Dan Ward has been a member of NVPS for 8 years and was our newsletter editor for three years. Cultivating his passion for photography since high school, he first began exploring the night sky and astrophotography in the mid-80s while living in Arizona.

As active deep sky amateur astronomer, Dan was one of the first dozen deep sky observers to receive a Messier Award for observing all 110 Messier Objects in one evening. He averaged three or four night observing sessions in remote desert locations, typically miles away from any white light and usually with rattlesnakes, coyotes and a few other crazy astronomy buddies for company, using telescopes and mounts that weighed up to 300 pounds.

In those days, astrophotography meant carefully guiding a telescope with specially treated film for hours at a time. Some of Dan’s film astrophotos were published in Sky & Telescope and Astronomy magazines, as well as several books, such as David Levy’s bestseller – The Sky: A User’s Guide.

After adopting his two daughters, Dan abandoned his nocturnal desert lifestyle and moved back East, focusing his camera on family, nature and urban exploration. After his daughters’ graduations, he has drifted back into occasional astrophoto efforts. The field has undergone revolutionary changes with amateurs routinely doing what only the most sophisticated professional observatories could do 25 years ago.

Dan primarily uses his Nikon D7000 and D610, but has astro-buddies who use a full range of sophisticated gear. For tonight’s forum, Dan will share some of what he has learned about what is possible using a variety of tools and techniques.