Originally from the island of St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Julio Encarnacion received his Bachelor of Science in Business at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Julio began his Astronomy journey in August of 2020. As Comet Neowise zipped through our inner solar system and before it speeds away into deep space, Julio was intrigued. Julio’s grandmother has always been that person to look at the weather or anything cool that’s happening in our atmosphere. Grandma Evarista told Julio that he should try to capture the comet with his camera before it’s too late.

So, Julio took his Canon 6d and Rokinon 14mm lens to the beach not too far from his house; a bortle 3.5-4 zone. Julio said he was amazed at what he saw, so he quickly invested in a William Optics Zenithstar 61 refractor with a focal length of 360mm. Later, he purchased his first equatorial goto mount, then a Schmidt Cassegrain telescope at 2300mm, next a stronger refractor at 900mm focal length and Maksutov-Cassegrain with a focal length of 2700mm from a Vietnam Veteran named Charlie Hooper.

The astronomy bug got to him and after a few months after moving to Florida in September of 2021 it got very serious. Julio’s got very selective with his telescopes, so he traded his Celestron 9.25 XLT for a EDGE HD 9.25 and purchased his first quadruplet Takahashi refractor.

Julio would like everyone to know that he will continue to travel deeper into space and expand his knowledge on post- processing his space object images. Stay Challenged my friends!