About THE ARTIST - ROBERT CHOZICK

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I have been an astrophotographer since 2009.  I started as a visual observer, but around 2009 I met a group of astronomers that were imaging.  Digital astronomy cameras were reasonably priced by this time and it wasn’t too expensive to start trying my hand at astrophotography.  I had a few really good mentors to help me in my journey (the hobby is almost impossible to learn without mentors).  I live in Plano and started to go out to dark sky sites west of the Dallas-Ft. Worth area.  I would camp out in my travel trailer for 3-4 days during the new Moon to image (you can only image when the Moon is not out).  Over time I wanted to image in private since the other people at parks did not respect white light rules.  Use of any white light will destroy an astrophotographer’s images.  I also wanted to make my setup easier by having permanently installed equipment.  I finally found a 45-acre tract in a dark sky area south of Paducah, TX, just below the Texas Panhandle, and built my own observatory, Paducah Skies Observatory.

I retired in the Summer of 2023.  I admired the artists that I saw at art festivals and wanted to try my hand at selling my astrophotography.  In the Fall of 2023, I went to my first art festival. 

In the last 16 years I have greatly increased my skills and level of equipment.  Astrophotography involves many different steps.  You have to take around 70-100 or more 3-10-minute images with a special camera through a telescope placed on an equatorial mount that tracks the movement of the earth.  You take these images over a period of 3-4 nights and sometimes over multiple months.  You then have to mathematically pre-process and stack the images with special software to be able to bring the image into Photoshop, where you have to use many different tools to bring out the real color, detail and contrast. It can take from 20 to 50 hours to complete the above steps. These images are correct astronomically but require these processes to see the results.  The colors and details are accurate.  All image acquisition and processing for each astrophoto is done by me. The only process not completed by me is having the metal prints printed by a photo lab.

I print on glossy aluminum because the medium really brings out the contrast and brightness with an almost 3D effect. I sell metal prints from 16x24 to 40x60, which are signed and numbered in editions of 250 for each picture. Each print comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.  I number each metal print by adding the number in each separate image file before sending to the photo lab. I sell photographs on photographic paper that I print myself in 12x18 to 15x30 sizes. 

My mother was an artist and, while I never could paint like she did, I realized I could produce true art with my astrophotos. My goal is to create deep space images in a 3D way that is artistic but maintains scientific accuracy. It takes many hours to create the 3D effect to allow the viewer to feel they are looking at the object from a spacecraft. I have been told my metal images bring strong emotions and even tears to some viewer's eyes. This emotional feeling is the ultimate compliment to me as an artist.