It's always hard to pick just one image for the year but this image has to be the one just because of the fact that it got 3rd place on the Astronomy Photographer of the Year contest on the moon category. I took this photo early in 2016 (back in January 23rd) at the Pleasure Pier in Galveston, TX. It is actually an 8 image stitched panorama I took with the sigma 150-600mm at 600mm.

I have a hard time picking a single image to be my favorite for the year. I go back and forth between ones that might be better technically and ones that mean something to me. I ended up with this one because it puts a smile on my face knowing what fun was had on this trip. The lighting on the tent was just a product of sharing a tent with my wife and 3 cattle dogs. Our dogs love our backcountry trips and have turned into great travel companions, though they do tend to hog the sleeping bag.

Here is my favorite image of 2016. It was take in the Tombstone Park in the Yukon in September of this year. It was a tough image to get as a considerable amount of time was waited for all the elements to align. The Green glow is the aurora looking towards the southern sky. I had to wait until the early hours of the morning for both the aurora and the milky way to align. It was not a great night for the aurora but sometimes you get what you get. The temperature was about -10C but all you taught me about keeping a warm lens paid off that night. As the ice formed on the lake I had to clear it away to keep the reflection clean. After being up most of the night and beating the elements, I feel I cam away with a worthy if not unworldly image.

This is my favorite photo because of the view you have of the vast sky totally surrounding you! Because this is a historical homestead museum, you can experience what the earlier pioneers saw when they would star gaze!

I choose this photograph because I had a few things to deal with one was the moon was to the right of me and glaring out the milkyway the other was having cars going by and getting the red brake lights. After many different attempts I liked how I used the car lights to make the wood look on fire. This was after a week of travel after Brad's class in northern California inbetween the north and south part of the Redwoods.

An amazing night with Brad at Mono Lake

Beauty and beast at Crater Lake - While visiting Crater Lake a forest fire started and grew to 500 acres being burned. We had a great opportunity to photograph the fires.

While experimenting with the Nikon 10mm OP Fisheye, a Perseid meteor fell through the comp right in the Milky Way. I love shooting old glass, this was a real treasure to find. The edges of the orthographic projection are not as soft as in other Nikkor fisheyes...

From Hunting Island State Park in southeastern South Carolina, I shot this during the first week of April. I had been to Hunting Island once previously a few years ago, but hadn't been back despite it being only about an hour away and having possibly the darkest skies in the southeast.

Time-lapse composite of a saguaro at KOFA NWR was shot with a Canon 5D Mark III and Rokinon 24mm Tilt-shift lens on Feb 6, 2016. This image represents one of my best efforts with the very difficult T-S lens. Not only does it represent a technical challenge, but it also represents my home state Arizona with the mighty Saguaro.