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| Tom Taylor has been a professional photographer for more than twenty-five years. He has been doing photography of the sky much, much longer. His first astrophotos were taken while he was in the seventh grade and in the eight and ninth grade he had ground the glass and made his own telescope with which he began imaging the sky. Tom says that he is self-taught although his first few of seven years at the University of Arizona were studying in the astronomy program. Tom holds a Masters degree and worked as a counselor until he decided to take a position at Kitt Peak National Observatory outside of Tucson, Arizona. Initially, he was involved with running the observatory’s Public Night Program and lecturing until he took a staff post with the Steward Observatory of the University of Arizona. During this time, Tom was able to use many of the telescopes at Kitt Peak National Observatory including the 24/36 Burrell-Schmidt Camera of Case Western Reserve University, the 2.3 meter reflector of the University of Arizona, the 4 meter reflector of Kitt Peak and the McMath-Pierce Solar telescope and spectrohelioscope of the National Solar Observatory for his own photography program. He now lives just outside of Flagstaff, Arizona and is the founder of A Shooting Star Inn Observatory and Bed & Breakfast. This is an astronomical facility and retreat space for any level of astronomy interest. There is an emphasis on visual astronomy with options to do astrophotography either with film or state-of-the-art astro-CCD cameras. Tom has a fabulous collection of antique and brand new, top-of-the-line telescopes, binoculars and support equipment. He has chosen the best location for near-perfect sky viewing that Arizona has to offer. Come SEE for yourself… This year (2008), Tom hopes to build another observatory building to house the antique brass refractor which will be showcased this summer during its one-hundredth birthday celebration. Tom is also very excited to begin a new project in conjunction with long-time fellow astronomer and glass guru, Mike Spooner. They have already obtained a 36-inch piece of glass for a new telescope looking to see first light in a few years. Tom will continue to work with his long-time friend and fellow astrophotographer David Moore on their personal deep sky imaging. Tom also hopes to start a program with Gregg Wallace to allocate telescope time to the OSETI program…an optical effort to actively search for extraterrestrial intelligence. |
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