I've been an amateur astronomer for most of my adult life (30+ years). I picked up a copy of Astronomy Magazine and was hooked from that moment on. The original PBS Cosmos series and Carl Sagan's books were a huge influences as well. It was natural to want to photograph the sky given all the visual observation I was doing through binoculars and telescopes. I spent a large amount of time in the early days doing visual observation with a 12.5" Dobsonian telescope and managed to complete both of the Astronomical League's Messier Lists and Earth Orbiting Satellite Observer Club (EOSOC). I witnessed first hand Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 break apart and punch holes in the clouds of Jupiter, Comet Hyakutake's amazingly long tail in 1996, and the best and biggest of my life thus far, Comet Hale-Bopp in 1997. My first total solar eclipse was viewed while aboard a cruise ship off the coast of Aruba on February 26, 1998. I also have a love for the American space program and have watched 3 Space Shuttle launches from the Kennedy Space Center. Two of which were Shuttle Atlantis launches which is now on display at KSC. I've been an astrophotographer as long as I've been in the hobby but really got serious about it and started the journey of purchasing the all the gear necessary just in the past few years. Before that time all my imaging was mainly done with a tripod mounted camera with an occasional piggyback attempt. Thanks for looking and clear skies! More images can be found on my web site listed below.