The start of my astrophotography journey was arduous and stunted. When I was 14 years old I convinced my parents to buy me a Jason Comet Chaser 480 in preparation for the passing of Halley's comet. Of course, at 14 years of age and not having the slightest clue where to look, I never got to see the comet. The Comet Chaser was a Bird-Jones style catadioptric with a simple spherical mirror and non-standard eyepieces. However it offered nice views of the moon and brighter star clusters. Beyond that, it sat on the shelf and was used infrequently. Later, when my father bought me a point and shoot camera, I had the bright idea of taking photos of the moon. So, off the shelf came the Comet Chaser. Luckily, my father was a patient man and indulged me by purchasing a T-adapter so we could attach his Minolta SLR to the scope. After weeks of anticipation, we had a clear night with a half moon! We spent an hour outside in the freezing cold racking the focuser in and out snapping up a full roll of 35mm film. While waiting for the developer, the build up of anticipation was tremendous. The agony of defeat was utterly crushing. Of the the 24 photos, only one or two were remotely close to being in focus, and those were off center. Back on to the shelf went the Comet Chaser...

Fast forward 27 years. Jessica and I had just recently been married. It was close to Christmas time and I was desperately eavesdropping on the wife and kids hoping for some last minute gift ideas. Now this is were my memory gets fuzzy, but for some reason, I thought someone, sometime, in the last 6 months, had mentioned the idea of looking at something, through a telescope. In a panic, I ran with that, and furiously researched the best scope to buy for visual use. I settled on a Zhumell Z12 Dobsonian reflector for the "family" gift. I had grand visions of taking it out and looking at many wondrous nebulae with the kids. It arrived just before Christmas and was so big I had to resort to using contractor trash bags to wrap it. In the morning, the kids were eager to open it, expecting guitars or game systems. Upon opening, they thought it was a water heater. Once I explained it was a telescope, I was crushed when the exclaimed why?!?! Don't get me wrong, they thoroughly enjoyed seeing Saturn's rings and the Orion nebula but, sitting outside looking through a telescope can only hold a teenagers attention for a few minutes, at best. Once again I was left with a scope that mostly sat in the corner in the garage. Until, I stumbled across a company named ZWO. I purchased an ASI120MC in hopes of doing some moon and planetary photography by allowing the subject to drift across the field of view. Although I did get some really cool videos of the moon as it drifted by I was horribly discouraged when I was unable to get Jupiter or Saturn to consistently drift across the tiny sensor face.

Now, fast forward a few more years.  It is early March, 2019. I had just recently given Jessica a Nikon D5600 with kit lenses for Christmas as she had mentioned wanting to get back in to her hobby, photography. It was a crystal clear night and we could see a crescent moon through the tree branches in our back yard. The crescent was thin and low to the horizon where we could see the shadowed portion of the moon was faintly illuminated by earthshine. I borrowed Jessica's new camera, grabbed a rickety old tripod from the garage, and headed out to the front yard with a 70-300mm kit lens. I focused as best I could on a bright star using live view and snapped a few photos. I was astounded! I was able to get acceptable focus and capture crisp images! I played around for a few minutes and found an exposure speed that balanced the illumination of earthshine and sunshine. The final result is the photo which you see above. I was ecstatic.

In the months that followed I started watching YouTube videos on photographing the night sky with a DSLR. Eventually, I stumbled across Trevor Jones & Nico Carver and that was all she wrote... I was hooked. I attached Jessica's DSLR to the 12" Dobsonian and started snapping images of craters on the moon then I pointed it at the Orion nebula. I could see all the stars of the Trapezium, and on top of that, I could make out faint wisps of color! I was REALLY hooked! I realized that if I wanted to pursue this hobby to its fullest I would have to purchase a tracking mount and a dedicated telescope, but that is another story...