For more than two years now, my teaching partner, Scott Christensen, and myself have dared to walk where few have travelled...

People may have wondered why educators don't do some of the stuff you see on these pages, since even a "lowly" amateur like me can seemingly do some amazing things.  But the reality is that there will always be a disconnect between education and industry, since seldom do the twain meet.   

A teacher can own a big telescope, but that doesn't mean they can use it.   This truth is why many of the efforts by amateurs to get "modern astronomy" into K-12 education has failed.  It's not that teachers lack tools, but rather the knowledge and curriculum-basis to utilize the tools.  

Beginning in 2014, beginning a desire that began more than a decade prior, Scott and I began outlining a program for our district, Mansfield Independent School District (Texas), to solve this problem.  Because we are already employees as teachers within the district, and because of our extensive experience and industry connections, we have managed to sell our district on buildling an innovative new astronomy campus and mobile lab solution.   

As it stands, our proposal for a 24-acre campus featuring an array of astronomy tools is causing our district leadership to scramble for ways to finance these efforts.  Featuring robotic observatories and outdoor learning labs, the real heart-beat of the program will be an embedded curriculum that will bridge the gap between the lack of teach knowledge in these subjects and provide an inquiry-based solution for kids in our classrooms, from kindergarten to 12th grade.   Over 34,000 students within our district would begin a path toward learning astronomy in the way that actual astronomers know to be possible...by letting students connect to the tools DAILY.  

We have coined our efforts the MISD Center for Astronomical Studies Initiative, with a full, almost-ready-for-prime-time website that can be seen <<<here>>>.

Any encouragement and non-financial support you can give for our project is greatly appreciated.  

In the meantime, my apologies for disappearing for two and a half years!

Whereas I said that I wouldn't be going to the Texas Star Party this year because my original presentation, "How to Build an Astroimager," did not make, the TSP guys let me know they still needed me to fill in for my friend, JOhn Davis, who has to vacate his spot in the lineup because he has to run off and make a movie or something. 

That kinda stuff happens all the time, right? 

Instead of changing  what JOhn was going to do, I'll be stepping right in and doing a similar presentation on Photoshop Workflows.   Of course, there are so many things Photoshop can do for us and in so many ways; however, I will be focusing chiefly on luminance extraction and handling, chrominance (color) considerations, and trying to maintain balance between local contrast enhancement and noise.   We will also look a bit at mask creation and its usage in protecting out data from global processes.  

Anyway, I'll be joining the party mid-week, anticipating a Wednesday, May 28th arrival and will stay through Sunday.  Safe travels to all who are headed out this weekend!

Typically, good weather and singular (or practically singular) astronomy events do not always coincide for me.  Well, to be honest, the last time I can recall such a cosmic coordination of circumstances was nearly 10 years ago when I was hoping to photograph the near occultation of Comet Machholz with the Pleaides, an image which actually won me a Sky and Telescope Contest award a year or two later.  

Coming after my NEAIC/NEAF visit, I was Jonesing for some total lunar eclipse action and the skies acquiesed, letting me shoot over 450 individual images of the moon during the entire eclipse cycle.   I have posted a couple of "presentations" of these images to my webpage (and Facebook). 

The first presentation, shown above, are selected shots at some of the major parts of the cycle, from moon's entry into earth's umbra, through to it's "blood moon" appearance - and awful name given by people who have obviously never seen actual blood - and it's final escape from earth's shadow. 

The second, a poster format detailing the times of key points of the event from my home in Grapevine, Texas, shows the normal moon split in half on both sides, signifying Luna's return to normalcy.

All presentations for the eclipse images can be found on a Gallery Page here.

I have no plans to print these out in the near future, but maybe some day I will find a cost effective way of doing so.   I hope you enjoy them!

I am sometimes asked what I enjoy more, imaging the night sky, or talking to people ABOUT imaging the night sky?  

People might be surprised by my answer. 

It is not as if I dislike imaging or observing.  Much to the contrary, it remains one of my favorite things to do.  Even tonight, as tired as I am from the trip, I am thinking of ways to automate a series of images showing tonight's full lunar eclipse and still show up to work in the morning.  

But there is nothing, and I mean nothing, like teaching and talking to people about this hobby!  As a high school school teacher by profession, I seldom get to teach students with a passion for their learning.  Sure, many do what is required in my math classes, but if my school students were to bring the same level of attention and focus to their studies as the participants in my imaging sessions did at NEAIC, well, that would be heaven on earth!

Therefore, words simply cannot describe how much I enjoyed NEAIC/NEAF this year.  The sessions were glorious, particularly those I attended myself. The company, as always, superb.

I am thankful to my wife, Helen, for travelling with me and showing patience with me as my focus was divided between fun and, well, fun!

I will be posting the entire POWERPOINT presentation for my imaging sessions to this webpage shortly.  I just need to figure out a way to make it server-friendly without compromising the media content too much.

In the meantime, happy lunar-observing, everybody!

As several close to me know, I have been working on a "book" of this hobby for years.   Because life gets in the way quite often and because I'm too much of a perfectionist to consider anything ever "done," I have decided that I would just begin the process of converting my writings over to my webpage, free for the world to see!

