Justin: Hall of Fame Winner Spotlight
I recently introduced quarterly challenges for Galactic Course members, with each challenge winner receiving a prize and becoming eligible for the Galactic Course Hall of Fame. Since this new community initiative launched midway through the year, I decided to make the first Hall of Fame special by looking back at the previous year.
From now on, the next Hall of Fame winners will be selected at the end of each year!
If you'd like to participate in this challenge and other contests, earn prizes and get access to so much useful content, make sure to join the Galactic Course!
The Community Champion: Justin P.
Congratulations to Justin, the very first Galactic Course Community Champion!
Over the past years, Justin has often taken the time to help other members, share his knowledge, answer questions, and contribute to conversations. This helped others feel welcome, supported, and encouraged to keep learning.
Because of how active and helpful he was, we actually ended up talking more privately as well, and eventually even got to share some incredible experiences in real life, like shooting the Milky Way from the Grand Canyon or capturing the 2023 annular solar eclipse.
I’m really happy to have Justin as the first person to receive this award and to permanently feature him in the Galactic Course Hall of Fame!
Justin's socials:
Interview with the Winner
Want to get to know the winner a little bit? Let's go over a few questions that you might also find useful.
1) Justin, Tell us a little bit about yourself
I've been doing amateur photography for over 25 years at this point, but I picked up astrophotography almost on accident in 2020.
I was taking a nightscape and the milky way happened to be right in the middle of the frame! I tried to take a longer exposure but the stars weren't staying put. Did some quick research and ordered a budget star tracker that very night. Came back to the same location the following night and was able to capture some longer exposures and timelapses of the milky way. I was hooked! I realized I'd need some more gear if I wanted to get more zoomed in pictures and the rest is history. I live in extremely light polluted skies, so I've pretty much exclusively driven to darker skies to try and capture the beauty of our night sky. More recently, I've set up some more permanent remote rigs to allow me to image more consistently.
2) You regularly help other members. What motivates you to take the time to help people?
Seeing other people get excited and learning about something I'm passionate about makes me happy! I definitely had some hard lessons when I first started, and if I can help remove barriers or roadblocks for other people so they can enjoy and grow in this hobby, I'm glad to do so.
If you can find a local community, getting plugged in is a great way to learn and build friendships. Not everyone has access to that, so the online astro community can become that place. I didn't know about community when I started (and therefore just struggled through on my own), so it's something I try and help foster.
3) Can you give us some details on your workflow, tools or specific scripts you use, software, etc.?
I typically use PixInsight for processing all of my astronomy data, although there are a lot of options now! I want to start learning the layout and flow for Seti Astro Suite Pro, since that's a free alternative that's more powerful than most of the other options. Russell Croman's scripts definitely help a lot in speeding up certain tasks. In regards to workflow, I have a very flexible skeleton of steps that I work around, but every image is unique and I often find that each image requires different steps to draw out the best in them.
4) What is one thing you wish you had known when you first started astrophotography?
Community! I shared it briefly earlier, but I started this on my own. In addition to having to struggle through problems on my own, I didn't really have anyone to celebrate my wins with. That can be incredibly discouraging at times, so having other people to help and cheer you on is so helpful.
5) What is something you’re currently trying to improve in your own astrophotography?
Something I've really come to enjoy is deep integration (total exposure time) astrophotography. I want to see the really faint stuff that you have to spend dozens or hundreds of hours to draw out. I've got several images that each have over 200 hours that I'm working through capturing or processing, and I can't wait to see how they turn out!
Astrophotography Work by Justin
Want to follow Justin and see his all of his beautiful pictures? You can check out his Astrobin page!
And before we finish, I wanted to ask our winner two extra questions:
Q: Justin, what's your favorite target?
A: M81 and M82.
Q: And what is the biggest lesson you have learned so far?
A: Don't rush! I've made many mistakes (both physical and in processing) by being in too much of a hurry. Take your time, think through what you're doing, and you'll find that you accomplish what you wanted to do much quicker than if you were rushing.
Final Thoughts
Congratulations, Justin, on becoming the first Community Champion of the year! 🎉
Your profile is now permanently featured in the Hall of Fame.
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The Galactic Course includes thousands of lessons that cover all aspects of astrophotography. Step into an ever-growing realm of knowledge and learn at your own pace. Make life-long friends and connections with other members, and get tips from instructors that truly care about your journey and progress under the night sky.
Clear Skies,
Galactic Hunter
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