Artist Bio
Thomas Ashcraft is an American astronomer, naturalist, scientific instrument-maker, and artist. He is known for his telescopic observations of transient luminous events (lightning sprites), meteoric fireballs, solar radio and optical phenomena, and Jupiter radio emissions.

He resides and maintains a laboratory and studio in north central New Mexico where he operates the Observatory of Heliotown. His images, audio, and video have been featured on NASA's APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day), The New York Times, WIRED, PBS and NPR.

In 1992, Ashcraft built the Radio Fireball Observatory for monitoring and recording fireballs, space dust, and meteoric phenomena. He has made numerous innovations in the merging of optical and radio telescope technology. In 2001, he began observing Jupiter, the sun and ionospheric phenomena with NASA's Radio Jove Project.

In 2009, Ashcraft began noting dynamic lightning-generated phenomena called transient luminous events (red sprites) on his radio-optical telescope systems. Over time he has established a multi-faceted observatory devoted to the capture and study of this rarely imaged phenomenon.

Art-wise, Ashcraft is primarily a sculptor, composer and installation artist incorporating space, time, mind, sound, and electricity. He is also a figurative sculptor exploring biological subjects such as bacteriophages, viruses, pond life, and medicinal plants. He was awarded a Louis Comfort Tiffany Prize in art in 2005.

For Currents 2026, Ashcraft shares access to his downtown Santa Fe bunker, lab and dream hole.