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The Nerdiest Beardo
About Me
Hello my name is Moe Yassine, by day I am a professional nerd (translated software engineer) and by night I am an amateur astrophotographer catching photon’s in my back yard in the great state of California.
I first got involved in this hobby back in 2015 in Michigan but did not really start taking it seriously until 2018. Unfortunately for those three years my amazing Celestron EdgeHD 1100 sat mostly unused.
My favorite objects to image are nebulae of all types. And as much as I enjoy capturing images and nerding out over telescope equipment, I do very much enjoy the entire process of this hobby including spending time processing images.
How I got my name
Where did Nerdybeardo come from you ask? Well at one point in life I spent much of my free time studying cryptography and computer security. I was to attend a security conference, and I entered a cryptography competition. I subsequently won and got a free ticket to the conference. Being a computer security conference I thought it would be funny to put a pseudonym in the conference program. Thus Nerdybeardo was born and I have been using it ever since. It was always interesting to prove who I was when doing speaking engagements.
How I got into this crazy hobby
I have loved Astronomy since I was a child. In 4th grade for my birthday my dad bought me a shiny red Tasco telescope which I used to see the craters of the moon and look at the planets. And while other kids wanted to meet Michael Jordan, all I wanted in life was to go to space camp.
Years later I purchased Celestron 127SLT to teach my kids about astronomy and enjoy something together.
About a year after that I was watching a youtube video and thought I would try my hand at a deep space astro photo. I figured out that the Orion Nebula was in the night sky at the time and pointed my telescope to where I thought it was and snapped the image below.
After that I was hooked. I proceeded to sell my fishing boat and purchase my first telescope which was dedicated for Astrophotography. I purchased a Celestron EdgeHD 1100 which I still use to this day!
These days I mostly use a William Optics refractor telescope for most of my imaging. Although I am falling back in love with the EdgeHD 1100 which has produced some amazing images. See my equipment page for more details.
Why I’m doing this
I hope to learn and contribute back to Astronomy and the Astrophotography community by sharing my knowledge with others. My focus is on helping more people come to love the cosmos, and to gain an appreciation of the vastness of space.
“In the small smudges and imperfections amongst the dark night sky, there you will find the most amazing sights. The cosmos reminds us that you can always find something beautiful if you look hard enough for it.”
Nerdybeardo