I'm such a great guy.  I know. 

So, please forgive the construction in various sections of the website, but this is all a work in progress as I gauge the best format for delivering this content to you.  That said, amidst the mess, I've added the first couple of articles.

Both articles are theory articles, so you will find them on my Philosophy/Theory section of the Articles page.   First, an article for DSLR guys about how to set your ISO for maximum efficiency.   Second, you'll find an article called "Space is a Landscape," which represents the central truth of what I am all about in this hobby.  

Both articles were written long ago and updated to today's standards, but the concepts are very relevant to anybody crazy enough to stick a camera on a telescope!

Hope you enjoy!

Unfortunately, due to the low early registration numbers at TSP this year, my presentation at this year's Texas Star Party as a part of the AstroImaging Symposium did not "make."   I surmise that this happened, in part, due to the primarily "notice" level of participants who did sign up, people having to make a choice among several different presentations.  Because mine was somewhat geared to the intermediate or advanced imager, I think my topic simply didn't catch enough interest.   At least this is what I'm telling myself.  Outright rejection is very hard for me to swallow.  :)

Whereas the good folks of TSP would still have "comped" me a free ride, allowing me to still contribute to the Symposium where needed, I decided that I would forgo it all and just stay home.  I've missed a lot of work already this year because of the passing of my father and I have even more to miss a couple of months now for NEAIC/NEAF.   I just felt it was more prudent to stay home. 

Actually, in recent years, missing TSP is probably not a bad thing in terms of doing astronomy.  I've been disappointed the past 5 or 6 years, as the weather hasn't really allowed much in the way of productivity.  And even when the skies are clear and dark, I've never been impressed with the astronomical seeing, nor the very short evenings.  I've had regrets each of the last several years that I have attended simply because it hasn't been a good trade-off with the joys I get from being with my family.

Anyway, I'll put the presentation on the back-burner, as I loved the idea for the presentation and the materials I've already produced.  

This past week, I confirmed that I will be able to attend this year's NEAF and be a featured speaker at the North East Astro Imaging Conference (NEAIC) near New York City.  I am excited about this!

Two years ago, the event organizer, Bob Moore, had contacted me about speaking and I had tentatively agreed to do so.  However, once the Texas Education Agency posted their Standardized Testing dates for that year, I had a conflict and was not allowed to miss my teaching job on those dates.   

This year, there is no such issue!

I will be speaking one of the introduction presentations on Imaging, which will likely be split in 4 to 6 sessions over the two day span of the conference on April 10 to 11.  

As a bonus, my wife will travel with me and we'll see some of the NYC sites together.  I've never been to NYC before, but always wanted to do so.   Should be a really good week!

The good Lord permitting, I will be speaking as part of the Texas Imaging Symposium once again at this year's Texas Star Party.   The presentation, "Astroimaging DNA," will be a look at how astroimagers, past, present, and future can produce images in a recognizable and consistent style.  Here is the Abstract as posted to the TSP website:

Abstract:    Building off last year's presentation from AIS 2013, Jay presents more of the theoretical and philosophical aspects that undergird his imaging philosophy.  Regardless of the participant’s experience level in astroimaging, this presentation provides a cohesive approach that will help imagers inject "DNA" into an image.

 With information gained here, you can begin to maximize the potential within your own images - from data planning and collection; to processing and presentation.   But mostly, it will show you how you can create images that become uniquely your own, creating "signature" works each time.  The single session will detail four "nucleotides" of the imaging DNA chain: Growth, Aesthetic, Tolerance, and Consistency. 

Growth:  The development of the astroimager is the focus here.  This is a study at how ethics, opinions, education, and
theory affect the growth of the astrophotographer, and consequently, his or her imaging "program."  

Aesthetics:  In an arena that is traditionally considered science, is there room for an individual's aesthetic?  If so, what decisions can be made and how does this affect the overall quality and perception of the image?   

Tolerance:   This will involve a technical discussion of the photographic system - image acquisition, data interpretation,
and image processing - and how an imager learns tolerance, quality control, and eventual acceptance of the final result. 

Consistency:   If you've done it once, how do you repeat it?  Can all images contain recognizable DNA?  If so, what does that look like?  Thus, we look at how changes to the "workflow" are necessitated in our treatment of various objects/imaging types, as well as how many of the great, pro imagers have established their own digital "fingerprints." 

All About Astro.com started more than a decade ago.   Hard to believe!

Over recent years, my involvement in the hobby has slowed substantially.  Life just does that, some times.   But for the longest time, I had been tired of the tedium of maintaining a webpage using a very limited tool set, whereas site graphics and design was exclusively by Yours Truly and the programming was just old fashioned HTML.   And considering the cost of being hosted on my old server, I had been meaning to move hosts to something more economical as well as more user friendly.   There's just no reason to keep reinventing the wheel anymore.

So, the server move is complete.   While the webpage will remain under construction for quite a while, no doubt, I can now start importing my old site images, advice, and blog to this new, more user-friendly format.   The goal?   To get reinvigorated to do more astronomy and to pass on those experiences with my readers.

I sincerely hope you will grow to like the NEW All About Astro.com. 

- jay