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Adam Block was born in 1973, one month after Apollo 17 made the last manned landing on the moon. Adam's interest in things astronomical began early in his life. As he was growing up in New England, his Grandfather would take him for short walks after dinner and point out things in the night sky. According to his mother (he was too young to remember) he would say "goodnight" to the moon, even if it was not in the sky at the time. Adam's parents got him his first "real" telescope at the age of 9. It was a 4.5-inch Astroscan from Edmund Scientific. With this scope he saw the rings of Saturn, the Pleiades and the Orion Nebula. A couple of years later they again blessed him with a Celestron 8-inch SCT through which he did both visual observing as well as his first color film attempts at astrophotography.

After moving to Atlanta, Adam became inspired by his first experiences with a professional astronomer, Dr. Williamon, at Fernbank Science Center.

"He was the director of the observatory and ran the public evening programs there. And so, my first impression of an astronomer was that of a person sharing their knowledge and passion about something they enjoy. As I grew I cultivated my interest in science and astronomy by seeking special classes and opportunities. During my high school years I was fortunate to be a volunteer for the observatory's public nights under his auspices. As a senior, I took an independent class with him and once again respected his quiet, confident, and comforting teaching style."

In both elementary and high school Adam qualified for and participated in special programs that emphasized science. The volunteer work he did in his youth at Fernbank Science Center in Atlanta with a 0.9m telescope marked the beginnings of his work in public outreach. Later, as an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona, Adam offered public presentations at Flandrau Science Center's 16-inch Boller-Chivens telescope and ran the campus station 21-inch telescope. It was at the University of Arizona that Adam began CCD imaging using a modest SBIG ST-4 camera/autoguider. His first image of the ring nebula was little more than a grainy gray oval with a star in the middle, but he was forever captivated. A professor let Adam use the more "advanced" ST-6 camera and that was all it took. Before graduating from the University with degrees in Astronomy and Physics, Adam became President of the Astronomy Club, installed a 16-inch Newtonian telescope for the club in a dome on Tumamoc Hill, and received the astronomy department's undergraduate teaching award (despite the fact that he also "discovered" that it is possible to plug the ST-4 power supply into and ST-6 serial port, making toast of the electronics inside). To Adam's credit:
"This is the only camera I have ever harmed to date... 15 years so far."

After college Adam spent 9 years refining his imaging and image processing skills at Kitt Peak National Observatory as part of public outreach programs. While at Kitt Peak he made great strides taming an unruly 16-inch LX200 while using both an ST-7 (several incarnations) and later an ST-8E with an AO-7. His efforts were rewarded when Brad Ehrhorn (RC Optical Systems) agreed to make a 20-inch Ritchey-Chretien telescope available to the program. The idea was that Adam's high level of success with a system not optimized for imaging, would be greatly improved with an RC telescope. It was also about this time that he upgraded his camera to an ST-10E (and later ST-10XME). Needless to say, the following years permitted Adam to be one of the most prolific/productive astrophotographers on the scene. During this time he developed one of his greatest processing strengths- to create captivating color images with what in today's terms would be considered a paucity of data. A few highlights of Adam's accomplishments with his SBIG cameras include:

First person to put together a color animation showing the expansion of the Crab Nebula. (to the best of his knowledge)
First person to image McNeil's Nebula in color (to his knowledge).
Had planetary images of Mars (opposition) broadcasted on the Today Show (as well as Hale Bopp images)
Observed the Deep Impact Mission - the sheer number of requests for the images he was generating crashed the National Observatory's webservers!
Discovered many asteroids and named one of them after the astronomer, Dr. Richard Williamon, who inspired Adam at Fernbank Science Center. Dr. Williamon was greatly surprised when honored in 2005 with the asteroid now called 45298 Williamon (2000 AE42).
A well defined light curve for the Gamma Ray Burst of March 30th, 2008. These observations received attention in the press.

"Sharing my passion for astronomy comes in the form of public speaking and the creation of images of the Universe. I am now continuing my efforts through new public programs at the University of Arizona and Steward Observatory. Under the auspices of the College of Science, the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter accommodates the public in many ways - including observing programs I administer. Currently the equipment I am using includes a 24-inch RC Optical Systems telescope with an STL-11000M camera equipped with AO-L. Although there are only a handful of examples (as I write this), I feel that the images I am now generating are some of the best I have ever produced."

Adam is now the Program Coordinator for SkyNights experiences at the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter. In addition, Adam is also the manager of Timothy Ferris' Seeing in the Dark" internet telescope. He takes pictures of deep sky objects for students using a C-11 and an STL-1001E camera.

"My philosophy of imaging is to try to highlight an aspect of an object that is either intriguing or new. Each image tells a story and offers an experience for the viewer. However, even storytellers have rules; they generally speak in coherent sentences with grammar, punctuation and literary devices. My rules for processing images are to globally enhance the image and selectively correct artifacts when necessary. In addition, I strive for a 'natural' appearance for the image. My philosophy is, if you can tell what I did to create the image, then I didn't do a very good job. This would disrupt the story and ruin the experience. 'Handled with Care' is the unspoken virtue."

Literally dozens of Adam's images have been published in various books such as: A Year in the Life of the Universe, Cosmic Butterflies, Beyond Earth, National Geographic, Encyclopedia of Amateur Astronomy, The Caldwell Objects, Night Wonders, and hundreds of his images have been published in magazines including Astronomy Magazine, Sky & Telescope, Coleum, Astronomie, Scientific American, Ciel&espace, and The Practical Astronomer. Adam has been an invited speaker at various conferences and seminars on imaging, including the Advanced Imaging Conference in San Jose, the East Coast Conference on Advanced Imaging, EPOCH 2007, North East Advanced Imaging Conference, Riverside Telescope Makers Convention, Astronomical League Convention, Imaging The Sky Conference, and more. NASA has selected Adam's images as Astrophoto of the Day 34 times, and Space.Com has selected over 20 of his images for their image of the day. Special editions such as Astronomy's "Atlas of the Stars" and Sky & Telescope's "Beautiful Universe" and 10 book covers also use Adam's images. Many of these images were taken during Adam's time administering the Advanced Observing Program at the Visitor's Center at Kitt Peak. (To see many of the incredible images taken during this time please visit http://www.caelumobservatory.com/obs/bestofaop.shtml

"The DVD tutorials I produced after I left Kitt Peak were made possible by data I acquired using SBIG cameras and been distributed world-wide to astroimagers everywhere."

A few of his recent images are seen below. To see more of Adam's current work, please visit his web site at: http://www.caelumobservatory.com


Caelum Observatory's 24" RC with an SBIG STL-11000M camera, 8 position filter wheel and AO-L adaptive optics accessory