- (https://b-ark.ca/ksKKwg)
I’m riding in the 2025 Enbridge Tour Alberta for Cancer, raising money for the Alberta Cancer Foundation, and have so far raised $2,744, exceeding my $2,500 goal and surpassing my 2024 effort!
Help me by donating here
And remember, by donating you earn a chance to win a pair of hand knitted socks!
Astronomy Hacks
Tonight I decided to get my Red Green on and hack together a really crappy camera mount for my telescope! It’s made from various pieces of vacuum tubing (which happens to be 2” in diameter, the same diameter of the eyepiece holder on my scope), some hardboard, and much tape (unfortunately not the duct variety… yes, I am ashamed. I had to settle for electrical). The end result was this thing:
Yes, it’s as hackish as it looks. The idea is that it sorta fits over the eyepiece holder and has a separate sliding component which allows the mount to adjust for the camera lens position, differing eyepiece lengths, etc.
So, with it, I decided to take another crack at lunar photography. I captured the following image with my wide-field 25mm eyepiece (for about 60x magnification) (in this image, north is to the left):
I’ve sharpened the image to adjust for some atmospheric turbulence and poor focusing on my part. In addition, there appears to be some blurring toward the left edge of the image which is probably a result of the camera not being evenly positioned against the eyepiece.
After staring at a Lunar Map for quite a while, I managed to identify some of the more interesting features. Among them, toward the right edge of the image you can see the famous crater Tycho (it appears smaller than some of the others, but has a prominent central protrusion). This particular crater is the epicenter of a set of lunar rays which, while not incredibly prominent in this image, are visible.
Moon Shots
Well, I decided to try and do a little astrophotography with my el cheapo Casio digital camera and my binoculars (the moon being the selected target). I was inspired after an article in Sky and Telescope which discusses the astrophotography possibilities with regular, consumer-grade digital cameras, and so I figured I’d give it a whirl. The result was this:
This was done with my 7x50 binos, and the camera set for a 640x480 frame at nearly full digital zoom (I was quite surprised by the suggestion, in the article, of using the digital zoom feature of the camera… I had assumed this would result in poorer image quality. It appears I was wrong!) ‘course, I was going to attempt a higher-resolution image at the maximum zoom level (hoping to capture more crater detail), but, as you’d expect, clouds moved in and interrupted my view.
About the only problem I have with the image is the brightness. I tried to set the camera to the highest ISO setting (which also has the nice effect of reducing noise, due to the higher shutter speed), but apparently that wasn’t enough. I’ll have to toy around some other night and see if I can get better results.
I'm Done With You, Dr. Who!
Oh thank the lord, it’s done. The Dr. Who Scarf is done! And I even took a picture, just like I said I would:
It turned out pretty darn nice, if I do say so myself… a little wavy on the edges, but I blame the varying yarn weight. I swear, it ain’t my fault! It was all the yarn. Stupid yarn.
Anyway, now I’m on to my next project. I figured I’d make a dent in my largish sock yarn collection by making
a pair of socks! Toe-up socks, no less! You see, typically socks are made from the cuff down. Unforunately, this has two disadvantages: - You have to sew the toe closed. And for someone who sucks at Kitchener Stitch (like, say, me), this sucks.
- It’s not possible to try the sock on as you make it.
Making socks toe-up solves this problem. It’s also cool. Or so I tell myself. Anyway, here’s a picture of the current work-in-progress:
Amusingly enough, I have a sneaking suspicion it’s a bit big.
Procrastination...
Am I the only one that has a problem with severe procrastination? I can’t be… I just have no motivation. I blame the Intarweb. God damned thing. Giving a person like me daily access to the internet is like giving Heroine to someone who’s predisposed to addiction. The following is, I think, an accurate graph of my productivity following the popularization of the internet (hah! Finally I can use my gnuplot plugin):
@2**(10-x/1.5);width=320;height=240;ranges=[x=0:10];title=Motivation@
Personally, I think Del.icio.us and Gmail (not to mention Blogs) are the products of a twisted mind hell bent on taking down the western world by praying on the inherent laziness in our society.
The only solace I can take is the fact that, in the past, people just procrastinated in different ways. They talked on the phone, or congregated around the water cooler. They went for “coffee break”, or who knows what else. So, now, instead of getting up and socializing with our colleagues, we browse the web… yet another example of how the internet is both pulling us all together and pushing us apart (somehow, Asimov’s “Naked Sun” comes to mind).
