Explore with me the challenges and thrills of capturing amazing objects in space under less than ideal skies. I apply my experience as an inventor, engineer, and professional photographer to develop methods to photograph the moon, planets, comets, and especially deep space objects in the night sky. Many suburbanites have their man or woman caves – I have a star cave. The goal of the Texas Star Cave™ is to learn how to capture astronomical objects with a modest investment in as little time as possible.

The tools used to capture and create the images vary in price and application.  A “starter” system may be assembled from some tools you may already own – DSLR camera, sturdy tripod, laptop or desktop computer, and a few other odds and ends.  The primary astrophotography setup in the star cave is the Celestron C11 with the Starizona Hyperstar version 3, various ZWO CMOS astro-cameras, on an Orion Atlas Pro mount running EQMod. We also explore planets, planetary nebulae, and galaxies with an EdgeHD 14 and Losmandy G11 Gemini 2. We go on location with the Star Watcher Star Adventurer and Nikon DSLR cameras and lenses. Additionally, we cover filters (narrowband, LRGB, LPro, LeNhance, etc.), software (AstroPhotography Tools, Deep Sky Stacker, Affinity Photo, SharpCap, PHD2, PixInSite, etc.), and DIY (Bahtinov mask, cable management, StellarMate, Arduino SCT focuser, Raspberry Pi AstroClock, etc.).  We will also visit other astronomers and observatories to learn their methods and secrets.