I've been fascinated by space since I was pretty young. But the day I realized that most beautiful images of space could be captured by someone in their backyard, it blew my mind. On a cold night in March of last year, I decided that I would try to take a photo of space. After watching several Youtube videos about camera settings, I set my dad's camera on a tripod in our yard and pointed it up at the sky. After a half-hour of taking photos, I noticed a small blurry splotch in my frame. This got me excited. Later, as I was taking down the camera and tripod I thought to myself, "Could that be a nebula?". The next day after reviewing the photos on my computer I noticed three bright stars in the same frame as the blurry splotch. After some research, I found that what I had captured was The Orion Nebula in the constellation Orion. I had never known that something such as a nebula more than a thousand light-years from Earth was possible to photograph! Since then I have continued to hone my Astrophotography skills, practicing on most clear nights that we have. I wanted to give a big thank you to the AstroBackyard YouTube channel where I learned most of everything I now know. It has been an incredible resource for both information and fueling my interest in this hobby. Check out the channel here: https://www.youtube.com/c/AstroBackyard Attached to this post I've included some of my favorite photos from last year and this winter. All of which I captured using a sky tracker, which is a mount that enables the camera to take longer exposures for more detailed images. Yesterday I captured the Orion Nebula for a second time. In the first photo, you can see that the stars have a cool glowing effect caused by passing clouds. This year I'm hoping to photograph some new targets and continue to get better at this amazing hobby!