A Brief Introduction
Welcome! I’m an amateur astrophotographer chasing faint light at the edge of perception. I chose the pseudonym ‘Starman’ so that the focus stays centered on the work, and not weighed down by the gravity of a name.
Most of what you see here began its journey millions of years ago. My role is simply to wait, collect, and iterate long enough for the signal to emerge. From remote skies above the Andes to quiet hours behind the processing desk, this work is a practice in patience: gathering photons sub-by-sub, night-after-night, until structure reveals itself.
I’m drawn to places where gravity is actively sculpting the cosmos: colliding galaxies, tidal streams, star-forming regions braided with dust, and nebulae shaped by shock and radiation. Some targets arrive as whispers, others as thunder — but each carries a story written in gradients of light.
Most data is captured remotely under dark skies using professional-grade optics and large-format sensors, combining broadband (LRGB) and narrowband filters. Integrations often span dozens of hours to preserve faint detail while keeping the final image natural and faithful. Processing is done primarily in PixInsight, with finishing work in Photoshop. My approach balances restraint and reveal-strong signal extraction, careful color calibration, controlled contrast, and respect for star shape and background integrity — so the object remains the hero, not the processing.
Along the way, I build tools, refine workflows, and obsess over the details. The universe rewards that kind of attention in small, beautiful increments.
This site is where I share finished images, acquisition details, and occasional reflections on technique and craft. If an image here makes you pause, lean in, or wonder what you’re really looking at — good. That means the signal made it through.
Clear skies,
Anirudh Shastry aka ‘Starman’
Current Observatory
Much of my earlier work was captured from Sierra Remote Observatories in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. More recently, my systems have been relocated to Obstech (Observatorio El Sauce), high in the Andes, where the southern skies are rendered under pristine seeing conditions.
Primary Systems
I currently focus exclusively on long-focal-length imaging, with a preferred range between 3500 mm and 4000 mm, combined with large full-frame or medium-format monochrome sensors. These are the two systems I currently operate:
System 1:
PlaneWave CDK500 Observatory System
Moravian C5A-100M Camera
Chroma L, R, G, B, 3nm Ha, 3nm Oiii, 3nm Sii Filters
Primalucelab Eagle 6 XTM
System2:
PlaneWave CDK600 Observatory System
Moravian C5A-100M Camera
Chroma L, R, G, B, 5nm Ha, 3nm Oiii, 3nm Sii Filters
Primalucelab Eagle 5 XTM
On the Roadmap
Looking ahead, I’m increasingly drawn back to planetary imaging. My earliest experiences in astronomy were visual observations of the planets at a young age, along with some very modest lunar photography. Returning to that work — now with far more capable instruments and experience — feels less like a new direction and more like a homecoming.