The Stars in Their Eyes received an initial grant of $100,000 from the Hobby Family Foundation for the purpose of attracting an additional $100,000 in matching contributions. We approached foundations and individuals, including those that have supported the observatory in the past. With the match secured, we began filming in August 2023. We’ve made 15 separate location filming trips since production started and are now editing full time.

To date, we ‘ve raised $388,000 of our total budget of $500,000, a modest figure for a 90-minute feature documentary, especially for so much location filming out in west Texas.  We’re hoping to raise the last $112,000 to cover post-production costs that include a year of editing, music composition, additional astrophotography, pickup filming, sound mixing, and more.