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Antonio Fernandez, M.D.

 About Me

I am a physician currently living with my wife, two children and our Labrador retriever in Las Rozas, Madrid where we relocated in 2002 after a three years living in the U.S.

I received medical training at the University Hospital (Clinica Universidad de Navarra) in Pamplona and earned a M.D. degree in 1983 from the University of Navarra School of Medicine. In 1987 I went to work for my current employer, a major pharmaceutical company, where most of my career, both in Europe and the U.S., has been devoted to R&D -developing new drugs for central nervous system disorders- and later to management.

My interest for astronomy, space exploration and radio -I am a licensed amateur radio operator, EA4LE and KC2HAX- dates back to my early childhood but the spark that definitely ignited my curiosity and passion for astronomy was watching Carl Sagan's Cosmos TV series during my late teenage years.

In the early nineties I learn of amateur astronomers doing deep sky imaging with a new breed of CCD digital cameras. As my previous attempts to image with film had been so disappointing, I started toying around with the idea of making one of these very sensitive digital cameras. The solution came with the publication of The CCD Camera Cookbook by Berry, Kanto and Munger. My home brew Cookbook camera saw its first light in the summer of 1998 and for the first time I had digitally imaged Jupiter and the four Galilean satellites. From there I went to successfully modify webcams for long exposure and later I had a lot of fun with the Canon digital SLR cameras. In 2005 I went back to cooled CCD imagers with a marvelous piece of equipment, a SBIG STL11000M camera. I have other cooled cameras but the STK 11K continues to be the workhorse at the observatory.

Living in the suburbs of a big city means light pollution. That's why I only do narrow-band emission-line imaging from my backyard observatory, for wide-band imaging I drive to La Hita observatory, a remote location shared with other fellow amateur astronomers.

Some of my deepsky photographs have been published in astronomy magazines like Ciel et Space, France, Le Stelle, Rivista di Cultura Astronomica, Italy, Astronomia, Spain and Espacio, Spain. My photographs are also featured in Robert Reeves book Introduction to Digital Astrophotography, Willmann-Bell Inc., 2005, and calendars as the 2010 Year in Space Calendar and the ASA Color of the Universe calendars (2009 and 2010). Three of my deep sky CCD Images have become NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) on 2007 July 16 , 2007 October 19 and 2008 October 18

I hope you enjoy the visit to this site. You are welcome to e-mail me at antonio(at)afernandez.net  (just replace '(at)' with @ ).

Clear skies!

antonio

Portfolio of Published Images


 

The Pelican Nebula

IC5067 in The Pelican Nebula

Colors of the Universe 2009, ASA 2009 Calendar

 

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The Rosette Nebula

Colors of the Universe 2009, ASA 2009 Calendar

 

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CTB1 in Cassiopeia

L'Image du Mois, Ciel et Space, December 2008

 

Sharpless 171 in Cepheus

Sharpless 171 in Cepheus

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2008 October 18

 

The Pacman Nebula

NGC218 The Pacman Nebula

Antonio Fernandez Chasseur de Ciel Unique, Ciel et Space, France, February 2008

The Trifid Nebula

M20 The Trifid Nebula

Antonio Fernandez Chasseur de Ciel Unique, Ciel et Space, France, February 2008

Rosette Nebula

The Rosette Nebula

Antonio Fernandez Chasseur de Ciel Unique, Ciel et Space, France, February 2008

IC1848 HII Region

IC1848 HII Region

September Page, Ciel et Space 2008 Calendar

The Crescent Nebula

NGC6888

July Page, Ciel et Space 2008 Calendar

The Great Orion Nebula

The Great Orion Nebula

I Encuentro de Astrofotógrafos. Publicaciones de la AAS. Nº1, December 2007

The Pelican Nebula

IC5067 in The Pelican Nebula

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2007 October 19

The Lagoon Nebula

The Lagoon Nebula in Gas, Dust and Stars

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day, 2007 July 16

Te Cone Nebula

The Cone Nebula Region

Fotografía con Gigantes, Espacio, Spain, August 2007

The North America and Pelican Nebulae

The North America and Pelican Nebulae

En el Foco, Astronomia, Spain, September 2006

The Galaxy Center

The Centre of the Galaxy

Le Stelle, Rivista di Cultura Astronomica, Italy, June 2004

The Milky Way

The Summer Milky Way

Robert Reeves, Introduction to Digital Astrophotography, Willmann-Bell Inc.,USA, 2005

The Leo Triplet of Galaxies

The Leo Triplet of Galaxies

Robert Reeves, Introduction to Digital Astrophotography, Willmann-Bell Inc.,USA, 2005

 

 



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All Contents copyright © 1983 - 2009 Antonio Fernández unless otherwise noted.

 

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