We've got these things growing in the garden. Who's clever enough to put a name to them?
As usual, there's no prize for correctly identifying them, you just get some kudos for being a smartarse 
Author Archive.
Wassat? #3
Fire in the sky
It was Luke's 26th birthday on Monday.
Seeing as we still don't know where he is, it wasn't feasible to send a card or a pressie.
Instead, we sent his birthday wishes by hot-air balloon:
* After the pageload is complete, click on any of the pics in this post to see bigger versions in the Shutter Reloaded lightbox-style image viewer. *
Up...
up...
and away!
(run yer mouse over the pic if you're struggling to find the balloon)
Happy Birthday, Luke!
Love from Mum, Stef, Ella and Anna.
It’s a stick-up!
The Argos Small 2 Person Teepee was also on offer at half-price (£24.44). I decreed that it would be a better alternative to the crappy beach-tents that we trash every year, so SWMBO gave the OK to grab one. Just like the Tiger Paws, it's a great little tent for the money. One pole stuck up the middle, 8 pegs (or 16 if you want it fully secure) and a detachable groundsheet make this quite a versatile bit of kit. There's plenty of privacy when closed, and excellent ventilation when open. I can see us getting a fair bit of use from this thing:
Just in case the item disappears from the website, here's a copy of the spec:
- 1 room.
- 2 doors and 2 windows. To be fussy, where Argos say "doors", they really mean "entrances".
- 1 top air vent.
- 2000mm hydrostatic head.
- Taped seams.
- Fire retardant.
- Tension adjusters.
- Size 150 x 270 x 270cm.
- Height at highest point 150cm.
- Packed size 16 x 16 x 60cm.
- Weight 3.7kg.
On the bandwagon
Like a lot of folk out there, I couldn't resist the temptation of nabbing an Argos Pro Action Hike Lite 1 Person Tent (formerly called the "Tiger Paws") while it was on offer at half-price (£24.44). I won't go into the pros and cons of this kit, as many others (including Duncan and Mac E) have already done that. What I will say is that it's a great little tent for the money. Judging by the black stripy stains on the flysheet, it seems that mine might be made out of real tiger-skin 😆
Just in case the item disappears from the website, here's a copy of the spec:
- 1 room.
- 1 side door.
- 1 air vent.
- Attached groundsheet.
- 2000mm hydrostatic head.
- Taped seams.
- Tension adjusters.
- Quick clips.
- Size of overall tent 300 x 120 x 105cm.
- Size of each room 110 x 290cm.
- Size of living space 110 x 290cm.
- Packed size 15 x 15 x 40cm.
- Weight 2.1kg.
Zoto’s finally gone to the knackers yard
Time was when Zoto was an excellent photo-hosting service, providing quick and easy access to many ways of viewing and organising uploaded pics. Sadly, it's been going downhill for some time now. Today it seems to have shuffled off the mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!! Hyperlinked pics still seem to be working (slowly), but I suspect that it's more of a reflex action than a sign of life.
Don't bother going to the "My pics and albums" page - it's a complete mess. I'll repair it when I've finished downloading the 1500+ pics, renaming them and uploading them to a safer place. Then there's the ball-aching job of going through nearly 500 blog posts updating all of the photo URLs. What joy!
Anyway, I've still not decided where to put the pics - Flickr's cheap and cheerful, SmugMug seems to be a better option, Zooomr is still a no-no even though I still have a pro account there (which they still haven't closed after all this time). Maybe I should take on the hassle myself and go down the self-hosting route? Hmm, decisions, decisions...
Observatory progress – Phase 7 – The last few bits
I've received a few emails from folk asking how much more needs doing to the astroshed, and indeed wondering why it doesn't fall to bits, go off the rails or just refuse to close due to misalignment. Hopefully the following pics and text will be sufficient to answer such probing questions:
In order to allow the scope to fit inside in the "parked" position, the roof sits a good three inches
above the shed walls to give sufficient clearance.The resulting gap has been covered with a couple of
rows of feather-edge timber, fixed to the roof. Regarding the other stuff in view, a neighbour kindly
donated some carpet and I dug around in the attic to find the 1960s coffee-table.
The plastic chair is just one of many that Chris wants me to take to the tip.
Another row of feather-edge timber creates an overlap twixt shed-walls and roof-frame on one of the long sides.
This setup is weatherproof but still allows good airflow to minimise condensation.
The wheels are cheap 40mm fixed castors, the channel is a strip of plastic conduit braced with some spare stripwood with chamfered ends.
The castor-wheels have sufficient sideplay to allow for a reasonable amount of flex/warp of the runner.
The leccy's all sorted out, with IP55 or better fittings throughout for anything mains-related,
and with power being supplied via an RCD-protected steel-armoured cable circuit...
... which means that the cheap Ikea low-voltage halogen lamps above the doors are now up and running.
Also visible above is the guide-wheel arrangement that ensures that the guide-rail fixed beneath the ridge of the roof
is always central when the roof is closed or in motion. The barrel-bolt serves an obvious purpose.
Here's a view of the guide-wheel arrangement at the other end of the shed.
The guide-rail is chamfered at the end to ensure that it always ends up between the wheels.
At the moment there isn't much wiring around the pier, but I'm sure that after a few weeks the thing will be festooned with all sorts of gadgetry.
I'm aiming to have just the one "in" cable (for power) and one "out" cable (for data (USB)).
The planned change to the window-wall has been completed - the windows have gone, to allow a better view to the south.
A "mock" panel has been fixed to the moving frame, the results are shown below:
This means that there's now no need to conform to the standard idea of having the upper section of the southern wall on a hinged flap.
As you can see, there's plenty of "gap" to look through.
I knocked up a small removable roof-panel (visible just behind the scope) which serves several purposes -
it's a draught-reducer, it provides shade from the night-lights at the old folks' home just up the way,
and it prevents the neighbours from peering over the fence to see what's going on.
So, it's about finished. The kettle and the beer-fridge will go in when I've put up shelves for them.
The only thing still needed is a small fire-extinguisher.
That, and some clear nights so that I can get on with some observing.
