Astrophotography Quotes

My desire is to bring astronomical events and objects down into your personal, lived-in space.

After decades of hauling telescopes around in the back of vans and going up to high altitude locations and so forth, I did finally build an observatory, here on Sonoma mountain.

If you start out with a little telescope observing the stars and you keep at it over the years, as I have, it's kind of a dream to one day have an observatory where you can always go and use the telescope conveniently.

Directing is like looking at the stars on a cloudless night. You get away from all light sources, and you look up, and you see 50 points of light. And a minute later 100 and another minute later 1,000 and then 10,000. And then this swirling gigantic carpet above you, and somehow it all seems to connect.

I've been a stargazer for quite a long time, I've got the apps, I know where a lot of things are in the sky and the apps actually can help just to point out what you are looking at because then you do get to see, 'Oh that's Saturn, that's Mars.'

When, according to habit, I was contemplating the stars in a clear sky, I noticed a new and unusual star, surpassing the other stars in brilliancy. There had never before been any star in that place in the sky.

If a photographic plate under the center of a lens focused on the heavens is exposed for hours, it comes to reveal stars so far away that even the most powerful telescopes fail to reveal them to the naked eye. In a similar way, time and concentration allow the intellect to perceive a ray of light in the darkness of the most complex problem.

I knew my interest in the universe and I owned a telescope that I bought with money I earned by walking dogs. 50 cents per walk, per dog, and that accumulated quickly. I bought a camera, a telescope. I taught myself astrophotography. I did all this.

The night sky in North Korea might be the most brilliant in northeast Asia, the only airspace spared the coal dust, Gobi Desert sand, and carbon monoxide choking the rest of the continent.

I am just learning to notice the different colors of the stars, and already begin to have a new enjoyment.

The man in the street does not know a star in the sky.

I live out here in Malibu, where I can see the stars. So I want to get a really nice telescope so I can look at the stars a little bit more.

There are some galaxies that not only teach us things but are just gorgeously beautiful to look at. My favorite example is the Antenne, which is a pair of colliding galaxies.

Coming upon a space that sounds unique and incredible is just the best feeling.

The sky is filled with stars, invisible by day.

For me, there's something very romantic about going and looking at the stars and trying to photograph spy satellites.

It's been an adventure just getting out to Saturn, .. Saturn is such an alluring photographic target. It's a joy, really, to be able to take our images and composite them in an artful way, which is one of my cardinal working goals. It's about poetry and beauty and science all mixed together.

It'd be a shame to talk about the universe and not show some images of it, because we have some of the more stunning representations of our field relative to any of the sciences. But I don't use the imagery as a substitute for the insights and wisdom I can convey so that when you leave you say to yourself, "Wow, I'm a little more deeply connected to the universe, and I want to learn more."