Archive for 2012

P&G: Proud to be sexist?

Posted by on August 4th 2012 in A bit of a rant
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About a week ago I watched Jacques Rogge make his speech at the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. In that speech he said:

"For the first time in Olympic history all the participating teams will have female athletes. This is a major boost for gender equality."

Sadly, that spirit of gender equality doesn't seem to extend to all of the official sponsors. One of them disregards Dads, and even seems proud of having done so:

 

Still, it's not as if this sort of officially-approved sexism is rife in our land of equality, is it?

My legs are grey, my ears are gnarled, my eyes are old and bent.

Posted by on August 3rd 2012 in Astrostuff, Health, or lack thereof, In the garden, On the box, Video (YouTube, Vimeo etc.), Weather
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Apologies for the lack of regular posts. I fear that I'm becoming a virtual hiker...

 

Outdoorsy stuff

For me it's all on hold after the latest consultation. The expert reckons that I might have to wait another six months for my insides to heal fully, only then will they consider a further procedure to remove the tags and piles that were caused by the original op. Any exertion aggravates said tags, leading to inflammation, infection and blockage, this means that I only get limited exercise which in turn has led to significant muscle-loss and a reduction of core body strength. I'm now so unfit that wielding the vacuum-cleaner for only 10 minutes on Wednesday resulted in me straining my back and now I'm confined to quarters and popping the Ibuprofens. Looks like our week in Skye later this month will be a sightseeing tour rather than an opportunity to assault some classic ridges and peaks.

 

Olympics

Well, I have plenty of time to watch the events on the box as I'm pretty much a captive audience. Anna's down The Smoke right now on a school-trip, she was in the basketball arena this evening watching Team GB v France and Team USA v The Czech Republic, where the Beeb's camera caught her and her friends doing their bit of a magnificent Mexican Wave. After overnighting at Eton College she'll be spending the morning in Greenwich Park watching the equestrian events.

 

Astronomy

I have plenty of time for this too, but the weather's been naff at night. On the odd occasions when it's been cloudless the jetstream has been playing havoc with the seeing - the last time I imaged the Moon it looked like someone was pouring water over it:

 

 

 

Hailstorm damage

The Loss Adjuster's been around and we have agreed terms. We've already been paid out for damage to the outbuildings, primarily because I'd done the pricing-up myself, but we're still waiting for builders to provide quotes for the repairs to the house roof and the windows. There's so much property damage around here that we're on a long waiting-list for repair-work, we're looking at mid- to late-September at the earliest.

 

Ah well, never mind, things could be worse.

Observing Report 26th July 2012 (Sunspots)

Posted by on July 27th 2012 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics
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Managed to get a few sunspot shots during a short break from trimming the hedges yesterday.

I used a less-dense solar filter (ND 3.8 as opposed to the ND 5.0 that I've used before) which lets through more light allowing much shorter exposures in order to "freeze" the seeing. I also had a play with various magnifications - 1x (prime focus), 2x (Powermate) and 4x (Powermate + Barlow).

All 50/4000 stacked frames, DMK mono CCD camera on the C80ED-R, Baader Planetarium AstroSolar™ Safety Film (ND 3.8) with #58 Green and IR-cut filters.

There's a reference image at the end in case you're wondering what's where:

Active Regions 1528, 1529, 1530 & 1532 (26/07/2012).
1x (prime focus).

Active Regions 1529, 1530 & 1532 (26/07/2012).
2x (Powermate).

Active Region 1532 (26/07/2012).
4x (Powermate + Barlow).

Active Region 1530 (26/07/2012).
4x (Powermate + Barlow).

Active Region 1529 (26/07/2012).
4x (Powermate + Barlow).

Active Region 1528 (26/07/2012).
4x (Powermate + Barlow).

Active Region 1531 (26/07/2012).
4x (Powermate + Barlow).

Active Region 1526 (26/07/2012).
4x (Powermate + Barlow).

Reference image from SOHO.

The long and the short of it

Posted by on July 16th 2012 in Just for fun, Pics

Abbreviated catfood:

 

Face/Off

Posted by on July 15th 2012 in Health, or lack thereof, Just for fun, Pics
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Compare the Meerkats:

 A sad victim of last month's hailstorm

Observing Report 12th July 2012 (Sunspots)

Posted by on July 14th 2012 in Astrostuff, Observing Reports, Pics
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Thursday morning was surprisingly clear and sunny - an odd period sandwiched between countless hours of incessant rain. I managed about half an hour of solar observing before it all went claggy. The seeing wasn't that good but I managed to get fair views of Active Region 1520 and its satellites. Apologies now for the poor-quality images, I might have another bash at the stacking to see if I can get the noise levels down a bit without losing any detail:

Active Regions 1519 - 1521 (12/07/2012).
50/6000 stacked frames.
DMK mono CCD camera with 2x Powermate on the C80ED-R.
Baader Planetarium AstroSolar™ Safety Film (ND 5.0) with #58 Green and IR-cut filters.

The largest spots in AR1520 are even bigger than those in AR1504 which I imaged last month!
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