For those that are interested, I have been fascinated by astronomy (and all sciences in general) since I was a little kid. I have many childhood memories of laying out under the stars on a dark night and pondering the wonders and the expanse of the universe.

I purchased my first telescope, an Orion XT8 classic dobsonian, in high school. I became instantly hooked and spent many nights on the back porch of my father’s house scanning the skies for all those faint fuzzy spots that get an amateur astronomer so excited. After graduation I fell out of the hobby and the telescope sat collecting dust for a couple years.

Within the last year or so I started coming down with another severe case of astronomy fever. I broke out that old scope and started scanning the skies again. The night is a little darker where I’m at now, and a short 15 minute trip south puts me into absolutely unspoiled skies. With this newfound excitement for the hobby has come a deep desire to start photographing the sky as well. I want to be able to share with friends and family the amazing views that the heavens have to offer. I did a little playing around with a camera back in high school, but never really focused on it the way I am today. I do have some descent photos to show for those early attempts and will be posting some of them on this site as well.

As soon as I started thinking about photography I became keenly aware that my existing equipment would be completely inadequate. A dobsonian telescope is incapable of tracking the sky, so long exposure photography is completely out of the question. I also found that the eye-piece projection method I was trying with my “point and shoot” digital camera just wasn’t giving me the quality I was after. After doing a little research I found that with a simple webcam it is possible to capture some pretty amazing photos of the moon and planets, and I would be able to use my existing telescope. My wife was kind enough to give me one as a gift for Christmas ’06 and the first few shots weren’t too bad.

The new camera helped me on my way, but I knew that a new telescope would be needed. My amazingly supportive wife gave me the go-ahead to purchase a new scope: a Celestron C8-SGT.

The newest edition to my equipment package is a Canon 350D DSLR camera and an Orion ST80 telescope to use as a guidescope on my C8. I now have everything I need to take the pictures that I’ve always dreamed of…just not the skill. That will come with time I suppose.

Anyway…enough about me. I hope you enjoy the images. Perhaps you may even learn a little something from my few limited successes.

Boise Clear Dark Sky Clock