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a s t r o p h o t o g r a p h y : s t e v e h a m i l t o n / m 1 0 0 - s o m b r e r o g a l a x y / l x 9 0 / d s i p r o
My love of the night sky began as a Navy
pilot. I used to fly back and forth all night
on airborne early warning duty. We called it
“drilling holes in the sky.” The night sky was
amazing so I’d take along binocs and enjoy the
view. At 30,000 feet over the Eastern Pacific,
the Milky Way is so bright; you’d swear you
were looking at clouds out your window.
These days my Meade LX90 and I spend a
lot of time capturing images of the same deep
sky objects I used to wonder at while flying
over the ocean at night.
As soon as I got into astrophotography, the rst
thing I did was get on the Internet (go to Google and
type in “astronomy” and you’ll be there for the next
ten years). I found the Yahoo groups pretty quickly
and soon realized their value. There are all these
patient people there who are willing to say, for the
hundredth time, the same thing they’ve said to ninety-
nine other people.
Astrophotography can have a steep learning curve.
But I was helped along and encouraged by all these
great imagers who would go, “Nice image Steve, but
try this next time…” That’s fantastic. I look back at
my rst few months in imaging and think, “where
would I have been without that?”
Now I nd myself answering a lot of the same
questions that I asked when I was rst starting out.
It’s just a natural progression where you start giving
back to the community by helping others. I have to
say that lately, when I’m not out taking pictures, half
the joy of astronomy for me is the web community
and the friends I’ve made there.
My best friend these days is a guy in Washington
State who I’ve never met. We got to know each other
through the online groups and started talking on the
phone. Now we talk every day, sometimes twice a day.
And I have many other friends like him.
When I was a pilot, it was my goal to be the best.
But I always knew there was somebody out there
who was better. It’s the same with astrophotography.
That’s what keeps everyone learning (and humble).
“ O N A C L E A R N I G H T O V E R A C A L M S E A , IT’ S H A R D
TO TE L L W H E R E T H E SK Y E N D S A N D T H E S E A B E G I N S .
It’s like you’re flying into one big sky”
