The story of capturing deep space from a suburban backyard.
I'm an amateur astrophotographer based in the suburbs, imaging the night sky from my backyard under Bortle 6 light-polluted conditions. What started as a curiosity about those faint fuzzy patches through binoculars has grown into a genuine passion for revealing the hidden beauty of the cosmos.
I started this journey in 2020 with a DSLR on a basic tripod, taking 15-second exposures of the Milky Way. Five years later, I'm capturing faint nebulae and distant galaxies with hours of carefully guided exposures and narrowband filters that cut through the light pollution.
Like many astrophotographers, it all started with the Moon. I still remember the thrill of seeing craters on my phone screen through a cheap department store telescope. That grainy, shaky image was the worst photo I've ever taken — and the one that changed everything.
From there, I fell down the rabbit hole. A used DSLR led to a star tracker, which led to a proper equatorial mount, which led to a dedicated astronomy camera. Each upgrade opened a new door: suddenly I could see color in nebulae, resolve spiral arms in galaxies, and capture the subtle details of planetary surfaces.
The biggest challenge has always been my location. Suburban light pollution washes out the faintest details that dark-sky imagers take for granted. But that constraint became a strength — it pushed me toward narrowband imaging, longer integration times, and more refined processing techniques. Every image I produce is a small victory against photon pollution.
I believe in honest astrophotography. Every image on this site represents real photons collected from my backyard — no composites with borrowed data, no AI-generated enhancements, no artistic embellishments that misrepresent the data. What you see is what my camera captured, carefully processed to reveal what was always there.
My typical imaging session starts after sunset with polar alignment and autofocus routines. I let the automated system run through the night, collecting hundreds of sub-exposures that will later be stacked and processed. A single final image often represents data from multiple nights of imaging.
Processing is where the art meets the science. I use PixInsight as my primary tool, following a workflow that includes calibration, registration, integration, and then a careful series of stretches and enhancements to reveal the faint structures hidden in the data.