On this site, you will see the fruits of my labor.  I have made a point of showing just about ALL of my work.  In each section, the images are displayed in approximately reverse chronological order.  Click on the image thumbnails to see the larger versions and any associated photo information (if I remembered to record it).  Any decent astrophotographer would probably laugh at some of my work, particularly the early attempts.  But other than showing what I consider to be some pretty pictures, I also wanted to chronicle the progress I've made from my first photos to my latest, to give encouragement to any budding astrophotographers just starting out.  In particular, objects that I imaged more than once over the years are good examples.  This hobby takes much patience; there is much to learn both on the acquisition and processing ends.  There are no shortcuts around the "sweat equity" that must be acquired.