Powys, Wales
Gary Palmer is a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and Assistant Director of the Equipment and Technical Section of the British Astronomical Association. Palmer also write reviews and articles for the Sky at Night magazine as well as reviewing products online.
Born in 1967, Gary Palmer has followed astronomy since childhood. About ten years ago he became more involved in astrophotography and the astronomical industry. He started working part time servicing and repairing telescopes and mounts for a dealer not far from where he was running another company. In his spare time Gary did what he could to increase his knowledge in astrophotography. Self-taught, the astronomical community started taking notice of Gary Palmer for his stunning astronomical images and for breaking down long-held standards of what was considered "technically correct" or "real" in the presentation of data collected in astrophotography, which have often been considered controversial.
Palmer enjoys product development and has worked in the background on lots of projects with manufactures and importers. Having deep experience, these product development projects have included new solar equipment and cameras for all types of astronomical imaging. Palmer's contributions has developed new equipment for solar imaging and new ways of imaging the Sun and ways has to speed up capture and image processing of deep sky objects, which is important, especially in the UK where clear skies are a rare occurrence.
Outreach
Perhaps best known for his images of the Sun, Palmer took part in organizing the 2001 Leith Hill Astronomy Festival where they wanted to display the Sun live- that was all it too to hook him on solar imaging. From that time, Gary Palmer has gone on take thousands of images of the Sun, some of which have been used in various publications around the world. He has held outreach events in many locations and lectures on a lot of different subjects about imaging and equipment. In addition, Gary has appeared on astronomy-related television shows to discuss and review astronomy equipment.
Over the years, Gary Palmer built a large following through social media by sharing his images, experience, and knowledge. In 2003 Gary Palmer moved to a dark sky site and does astronomy full time. He started a program running workshops and courses on imaging and equipment setup, to teach others how to understand the process to make imaging easy and to share what he has learned over the years. These workshops include one-on-one tutorials in person or more recently, live sessions online.
Activities and Events
