Wednesday, 13 May 2026

GeekTeacher Astro Scrapbook Reboot

It's been such along time since posted anything here that I can't remember the last time I did.  Well I can actually because the date of my last post was 17 October 2024 on a day I went out to try and photograph th full moon rising behind Studley Pike - and that shoot was scuppered by clouds!  It's really hard keeping a blog up to date as my inspiration for it comes in spits and spurts and it's mainly to do with the weather. Until last week we've had so many rainy days and cloudy mights here in the UK over the last year that many people have packed in astrophotography and sold their gear. It's very understandable and I've also considered it several times myself because I seem to spend a lot of my days just waiting for a decent night to image. 

However, when I first got started in 2019 I set myself a target of producing a book of my best astrophotography images and, with almost a week of clear night skies recently, I've felt reinvigorated into fulfilling this project. I've even bought myself a new camera, laptop and some other bits and pieces to help me do it.  That's even more money I've sent down the astrophotography rabbit hole! 

I have been posting fairly regularly on my GeekTeacherAstro Facebook group (www.facebook.com/GeekTeacherAstro) but usually only my fall back target of the moon.  You can often get a moon photo in between short breaks in the clouds when deep sky imaging isn't possible. 

So, without further ado I'm going to post a couple of images from this week which I took with my new camera and then I'll get on with posting some 'back issues' so to speak. I'll also be updating my GeekTeacher Astro Flickr page when I can remember the password!

Thursday, 17 October 2024

Hunter's Moon over Tyldesley (17/10/24)


 

Hunter's Moon Over Stoodley Pike in West Yorkshire

Stoodley Pike is a 1,300-foot hill in the south Pennines in West Yorkshire in northern England. It is noted for the 121-foot Stoodley Pike Monument at its summit, which dominates the moors of the upper Calder Valley and the market town of Todmorden. 

The monument was designed in 1854 by local architect John Green, and completed in 1856 at the end of the Crimean War


Unfortunately this shoot didn't turn out as planned because when the supermoon was behind the Pike it was covered in cloud. What ya gonna do?

Saturday, 12 October 2024

A Return to Mooning

I went out comet-hunting last night but this was all I got due to heavy cloud in the west. 

The Waxing Gibbous Moon.


Acquisition Details 
  • Nikon D500 crop sensor camera with Nikon 500mm f/4 lens and 2x teleconverter 
  • Tripod with a gimbal head 
  • Single shot: 1/60s @ f/11 and ISO 100 
  • Processed in Adobe Photoshop Elements 2024 with Topaz AI DeNoise and Sharpen

Thursday, 10 October 2024

Aurora Borealis Over Rivington (10/10/24)

Here are some shots of the second major aurora event over the UK this year.  I went up to the West Lancashire moors to a spot on the road between Rivington and Belmont for these.











Wednesday, 9 October 2024

Well, well.  It's been over a year since I last posted anything here.  I've maintained my Facebook groups fairly well during this time but my Blogger and Flickr accounts have been sorely neglected, not that anyone is really bothered except me. 

Much of this has been to do with the prolonged poor nighttime weather and losing my mojo because of this.  But I'm also dealing with some difficult personal circumstances that are affecting me more than anybody realises. It's not that I haven't done anything at all in the last year], I just haven't got round to posting about about the few things I have done. 

Anyway, I'm hoping to restart this blog with astro photos soon and so for now I will be posting a small backlog of images that I have managed to take since when I last posted in July 2023.  I can't believe I didn't even upload any photos of the aurora borealis in May this year - it was quite something and I'll be posting them soon.

Monday, 3 July 2023