Starfront Observatories in Lockwood, Texas
for the the STARS SHOOT for Home-grown entrepreneur Dustin Gibson ventures deep in the heart of Texas to share his ‘Perspective of Wonder’ with us all by Frank Etheridge • photos by Dustin Gibson
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pproaching his 40th birthday in October, Smiths Station native Dustin Gibson admits he “started pretty late” on a career path to success in the burgeoning field of astrophotography. “I wasn’t the type of person to spend a lot of time outside when I was young,” Gibson says speaking by phone from remote, plains-swept Lockwood, Texas, where he and three friends established Starfront Observatories one year ago. “I liked tinkering with things but I never touched a telescope. Astronomy wasn’t a big part of the curriculum at Smiths Station High School.” A self-described ‘gym rat,’ Gibson says his whole life track had been geared toward fitness. “I wanted to work in gyms,” says the fascinating, friendly entrepreneur. “I wanted to work with professional athletes. 20
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Those were the things I started out doing.” Everything changed when he looked into a telescope for the first time at age 28. “It wasn’t even mine,” he jokes about the telescope during his captivating, 22-minute TEDx talk “How Looking Up Can Change Your Life” (available on YouTube) from 2023. Living in Nashville and working at a fitness center at the time, Gibson bought the telescope for his friend Jenny, an artist, who he hoped would be inspired to paint by looking at the stars. Jenny quickly grew bored and abandoned the telescope he set up in her backyard. Alone, Gibson peered through the lens, made a few adjustments, when—Eureka!—he literally and figuratively saw the light. “A small shift in the way you look at something can change the way you look at everything,” Gibson says of the moment.
Astrophotographer and entrepreneur, Dustin Gibson