Well, by the looks if it, out of all the readers of this blog, only two have grabbed themselves free gravatars.
"Bad form", says I.
Archive for October 2007
Who would be a paper-boy these days?
The dull rumble of the trolley on the pavement...
The sound of footsteps on the garden path...
The familiar squeak as the letterbox opens...
The sharp clang as it springs back to the closed position...
The heavy thud as the local weekly free-paper hits the floor.
Thud? Free-paper? Surely not.
Yep, this one:
But it only weighs in at 75g.
The reason for the thud?
All of this crap that's stuffed inside it:
Small wonder the folks that deliver this lot to each house have shoulders like tallboys and knuckles that drag on the ground. This lot weighs in at 922g, that's 2lb 1/4oz in old money.
Predictably, all of the associated crap went directly into the recycling bin.
What a waste of effort.
Oh, and the main feature on the front page of the free-paper? It's all about the local council's recycling scheme.
😕
Show yourself
Yup, another site update... will it ever end?
Gravatars. Globally recognized avatars. Little pics, associated with your email address, that show by your name when you make a comment on a blog. I set up mine FOC via the Gravatar website. Of course, they would be no use on this blog if it wasn't gravatar-enabled, so I've installed the WP Gravatar plugin from the same site and it's all sorted.
Just a couple of points here... firstly, you don't need a blog or site to have a gravatar, so you've no excuse for not getting one... secondly, gravatars aren't only for WP blogs, they can be used at many other places, so why not enable your site now?
Seasonal variations
I know that Duncan got an early sighting of essential wares for the festive season, but did I miss something? Has Christmas been re-scheduled this year?
Spending the night with Orion
After some neat negotiating with Chris, I was allowed out to play with the camera on Saturday night/Sunday morning. As previously stated, it was my intent to get some pics of the Orionid meteors and to test some kit while I was at it.
I drove for some miles to find a quiet spot a good distance from sources of urban light pollution, and at about 11:00p.m. started to set up the camera on the new Velbon tripod. The sky was clear and the stars were beginning to appear brighter as the Moon disappeared over the western horizon. Already there were meteors showing - mostly faint and fast, but there were a couple of slower bright fireballs while I was setting up.
Ten minutes later and we were in business - camera acclimatised to the cold and set up to take RAWs on the "bulb" setting, triggered with the remote unit... me wrapped in winter-walking clothes and sat on a low chair... owls, foxes and farm dogs making a racket in the distance all around. I sat alone in the dark and watched the skies, clicking the remote and savouring the solitude.
I had rattled off about 50 shots when conditions changed. The temperature dropped from +6C to +1C in 20 minutes and everything became covered in condensation, as a knee-high mist formed all around. For the next couple of hours I was engaged in a losing battle to keep the camera lens clear and keep myself warm. Sitting in the low chair was a no-no, as the layer of mist was just too cold. The sky was getting clearer, but the images were getting worse.
At 3:00a.m. I gave up and headed home to dry out the kit and to warm up in front of the fire.
On Sunday afternoon I got around to having a look at the pics and wasn't surprised to find that a large number of them were unusable due to problems with lens condensation. I had managed to nab a couple of faint meteor trails on half-decent exposures, but the best trails were on bad pics which I've now binned. I managed to salvage about 25 images, of which three aren't too bad.
Apart from the problems caused by the conditions, all of the kit worked well. The remote unit never missed a beat, and the home-made remote-signal reflector worked a treat. The new tripod was a pleasure to use and a doddle to carry, being so small and light. The angled viewfinder saved me having to bend and twist into all sorts of unnatural poses, so that was another plus.
So, all in all it wasn't a complete disaster. Not many usable pics, but fun night out and a fair test of kit in adverse conditions.
Mars rises above the glow of Leicester, with a faint meteor trail above.
The view eastwards:
The Pleiades above Taurus, with Orion not yet fully risen above the trees.
Meteor Watch – Orionids weekend
Don't forget to watch the skies for the next few nights - this weekend is the peak of the Orionid meteor shower. I saw a few of these meteors last night, they were fast with long trails, but not particularly bright so catching them on camera might be a bit more tricky than catching the Perseids. Weather permitting, I'll give it a shot and see what the D50 can capture. It'll be a chance to try out the new gadgets (remote control, angled viewfinder and tripod) bought since the Perseid shower.
Here are a few choice links in case you want more info:
http://www.imo.net/calendar/2007
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_meteor_showers
