Ken Crawford Biography

Ken Crawford Home

Astrophotography by Ken Crawford

Since 8th grade Ken Crawford has been pointing telescopes toward the night sky. In 1978 he married his lovely wife and high school sweet heart and moved to the foothills of Northern California where he found dark skies. He built his Rancho Del Sol Observatory in 2002 and started taking images of the deep sky. In 2004 Ken was one of the principle founders of The Advanced Imaging Conference, Inc and served as President since 2007 - 2014. He is still involved as Chairman of the board and was the Hubble Award recepiant in 2015. In 2008, Ken was invited to sit on the NASA “Astronomy Picture of the Day" advisory committee to participate in the future planning and funding efforts of this amazing website. Ken was also the Chief Docent for the Cameron Park Rotary Community Observatory in Placerville, CA and is still involved as the equipment tech. Ken is also a coordinator of the local observing club called the Sierra Star Gazers that holds a monthly star party.

In 2008, Ken sold his floor covering business, allowing more time to pursue his imaging interests.

Ken Crawford’s images have been featured in numerous magazines, books, websites, movies, and public displays. To date, his images have been featured 40 times as the NASA “Astronomy Picture of the Day”. In 2008, Ken joined a professional, international research team headed by Dr. David Martinez-Delgado searching for galactic tidal streams which are the remnants of galaxy mergers. Ken’s images and contributions to this research resulted in being a coauthor on three Astronomical Journal publications. This Galactic Archaeology shows that real science can be done by amateurs with modest equipment, clear, dark skies and dedication.

Ken loves to demonstrate how amateurs achieve professional results combining art and technology by giving invited talks and workshops throughout the country.

You can see Ken Crawford’s images at his website www.imagingdeepsky.com

Ken’s other interests include building and flying his own UAVs doing remote aerial videography.

You can contact Ken Crawford at the Rancho Del Sol Observatory: