Just a quick snapshot with the new lens:
Archive for 2009
Perseid party-pooper
According to the weather forecast on Monday, the night skies were to be fairly cloudy on Tuesday and mainly clear on Wednesday. Sadly, it didn't turn out that way. On Tuesday night there were plenty of clear spells during which I managed to sneak out for a quick look around, and there were plenty of Perseid meteors about. I wasn't set up for taking pics, as my camera was off-line due to a sensor-cleaning session. I figured that I could wait another day.
Last night's planned observing session turned out to be a waste of time, as we had fairly comprehensive cloud-coverage here all night. True, there were a few gaps through which the odd trail could be seen, and the clag was thin enough to see when a passing meteor was lighting up the tops of the clouds, but there was no point in setting up the camera.
According to the current forecast there's not much chance that I'll catch the tail-end of the show tonight.
Next year, maybe?
Deep and meaningful stuff
How many five year olds could you take in a fight? 17
What would you taste like to a cannibal? Broiled tofu
Would you eat your buddies in a blizzard? 59%
What are your chances of surviving a zombie apocalypse? 52%
Would you make a good human shield? 55%
Edited to add my results. Looks like I'm just an average bloke 
Back
We're back from a week of rain-dodging in Dorset. Aside from the usual few days of washing/drying kit and sorting hundreds of pics, there's a more pressing task - the final stage of the photo-hosting move from Zoto to SmugMug. This entails the thankless task of going through every blog post, page and comment here to find and edit all of the links to my pics and albums. There's a fair chance that the blog will have to be taken offline, and an even larger chance that I'll not get it finished by the August 8th deadline.
Of course, this all means that you get a week of respite before I start to bore you with my holiday snaps, so make merry while you can
Observing Report 20th-22nd July 2009 (Jupiter and Io)
Observing reports have been neglected a bit for a while now while I've being commissioning the observatory. This process has included:
- Getting the mount drift-aligned so that its axis of rotation is aligned as closely as possible with that of the Earth;
- Setting up the Shoestring EQDIR to control the mount via planetarium software on the laptop;
- Setting up the Logitech Cordless RumblePad 2 as a wireless hand-controller;
- PEC training - measuring the inherent periodic error of the mount gearing to allow the software to compensate for it.
Io emerging from behind Jupiter, with Europa a bit further out
I was pleased to have captured Io right on the limb of Jupiter, but I've made a right botch of the planetary processing, which isn't surprising bearing in mind the settings used for capture. Even so, it proved that the webcam is still up to scratch. Given the choice of reprocessing or shooting more video, I went for the latter. The next night I was set up in good time, ready and waiting to take advantage of any gaps in the clouds. There was a particularly clear half-hour during which I managed to shoot eight good two-minute .avis with more specific settings. After the usual software jiggery-pokery, I've managed to get the images from the best .avi stacked and processed reasonably well, certainly better than any that I've done before. Here are two versions of the best stack, the only difference is in the amount of sharpening. Feel free to let me know which one you prefer:
Jupiter and Io version 1 - average sharpening
Jupiter and Io version 2 - more sharpening
Next I've got a different challenge - getting the DSLRs set up on the mount for some widefield shots of the Perseid meteors, which are on show from July 17th to August 24th, with the peak on August 12th. The possibility of getting decent pics all depends on the weather, of course.Coniston Fells Wildcamping (again) – Part 4 – Beating the Odds
It was 04:30 when I was woken up by strange noises just outside the tent - something was trying to get in. I turned over slowly and peered through the mesh of the door-panel, expecting to see a hedgehog, or maybe a badger, but all I saw was a snout and tongue being pulled back from under the edge of the flysheet. The owner stayed put while I reached for the camera, and even while I unzipped the inner and fly, but as soon as I tried to get a shot, the thing (and another smaller version of it) was off like a shot. It was a couple of deer, I've no idea what sort, taking an unhealthy interest in the remains of the previous night's fish risotto.
I looked around. The rain was now a light drizzle, and it was windless again. The area around the tent was now a bit marshy and was dotted with the tracks of many deer. Mindful of the association between deer and ticks, I stayed out of the long grass and bracken as much as possible while visiting the cat-scrape.
A quick breakfast followed, and to loosen the legs I walked a circuit of the reservoir while supping a brew. The sky was telling me to get packed up and away, but I was going to get damp anyway so I took my time striking camp.
Eventually I was off again. Following the paths was easy, but a fair amount of bracken-dodging was necessary, there being quite a few ticks on the fronds just waiting to hitch a ride on my clothing.
Soon I was at the top of Holme Fell...
The top of Holme Fell
from where there was a fine view of the place where I'd camped:
The quarry reservoirs from Holme Fell
I spent some time wandering about on the top, taking a few pics when the drizzle slackened off (which wasn't often). Considering the small stature of the fell, the views are quite extensive:
Towards Windermere and Latterbarrow
Ivy Crag
Low Tilberthwaite
Coniston Water
Sunlight from the east, rain from the west and wind from the south all conspired to create this colourful scene:
Interesting weather
Then it was time to go. With the weather alternating between sunny spells and heavy showers, I skirted the north side of Ivy Crag to join the path down though the Usk Gap...
Trees in the Usk Gap
which opened out above Harry Guards Wood to allow a fine view of Yew Tree Tarn:
Yew Tree Tarn
The junction of the path with the road near Glen Mary Bridge marked the start of a fair old road-walk back into the car, and it was going to be a grind in the now-constant rain. A few folk were driving away from Coniston, but nothing was going the other way, so the chances of a hitch were small.
As I rounded the corner at Nether End the last vehicle to go by, a white van, came back and pulled over - it was Steve. If he'd been five minutes earlier I'd have still been on the hill, and five minutes later I'd have donned waterproofs (for the first time in about five years) and he wouldn't have recognised me. It was pure chance that we were both on the same stretch of road during that ten-minute window - what were the odds of that happening? He was on his way home after having spent a wild, wet and windy night pitched at Goatfoot Crags. Needing no second invitation, I slung the gear into the back and accepted his offer of a lift back to my car. Cheers, Steve!
After retrieving my gear, we said our goodbyes all over again and he went off to the shops of Ambleside.
It goes without saying that the rain had stopped and the sun was nice and bright by the time I'd changed, packed and started the car.
I felt good, so good that driving home while dodging the suicidal feckwits on the M6 has never been so much fun.
Right, that's the end of the write-up. The may be a post-trip kit and route analysis sometime, but don't hold your breath.
