DayStar Filters was founded by Del Woods in 1973 in order to offer affordable narrow bandpass filters to the amateur and professional community. Del won the prestigious Clyde Tombaugh Award in 1993 for “Creative Innovation in Telescope Design” at the Riverside Telescope Makers Conference.
By 2006, Del was in declining health and so Vic and Jen Winter purchased the company from Del and moved it to Missouri. Vic was a lifelong amateur astronomer and retired newspaper photographer, and unfortunately passed away in 2007. Jen has a background in astronomy outreach, travel, photography, and print production.
Today Daystar is run by Jen Winter and Fred Bruenjes. Fred also has a long history in astronomy that started with observing Halley’s Comet in 1986. In 2012 he discovered Comet C/2012 C2 (Bruenjes).