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Contact information
email
jrfcomet@hotmail.com
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James R. Foster's astrophotos on AstroBin
JamesF's gallery -
AstroBin
https://www.astrobin.com/users/JamesF/
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Personal web site
http://astroimage.info
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Biography
I have been interested in
Astronomy since I was about 7 years old and remember the vivid
lunar eclipses my father pointed out and all the excitement (misguided!)
about Comet
Kohoutek in early 1974. I began reading Sky & Telescope and other
astronomical
magazines towards the late 1970s and purchased a C-8 telescope in early
1981; this was
almost too advanced for me at the time! I built a very rickety 17.5”
Dobson in my backyard around 1985. I noted the lunar occultation of
Antares in early 1987 and decided to get
“serious” about astronomy. I purchased a Meade 10” F/10 Schmidt-Cassegrain
and a
smaller 4” Sch-Cat, and started to dable in astrophotography. I traveled
to many dark
sky locations in the intervening 2 years but found the most consistent
condition wise and
closest dark sky area to be Mt. Pinos in 1988-89. I’ve been conducting my
astrophotography there since that time. I enjoy shooting peculiar
galaxies, at high focal length, but also enjoy shooting comets and any
other type of rare astronomical events. I had the unique experience
of viewing the total eclipse of the sun from Bolivia in November 1994 and
had the privilege
of conducting my own astrophotography from Carnage's Las Campanas
Observatory,
Chile in 1996. I have over a hundred of my images published in various
magazines in the
U.S, U.K, Italy, Latin America and Japan. These include Astronomy Magazine
(US),
Astronomy Now (UK), Deep Sky Magazine (US), Newsweek Magazine (US and
Latin
America), Sky & Telescope (US), Coelum Astronomia (Italy) and Tenjmon
Guide
(Japan). In connection with my physics undergraduate degree, I have worked
at the JPL
Table Mountain Facility to help gather asteroid astrometric data for Dr.
William M.
Owen, metallicity studies of globular clusters under Dr. Steve Gillam, and
NEO asteroid
research under Dr. Michael Hicks. Late in the 1990s I decide to obtain a
larger scope of
better quality and larger aperture that was commercially available at the
time. In conjunction
with Optician Tom Scott (Scott Optics) and Parallax, Inc, I designed and
had built my
present system, a 13” F/7.5 classical cassegrain reflecting telescope.
Using this precise
system with an Astro-Physics 1200 Goto mount, I have made over 750
asteroid
measurements for the Minor Planet Center (at the Smithsonian Astrophysical
Observatory ) and about 2-3 dozen photometry observations for the American
Association for Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) from my home built
observatory
within 10 miles of downtown Los Angeles! I hope to get the publishing
(“pretty picture”)
side of astrophotography reinvigorated with the purchase of a large and
advanced CCD
I recently received, an SBIG STL-11000M. I live in Los Angeles but do
most of my
shooting from Mt. Pinos, California or the area north of Red Rock State
Park, California.
I am in my 20th year of working as a civilian federal employee for the
U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers, currently as a real estate specialist. I have a BA in
English from the California
State University, Los Angeles. I am in the process of finishing my second
BA, in Physics,
at CSULA.
Areas of astrophotography interest
comets
and deep sky
Astrophotography publications
Astronomy Magazine (US),
Astronomy Now (UK), Deep Sky Magazine (US), Newsweek Magazine (US and
Latin America), Sky & Telescope (US), Coelum Astronomia (Italy) and
Tenjmon Guide (Japan).
x
Observing sites
Los Angeles home observatory and
Mount Pinos, California
Astronomical Equipment
Telescopes
13” F/7.5 classical cassegrain
reflecting telescope, 10-inch f/4.5 Newtonian, 4-inch
Genesis refractor, Planewave 17-incg CDK17
Mounts
Astro-Physics 1200 GOTO, iOptron CEM60
CCD cameras
SBIG ST7 & and
STL-11000M
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