Richard Xiong · Astrophotographer

The landscape is only half the photograph.

I’m Richard Xiong, a San Diego–based astrophotographer drawn to the moment the familiar world meets the night sky. After daylight fades, I follow the night across mountains, deserts, coastlines, and forests—seeking the quiet horizon where Earth and the cosmos become one.

This collection is a personal record of long nights under dark skies—planning around seasons and celestial events, traveling to remote locations, and waiting for brief alignments of weather, light, and place. Each photograph reflects both the experience of being there and the patience required to translate it into a finished image.

My work combines night-landscape photography, tracked astrophotography, panoramic capture, and careful post-processing. I approach every image with the same goal: to preserve the character of the land while revealing the structure, color, and scale of the sky above it.