The Nugget Newspaper - News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon

Sisters Astronomy Club’s next meeting will feature astrophotographer Bill McLaughlin on Tuesday, February 21, at 7 p.m. The meeting will be “hybrid,” with the opportunity for attendees to meet at the Sisters Park & Recreation District’s Coffield Center, 1750 McKinney Butte Rd. or on Zoom: bit.ly/astrophotographer-bill.

McLaughlin has been an astrophotographer since the early 1990s, starting with strips of plastic stuff called “film.” He soon discovered that since he was lazy, film was too much work so he quickly moved to the then-new hobby of electronic astro-imaging. He is a co-founder and co-builder of three amateur observatories, but since that was also too much work, he now has only his backyard observatory as well as a spot in an amateur hosting observatory in California.

In the early 2000s, McLaughlin wrote several articles for Sky and Telescope and Astronomy magazines and has had numerous published astrophotos and a couple of magazine covers. He discovered that was also too much work, so these days he only takes photos for his own enjoyment and to use in the talks that he occasionally gives when he gets around to it.

McLaughlin will be talking about the history of astrophotography and how it has grown along with his interest in the subject, and how modern technology has enabled the rapid growth of the hobby. He will also show a number of his images.