#pixel5

Berlin, 2023

Rosslyn Chapel near Edinburgh, 2020

A wide angle lens definitely helps frame this place - luckily it was also a pretty clear day for November.

Founded in 1446 as a family chapel, the building was incomplete when the founder, Sir William St Clair, died in 1484. His son, Sir Oliver St Clair, roofed the choir with its stone vault but did not complete his father’s original design.

Following the Reformation, the Chapel fell into disrepair and, in 1650, Cromwell’s troops attacked Rosslyn Castle and stabled their horses inside the Chapel.

I grew up fascinated with the cosmos, thus my major obsession with sci-fi shows and movies (especially Star Trek). It all started when I got my first telescope when I was a kid. It was a small, red refactor telescope (don't remember the lens size but it was pretty small). It didn't have much power, but it was very fun to use. I didn't know what to focus on when I was using it, so I mostly looked at the mountains in the distance, some bright stars at night but still didn't quite know how to search for things in the sky.

It wasn't until I got my 2" reflector telescope that I could start to see some better objects in the sky. That is when I first saw the Orion Nebula through a telescope for the first time. I didn't know what I was looking at at first, since it was so blurry and very dim through the telescope. But I knew I was looking at Orion in the sky and roughly in the location of where the nebula should have been, so I knew it was it. It was so fascinating to see..and ever since, I have been fascinated with the night sky, becoming an amateur astronomer from that point on. I pulled out this telescope every chance I got to look at things with my friends and family and any astronomical event that came my way.

I went onto college, where they had a student campus observatory. This observatory had an Astronomy Club (which I later became president of, and Angie, the vice-president) that would operate this facility, which included a 20" dobsonian/reflector telescope, multiple 13"/14" reflectors for portable use and in a dome with CCD imaging and a Takahashi refractor telescope in a dome with CCD imaging. I was able to see so many things in the sky with these telescopes and I cherish the time I had there to make use of these instruments to see my dreams come true of seeing the vast galaxy around us up close. I was able to learn how to use the CCD imaging telescopes to take so many pictures through the Astronomy Lab that the university offered, and I took many pictures to caputure these objects in the sky.

Although I don't have a telescope anymore, I have astronomy mode on my Pixel phones (started with the Google Pixel2 XL, and now currently Google Pixel 5) and have much enjoyed its capabilities to take many pictures around me to capture beautiful shots of the night sky!

Here's to hoping I can get a telescope again in the future and take even better shots of all of these!

Until then!