My father used a sextant for celestial navigation on aircraft carriers in the Navy and on family sailing trips.  He taught me to see the constellation pictures, stellar landmarks, and stories in the stars.  I’ve loved looking at the night sky all my life.  As a child I would lie on the grass, or on a snowbank, and look up into the darkness and wonder what was out there; willing myself with all my might to visit the cosmos – hearing the siren song that has called humanity to look to the heavens since the dawn of time.

World issues, politics, relationships, and even my daily routine, fall into perspective against the awesome spectacles in our own galaxy and the universe beyond.  I am small and insignificant yet privileged to see and share these wonders. 

Using my telescope as a lens, I capture the ancient light of things that are 

      unimaginably old, 

            unfathomably distant, and 

                  incomprehensibly vast. 

They are at the same time 

      delicate and extremely violent; 

            still, and yet constantly changing.  

Being born, living, and dying at a cadence as slow as they are vast. Stars, nebulae, and galaxies echo the terrestrial creation we see around us.  

Long exposure photography is the only way we can experience these awe-inspiring celestial scenes.  Each final photograph is constructed from individual images captured over many tens of hours.  It’s not unusual for the final photograph to contain 100 or more frames.  

On clear, calm, nights, I head out to image these celestial scenes with pixels painted by ancient light.

There is art in the science, and science in the art.