Hi, I'm Erik, a backyard stargazer and amateur astrophotographer based just outside St. Louis, Missouri, who dabbles in science communication and the occasional big picture, existential musing.

I share my work across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube as Erik Astro, aiming to bring the universe a little closer, so people can look at it from the comfort of their couch. A recent video about Supernova 2026aaiv helped push my combined following past 15,000. I pair my images with science, scale comparisons, and light-travel-time framing to make the night sky feel more digestible.

As a kid, I'd turn off the cartoons for space documentaries and talk my parents' ears off about the universe. That love for the cosmos never really left, and it was reignited about two years ago when my wife brought home a $15 telescope from Goodwill. Casual stargazing turned into a deep dive into astrophotography, cosmology, astronomy, philosophy, and the evolution of our universe, with some astrophysics and Einstein books along the way. Communicators like Carl Sagan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Brian Cox helped shape how I think about sharing it with others.

I love showing people the night sky, the moon, the planets, and I won't stop talking about it until someone makes me. My oldest daughter joins me outside to sprinkle in that curiosity, and my youngest is obsessed with the moon, so everyone hears about it when she spots it. Hearing my kids ask the big questions, and showing that this hobby is accessible to anyone, is a big part of why I do it.

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