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Hello!

My name is Masoud Safari. I am an amateur astronomer and astrophotographer, and I am getting my degree in Computer Science.

I was very curious and passionate about science as a kid. I became more interested in photography, astronomy, and computers later as I grew up. These led me to try and make the perfect combination of my interests, astrophotography.

The first time I aimed my camera at a celestial object was Venus transit in 2004. I was in high school at that time. I have pursued every opportunity to experiment with astrophotography ever since. There have been many ups and downs, some years, I did a lot of photography, and sometimes I got busy with work and study and had less time to take photos. But one thing was consistent: I experimented and increased my knowledge. I practiced with my data, program, and test image processing algorithms at all times.

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Venus Transit - June 8, 2004

Camera: Canon Powershot G5

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I did many experiments and programming to create algorithms from scratch or implemented known algorithms like star alignment, plate solving, deconvolution, and others to understand them better. Although most of them were not as good as professional software, they taught me a lot.

Maranjab desert - a trip to take images of reptiles. Here I decided to photograph some night sky landscapes.

Here is an example of a deconvolution algorithm that I made from scratch and worked on for several summers. It is still in progress and needs many modifications and optimization.

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Here is a brief list of my activities during these years:

  • Published several photos in astronomy and wildlife magazines, newspapers, and books

  • Taught astrophotography classes, a TWAN international workshop, and astronomy tours

  • Promoted astronomy on astronomy days and related events

  • Won first place in Marathon Messier in Iran

  • Guided astronomy tours

  • Traveled to observe many astronomy phenomena and did other amateur astronomy activities like making a telescope mirror

  • Held a fair of my works

  • Took photos for Iran's national observatory

  • Wrote articles on astronomy websites

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Semnan desert - this is the morning of a very cold astrophotography session on the longest night of the year.

After these experiences, I decided to establish the Telescopeia website to engage with the astrophotography community, share my knowledge, and produce valuable content. I hope you find my website helpful!

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