I am coming up on my 6th decade on this planet and for at least 5 of those decades, I have been enjoying the hobby of amateur astronomy.

​

Professionally, I hold a Bachelor's Degree in Education, majoring in physical sciences, and I taught high school sciences and computer science, including astronomy prior to transitioning to my present career in Information Technology.

​

I started out doing visual astronomy as a youth, spending nights out under the stars learning the constellations. I did lots of visual astronomy first with the naked eye, then later with binoculars and telescopes, but soon my love for astrophotography began. In 1977 at the age of 14, I got my first 35 mm film camera, and from then on, astrophotography was what I enjoyed the most in astronomy.

​

I learned black and white darkroom techniques in middle school, as well as color film techniques like C41 and E6 later on when I worked in a professional photo lab. I got to enjoy astrophotography in the classical sense with film, picking up tips and tricks from Sky and Telescope magazine, as well as my astrophotography friend, John Leader.

​

I have been involved with a few astronomy clubs over the years, but my home club and the one I am most involved with, even today, is the Medicine Hat Astronomy Club, where I first joined in 1985.

​

Today I enjoy astro imaging using my Skywatcher EQ6 Pro mount and a Celestron Ultima 8 with a Hyperstar Conversion kit and using a Hyperstar 8 V4, as well as an Explore Scientific ED80 APO refractor. I do my imaging with a ZWO ASI533MC Pro, although I also own planetary cameras and Canon DSLR's to go along with it all. I have collected a bit of equipment over the years. I added the ASI533MC Pro and the ASIAir Pro back in 2021, and the two together are a revolution in my abilities to gather starlight. I am taking images today that far exceed even the best from those early days in 1977. I recently purchased a Seestar S50 as well to work on a project to catalog the Messier list and other deep sky wonders.

​

The purpose of this website is to provide a place for me to share my love for the hobby that I can grow with, as well as help provide some guidance and information for people practicing the hobby through the blog articles that I write, and even share some of my "controversial" ideas on science. I welcome your feedback and ideas as well.

 

Please feel free to interact with me anytime and also please watch on my home page for updated gallery images. This is all a work in progress.

​

Clear skies to you all. 

​

James