Welcome to my Astrophotography Blog!

This is a journal of my adventures in astrophotography -- taking images of distant celestial objects. Please look around and feel free to add your comments, questions, and critique to any of the entries by clicking the "comments" button on the bottom of each entry -- or just say "howdy!

And don't forget to click on the images for a larger view!

So choose either the Red pill or the Blue pill and follow me down the wormhole....

JOhn

Comanche Springs Star Party

Comanche Springs Star Party
Doin' my thang at the Comanche Springs Astronomy Campus (where I often become a "red ghost")

Dallas Sky

Rancho Venado Sky

Atoka Sky

Camanche Springs Sky

Thursday, September 3, 2009

My first published photo

Okay, I admit I got a little excited when I found out Astronomy Magazine would be publishing one of my images in their October issue (on news stands now)! For me, this as kind of a milestone.

About a year and a half ago, I picked up a magazine called "Beautiful Universe". It is an annual magazine published by Sky & Telescope and features the best astrophotography of the year. The issue I bought was devoted primarily to "amateur" astrophotographers. I was stunned by the images. I was equally stunned to learn these images were indeed being taken by amateurs -- hobbyists. Amazing. At that moment I decided I HAD to try this.

After taking my first image (M42), I was instantly hooked. THIS was something I wanted to learn and try to get good at. If only I could take pictures like the ones I saw in that magazine...

Well, after a year and a half of spending MANY hours learning this art it is very rewarding to see a photograph I took being published on a full page in a magazine. A big deal? Not in the grand scheme of things. Big bucks? Are you kidding?! But it is always nice to receive some amount of recognition, but even BETTER to actually have a venue to share your work with others. That's one reason I started this Blog.. I've gotta do SOMETHING with my photos!

Here is the image of mine they chose -- Scorpius:

5 comments:

Tim Hatcher said...

Hi, John! I have fallen way behind in viewing your blog, but this is a great time for me to catch up. Congratulations on getting the photo published! Not only are you making me want to dig out the telescope I haven't used in years, but I'm thinking it's time for an upgrade. The one I have is good, but purchased in 1974. I think the technology may have improved a bit!

Neutronman said...

Howdy Tim, great to hear from you!

Anytime you wanna get that scope of yours out to some dark skies, just let me know. Would love to see you!

By the way, what kind of scope do you have?

Anonymous said...

This is a belated congratulations because I only got my copy of Astronomy a few days ago. Its reproduced very well in the mag.

Regards

Dave

Neutronman said...

Thanks so much Dave!

Anonymous said...

beautiful image! congrats on getting it published!