A little bit about me
I live several miles north of the Gulf of Mexico in Ocean Springs, MS. I am a retired Flight Meteorologist with the Air Force Reserve "Hurricane Hunters" located at Keesler AFB MS. My job certainly quelled my thirst for excitement. I have flown through more than 150 Hurricanes and Tropical Cyclones during the last 34yrs providing crucial data to the National Hurricane Center in Miami FL. Now being retired I spend more time pursuing astronomical imaging.
I'm married to my fantastic wife Janice and have two beautiful daughters, a son in law and grandson. Without the support of my family, I would have never been able to produce the images you will see here.
My interest and enthusiasm in astronomy began in 1999, when I bought a Meade 4" reflector. I enjoyed looking at the sky for over a year. I upgraded my scope to a computerized Meade 8"LX200 in 2001, built an observatory for it and purchased my first CCD camera in 2002. I have continued to update scopes and equipment and now use a Software Bisque Paramount MYT mount, Several Stellarvue refractors and a custom made carbon fiber Newtonian astrograph.
After seeing all the great pictures published in Astronomy and Sky and Telescope magazines each month and seeing what others were able to do by visiting their web sites, I got the urge to start taking pictures. I didn’t realize the extreme challenges that lay ahead in figuring out how to do this and the time and dedication that would be necessary to produce these images. However, it has been extremely satisfying and rewarding.
Thanks for stopping by and looking at my images! 