Astrophotography is one of my most difficult and long-term projects. It has continued to stretch my ability and skills in many different areas. There are three main types of astrophotography, deep space astrophotography (galaxies and nebulas), landscape astrophotography (star trails and the Milky Way), and lunar astrophotography (moon). They all require different processes, but capturing photos of deep space objects is definitely the most difficult and time-intensive. While deep space astrophotography is much harder, it can provide some of the most spectacular results. Please click on photos for more information
Many expensive devices are usually required to follow the movement of the stars (relative to earth) and capture astrophotography’s long exposure images. Fortunately, I came across an open-source 3-D printed Arduino-controlled star tracker, called Open Astro Tracker (OAT). I reached out to the creator of the OAT, located in Germany. His device was in the development stage, and he welcomed my offer to serve as a beta tester in support of this project. For months I 3-D printed parts, tested them, and reported back problems as well as ideas on how to improve the tracker. Over time as the project became more and more refined, the tracker started to produce better images and became easier to use. At the end of a year of upgrades and revisions, I finally built a working star tracker.