About

Dave

Astrophotographer · Central Coast, California

I've been fascinated by the night sky since childhood, when a battered copy of Burnham's Celestial Handbook found its way onto my bookshelf. For years I was content to stare — binoculars, then a small refractor — but in 2018 I discovered long-exposure imaging and everything changed. The idea that you could coax colour and structure from faint photons that had travelled millions of light-years was, to me, nothing short of extraordinary.

I'm based on the Central Coast of California, where the combination of clear inland nights and accessible dark-sky sites makes for remarkably good imaging. My most-used location is Carrizo Plain National Monument — one of the darkest accessible sites in California — along with Montana de Oro State Park and the hills above Cambria.

I shoot primarily narrowband on a cooled monochrome camera, which cuts through the mild light pollution near the coast and lets me image emission nebulae on nearly any night. For galaxies, reflection nebulae, and comets I use a broadband colour sensor and reserve the best moonless nights at Carrizo. Wide-field shots are captured on a modified mirrorless camera with fast prime lenses.

Processing is done in PixInsight with finishing touches in Photoshop. I try to keep the colour treatment faithful to what the science tells us about each object — striking imagery is satisfying, but accuracy is more interesting.

Equipment

• —Telescope (deep sky): Celestron EdgeHD 11" SCT @ f/7 · 1,960 mm
• —Telescope (wide / rich-field): William Optics GT81 APO @ f/5.9 · 478 mm
• —Main camera: ZWO ASI2600MM Pro (mono, cooled)
• —Colour camera: ZWO ASI2600MC (colour, cooled)
• —Wide-field camera: Sony a7IV (H-alpha modified)
• —Wide-field lenses: Sony 24 mm f/1.4 GM · Sony 85 mm f/1.4 GM
• —Mount: Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro
• —Guiding: ZWO OAG + ZWO ASI174MM Mini
• —Filters: Chroma 3 nm Hα · OIII · SII · Baader LRGB
• —Processing: PixInsight · Adobe Photoshop