Catching Light

Photography by

Dan Lessmann

Oklahoma City Clear Sky Clock

Cheddar Ranch Observatory Clear Sky Clock

Astrophotography

“For everyone, as I think, must see

that astronomy compels the soul to look upwards

and leads from this world to another.”

--Plato, The Republic, Book VII, 1 – 529 B.C.

My interest in astronomy goes back to growing up in the sixties with the Apollo program.  The later robotic planetary missions and the Hubble Space Telescope along with my interest in photography led me into astrophotography.  Visual astronomy is interesting to me and I'm still awed by a "live" view of Saturn or the Great Orion Nebula through a telescope.  But, for me, to really get out there requires a camera and long exposures.

I've been working with digital astrophotography for only a short time now.  Astrophotography has steep learning curves but things are progressing nicely.  For those just starting out or considering astrophotography as a hobby, I've documented some of my experiences here and I hope you find this helpful.  I've also documented some of the mistakes I've made along the way here.

I also tend to leave some of my earlier work on this site to document my progress.  You'll find these previous attempts on the same pages as my latest attempts.

Here is some of my work to date.  Click the links below to go to particular types of images.

Lunar  Planetary  Star Trails and Widefield  Deep Sky  Messier Gallery

Most recent first.

The Moon and Venus at Dawn, 7/23/2006

Earthshine, 6/28/2006

Plato Crater