Archive for December 2011

Little room to manoeuvre

Posted by on December 3rd 2011 in Rambling on...

Allegedly it's no longer OK to suggest that a woman's place is in the kitchen.

Fair enough.

In a bizarre twist, however, in the building where I was helping out with some PAT Testing today it seems that the kitchen's place is in the Ladies:

 

 

This must be a one-off, I thought. Down to the constraints of the arrangement of the building, or because of the whims of the planners, or something like that.

But by strange coincidence, the same situation exists at the other end of the building.

Some might suggest that there's just a hint of gender-discrimination going on there.

But then again, all this is in a solicitors' office.

More W.C. than P.C., I'd say.

:mrgreen:

Observing Report 1st-2nd December 2011 (Two more clusters)

Posted by on December 3rd 2011 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics

Another night looking at pretty much the same as before. The seeing was better but still not brilliant. Visual observations of Jupiter, Mars, Andromeda Galaxy and several star-clusters. Tried to image M97 (Owl Nebula) but got the settings completely wrong and so ended up dumping the imaging data. Managed to do better with two other Messier objects as follows:

M38 (aka NGC1912), an open cluster in the constellation Auriga.
Subs: 18 light @ 300s, darks and bias frames, ISO400.
1000D on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.

M103 (aka NGC 581), an open cluster in the constellation Cassiopeia.
Subs: 19 light @ 300s, darks and bias frames, ISO800.
1000D with 2x PowerMate on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.

Observing Report 22nd-23rd November 2011 (A couple of clusters)

Posted by on December 1st 2011 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics

This was the first proper night using the warm-room. The excuse was that I was testing the data-cabling and control-wiring systems. It was a nice clear night that started cold and reached minus 3 before dawn. The seeing was awful! Visual observations of Jupiter, Mars, Orion Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy and several star-clusters. Pics of Messier objects as follows:

M36 (aka NGC1960), an open cluster in the constellation Auriga.
Subs: 16 light @ 300s, darks and bias frames, ISO400.
1000D on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.

M67 (aka NGC 2682, King Cobra), an open cluster in the constellation Cancer.
Subs: 13 light @ 300s, darks and bias frames, ISO400.
1000D on the 6" R-C, guided with PHD.