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24 September 2020, Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

Trying to escape from the pandemic, my wife and I decided to take a trip to Rocky Mountain National Park and then Bryce Canyon National Park and spend some time outdoors. We'd been cooped up in our tiny apartment in San Diego, CA since the pandemic lockdowns began and we needed a break. And what a break it was! Bryce Canyon is magical during the day, and equally so at night. It was unlike anything we'd ever seen and hiking through the canyons at night was both spooky and surreal. We took a hike about halfway down into Wall Street, which was as far as we dared, and spent a good thirty minutes in the quiet darkness taking some photos in the process. The two brightest objects in the sky that night, other than the moon, were Jupiter and Saturn and I was fortunate to catch them rising just above the canyon walls. If you look closely, you can see them in each picture.

Equipment: Nikon D5200

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25 October 2019, Sawtooth Canyon, CA

For our one year anniversary my wife and I took a trip to go rock climbing with some friends at Sawtooth Canyon, CA. The area is gorgeous and fortunately I brought my camera to grab some shots while we were there. 1) Milky Way over Sawtooth Canyon 2) Stars over our campsite 3) My wife being a badass If you look closely, in the first picture you can see the Milky Way as well as an airplane flying in the lower right corner.

Equipment: Nikon D5200

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21 August 2017, Irvine, CA

Back in 2017 while living in California, a partial eclipse was on its way to cover Orange County. Fortunately I planned ahead this time and ordered eclipse glasses so that I wouldn't have to cobble together welding goggles and shades lenses to get a decent view. I was at work that day and brought my gear with me. I took lunch at the expected eclipse time and posted up at the top of the parking garage with my trusty Nikon D5200, a tripod, and eclipse glasses. I stood there during the entire eclipse holding the glasses over my camera lens trying different angles and distance until I got a few that worked. The best part is my coworkers could see me from the office window the entire time. I wonder if they though I was nuts. I really can't say. But yes, yes they did. I'm rather proud of these ones, all captured with a 50-200mm lens and no telescope or special gear outside of a pair of cardboard eclipse glasses.

Equipment: Nikon D5200, Cardboard Eclipse Glasses

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Sun and Transit of Venus

05 June 2012, Woodbury, MN

1) Venus transit B&W 2) B&W with info 3) Actual color from lens setup For my first post I thought it'd be appropriate to throw it back to my first real (and really bad) attempt at astrophotography, the 2012 transit of Venus, when the planet Venus passed across the face of the sun. I found out about the transit a day before it was supposed to happen and didn't have time to order a pair of eclipse glasses to watch the transit, so I made a trip to Home Depot and picked up a pair of welding goggles thinking that would do the trick. Before the transit started, I aimed the welding goggle lens at the sun hoping to see it worked. It didn't. It was still far too bright to capture anything. I scrambled to find as many pair of sunglasses as possible, took the lenses out, and taped them in a stack on top of the welding goggle lens. I aimed the whole thing at the sun and to my complete shock, it actually worked. I could see a small dark spot slowly passing across the face of the sun. I held the entire stack of lenses against my Nikon D40X and went to work until the transit was over. A true DIY setup. When I was first taking a look at the images, I thought the extra spots were dust or lens scratches, but after comparing them to professional photos they turned out to be actual sunspots which was a really cool bonus.

Equipment: Nikon D40X, A Bunch of Sunglasses