Let’s do this!

Welcome to PhotonRecon! I wanted to pick a name for my astrophotography endeavor, but most of the cool ones were already taken.

How did I come up with a name like “Photon Recon”?

Well, the process of taking photos of deep space objects is basically collecting photons. These light particles hit the camera sensor and it, in turn, builds up a charge. The more photons accumulated, the brighter the pixel. There’s more to it, but I’ve already gone too deep into the nerdy stuff.

Then there’s the act of finding the deep space objects. Reconnaissance – “a preliminary survey to gain information”, usually used in a military scenario. This can be done be researching online, reading books on astronomy, randomly looking around the sky, using an app to zoom into sections of space to see what targets might be available, etc.

The name actually corresponds to my life in a way. I am a nerd by profession, with a masters degree in engineering. I am also a fighter in that I have always been drawn to physical competition. Wrestling, Rugby, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu have taken up the majority of my free time outside of work.

So, PhotonRecon is kind of like the nerd meets Rambo. 🙂