Sunlounger

Having started my working life in the Merchant Navy, I've had an interest in the stars most of my life, both as navigation tools and as a sight to wonder at during long ocean crossings while keeping watches in the early morning hours. Although GPS was starting to become popular before I left the sea, most of my ocean passage navigation was by sextant and chronometer, and understanding celestial coordinate systems was essential to get qualifications (ok, I've forgotten most of it!)

I finally managed to get myself a decent setup while living in Malta, and now I'm living in Cyprus where there's a bit less humidity to deal with so I'm looking forward to some reasonable imaging conditions

Some of my photos. The landscapes are mostly from around Snowdonia but I'm adding more areas as I get the chance to convert negatives to digital. I hope they bring back memories for those of you who are familiar with the areas and provide the encouragement for those who've said ‘I must visit there one of these days’. The astronomy photos are the start of what I hope will be a much larger collection

This is about the work of psychic photographer Billy Hope of Crewe. My grandparents formed a Psychic Research Society in Bradford in the 1920s and kept journals of their sittings. One of these journals records the sittings that took place with Billy Hope between the late 1920s and the early 30s and I've included excerpts in these pages

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a firm believer in spiritualism and had said he wanted to send back proof of life after death. Shortly after his death a sitting took place involving the Rev Charles Tweedale, where images of the recently deceased Conan Doyle were obtained. Details are included here

I started researching my family tree about 15 years ago and since then it's grown to nearly a thousand people. The main line, Healey, are from the Wakefield area as are the Stringers. Other lines are Jackson and Earnshaw from Doncaster, Thackrah from Rothwell (that's Albert on the left), Howitt from Leeds, Wike (Whike and Wyke also) from Barnsley and Allwright from Dudley

As expected, there aren't any statesmen, aristocrats (thank goodness) or famous writers amongst them; they're mostly manual workers — craftsmen, miners and farmers with (quite) a few publicans!