From Plastic to Silicon, An Astrophotographer's Journey by Bill McLaughlin
Note: The speaker will be joining us via Zoom and will not be speaking in-person.
Bill is an expert imager and author. His writing and images have been published in Sky & Telescope and Astronomy Magazine, including on some covers. He'll be sharing his path through the technological changes that have culminated in the tools and techniques we have today. Please see his description of his presentation below.
Bill will be talking about the history of astrophotography and how it has grown along with his interest in the subject and how modern technology has enabled the rapid growth of the hobby.
About Bill McLaughlin
Bill has been an astrophotographer since the early 1990s, starting with strips of plastic stuff called "film". He soon discovered that since he was lazy, film was too much work so he quickly moved to the then-new hobby of electronic astro-imaging. He is a co-founder and co-builder of three amateur observatories, but since that was even more work, he now has only his backyard observatory as well as a spot in an amateur hosting observatory in California. In the early 2000s, Bill wrote several articles for Sky and Telescope and Astronomy Magazine and has had numerous published astro-photos and a couple of magazine covers. Unfortunately, he discovered that was also too much work so these days he only takes photos for his own enjoyment and to use in the talks that he occasionally gives when his stockpile of ego is depleted.