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Dan Monk Photography

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Dan Monk Photography

Astronomer and Astrophotographer working at Kielder Observatory under the dark skies of Northumberland

21/08/2026

The Road to The Galaxy, Northumberland.

I wasn’t expecting such clear skies last night, so I parked in a lay-by on my way home from Kielder, to get a quick fix of milkyway!

It’s not my cleanest image, but for an unplanned milkyway session with a very low camera battery, I quite like the spooky vibe from the green airglow.

14/08/2026

The Perseid Meteor Shower 2026, Northumberland.

Who managed to see some shooting stars over the last few nights?

The weather wasn’t ideal this year, but on the mornings of 11th and 13th August the sky opened up enough to capture a handful of meteors, which I’ve combined into one image.

By pointing the camera to the radiant point of the shower, you can see why it’s called the Perseids. They all seemingly travel away from the constellation Perseus from our viewpoint on the ground.

The most impressive meteor at the bottom and on slide three, produced a nice persistent train. The red stuff, is the ionisation of the atmosphere, energised by the speedy space rock as it falls through the sky.

There’s lots of other jewels for you to spot in there too! Let me know which ones you can name?

I sadly had to sacrifice my foreground ideas this year, because my chosen locations had cloudy weather, so I settled on focusing on the sky only.

Hope you like the result!

13/08/2026

When the physics of optics meets art, and a rare celestial event!

Thank you to everyone who took part in my lens flare challenge and captured the partial solar eclipse in your own unique way. A simple photography challenge has come together as a collective piece of artwork, and I love it!

Each image reveals the eclipse indirectly through the quirks and beauty of light and optics. What a fun way to document such a special event!

Please comment if you can spot your image!

12/08/2026

The Solar Eclipse over Newcastle!

This was captured just before it was at maximum eclipse, then the clouds came over!

We had over 2,000 people join us to watch it!

11/08/2026

A huge meteor over Northumberland! ☄️

I was out shooting two nights ago to try and catch some early Perseid meteors. Very early in the night I caught this massive one on two cameras. It isn’t a Perseid as its going the wrong way, but it looked class the naked eye.

The first image is unedited, other than cropped. The second I’ve edited to enhance the very strong airglow that was present that night. See if you can also spot The Andromeda and The Trinangulum Galaxy.

This is a post to remind everyone to look up over the next few nights! Let’s hope for clear skies and some amazing views of the meteor shower.

10/08/2026

A beautiful crescent Moon rising this morning! 🌘✨

What an exciting week for observing the universe! The Perseid meteor shower is building towards its peak, coinciding with a solar eclipse on 12 August.

I was making the most of the clear skies this morning, hoping to capture a few meteors as the shower continues to build. While the cameras clicked away, I looked up to watch the Moon rising above the horizon, and took this shot shortly after.

Its delicate, waning crescent was a reminder that we’re now just days away from the eclipse! The forecast is looking promising so far, let’s hope for clear skies!

08/08/2026

Starry skies at Dunstanburgh Castle, Northumberland

Last night I was out capturing timelapses for a local film project. It was a frustrating night because the forecast was wrong and it was mostly cloudy. There was a brief clear gap where I caught this single exposure of the plough over Lilburn Tower.

25/07/2026

Comet Castle ☄️

10P/Tempel is a short period comet that orbits the sun every 5.4 years. At time of capture (two nights ago) the comet was around 39 million miles from Earth. The comet is 6 miles in diameter but the reason we see it at such a huge distance is because of its large coma (the surrounding dust and gas). A comet coma can be thousands to millions of miles across!

This was a tough one because the comet is around magnitude 8.8, which is well out of the range of naked eye visibility, but a small telescope could resolve it no problem. The summer light nights and the comets low altitude didn’t help either! It took a lot of tracking, stacking and stretching to pick it up. Shot at 135mm.

I’m not totally pleased with the shot, and didn’t put that much time into it, but I’m posting it anyway! 🤣

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