John O'Neal, NC Stargazer

John O'Neal, NC Stargazer

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About the NC Stargazer

John O'Neal, NC Stargazer has been an avid Amateur Astronomer and astrophotographer for over 45 years. In 2007 he built an observatory and began imaging the sun. In 2012 he, along with fellow solar imagers, the Shivaks founded a social media site for solar imagers which has grown to include over 24,000 members worldwide and offers up to the minute amateur and pro images of our closest star from around the globe. In 2020 John built his own home made long focal length refractor for imaging the sun.

John is a NASA Solar System Ambassador, member of and contributor to ALPO and the AAVSO. His images can be found on his numerous websites, on MASA, ASTROBIN, PHOTOGRAPHING SPACE.com, FLICKR and on the SOLARACTIVITY FB site. (See the LINKS Tab.)

He has also authored numerous tutorials on solar imaging and has given countless presentations to the general public and to amateur and pro astronomers over the years. Most recently he has presented at SOLARFEST 2016, 2018 and is scheduled for another presentation in 2020 in Missouri. He has also presented at BOBFEST 2017-2020 in NC, NEAIC 2017-2018 in NY and Tri-Star 2017 & 2019 in NC. His most recent solar star party contributions were at the Tri-Star event in NC, The Astronomy on the National Mall event in Washington DC which drew over 10,000 guests, and the Solar Star Party and Eclipse Presentation in Smiths Ferry, Idaho with over 4,000 participants..

On this site you'll find some highlights and day-to-day pictures and the interesting stories behind them.


Use the Menu Bar to the left to navigate around the site and don't forget to bookmark and check back often as pages are updated frequently. Here's a link for your browser:


https://stargazer.simdif.com/

John O'Neal, the Stargazer
John O'Neal, the Stargazer
John O'Neal, NC Stargazer @ Peach State Star Gaze, 2019
John O'Neal, NC Stargazer @ Peach State Star Gaze, 2019

Join Dorothy and I as we travel America and bring our love of Astronomy and all things Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math (STEAM) to enthusiasts young & old. 

We do public & private Star Parties, lectures and tutorials on numerous astronomy related topics and we contribute articles and images to astronomy related publications & magazines.
John & Dorothy O'Neal, NC Stargazers
John & Dorothy O'Neal, NC Stargazers

We have a range of telescopes to cover just about any astronomical need and a range of camera lenses & tripods to demonstrate wide field astrophotography and "Atmospheric" photography as well as narrow band filters for doing solar astrophotography.


We have DSLR and CCD/CMOS "machine" cameras to illustrate different image capture techniques and routines. Then we can demonstate how to capture image calibration frames, then apply them to your own astrophotos.