Other What currently makes your life awesome?

Snow today. Snow. Lovely snow.

Just not enough of it.

 

I will also allow it (not that it's within my power to deny you ), because I also will likely be ordering from you when you're fully up and running!

 

*waiting for the inevitable release of the next Crysis Giga-HD texture pack*

 

Nothing here in Nottingham as yet, although the forecasts were showing something heading this way. The problem is that the weather around the Midlands moves in a clockwise direction and as such most of it breaks on the Peak District before it gets to us. As such we don't get a lot of things like snow or storms, at least not as much as we "should" get based on location and stuff. Got down to -2 last night so definitely within the window for snow, just frost though

 

I love you guys! That's what's awesome!

 

3 days of nothing but sitting in the hobby room modelling with the phone on mute.

Bliss.

 

Thanks! Not sure how the logistics would work sadly, as it seems to be ME that does the driving on all the runs to Cardiff

 

Took some of our first Solar images this week with the new solar filter and the GCSE Astronomy and A-level Physicists really seemed to enjoy it!


Notice the sunspots, you can even see the Umbra (black) and Penumbra (dark grey) representing 'cooler' regions of the Sun. You might even notice some faculae (lighter orange) around the edge especially on the North-West limb of the Sun, these are 'warmer' regions of the Sun.

Next week is a trip to a remote(ish) part of the countryside where I'm taking 24 14/15 year old students up a hill, in the pitch black and in very cold but excellent viewing conditions. Hopefully more deep space imagery to follow!

P.S. Sorry for the large image but the detail is worth it .

 

Love it! What 'scope/imaging setup are you using?

 

One of these . Why a Stellina and not a traditional scope? Whilst traditional scopes are far more adaptable and configurable and are better for astrophotography, you're generally talking about an hour at best of setup time assuming out of all your separate parts everything 'just works' and that throughout the whole observation process you stay aligned / aren't misaligned, don't suffer from dew problems, your software plays ball and you don't accidentally tap a leg.

All of these attributes combined with just how fast this is at setting itself up (alignment, autofocusing) in <5mins, stacks exposures for you on the fly that let you see images being generated in real time and you're free to grab the TIFFs and RAWs yourself and edit/stack manually.
The students can connect to the telescope via their phones and tablets, 10 at a time to see their chosen target appear and whilst all this is happening, I can talk astronomy/cosmology/astrophysics to the students/parents/outreach and teach them about what they're seeing. It's a scope that still lets me be a Physics teacher whilst not just turning into a technician.

Yes, it's not cheap but, it's about giving opportunities that the majority of my students would never normally have in a working-class state school.

Link to a fantastic review by a highly experienced astrophotographer with excellent production values:


(Stellina now does 20 sec subs too)

 

In two words: oil painting. I've rediscovered my love for traditional art (by day I am a commercial artist) and I'm pretty sure that it's here to stay. The whole process of scouting a location and experiencing it first hand, gathering and tweaking reference material, and then the big push to paint a final image... it's all awesome. (These are all locations in Scotland by the way, most of them from images taken from the roadside.)

 

@LennyRhys I'm going to need your full name and address to secretly enter you into Landscape Artis of the Year

 

I mean... they're alright, I suppose.

I don't like to brag, but my painting skills are pretty awesome. I did the lounge last weekend and hardly got any on the skirting board or carpet.

 

Not getting it on the skirting board or carpet in the dining room, when you're in the lounge, doesn't count mate.

 

I said hardly any!

Although, I was talking about the dining room carpet.

 

Thank you for the kind words guys. It's been a rough ride this past few months and the painting has been a lifesaver for me.

 

Keep painting.

For therapy and because they're good.

 

Little things.

My Freeview was getting blocky and the HD channels would randomly cut out for parts of a second.

Really annoying. I had 100% strength and quality and turns out I'm only 6km from the tower

Ordered a TV attenuator to see if it'd help - turning it as far as it'd go down only dropped the signal to 95% but it's worked wonders.

Must have been far too strong.

Begone blocks, you shall not be missed.

#littlewin

 

Wow that looks like an epic bit of kit!
Just got a 8" Meade LX200r for my 40th birthday this year. Still getting to grips with it, and need to replace fix some bits as it was 2nd hand (and reduced 'casue of the duff bits), but loving it so far...
This shot of the moon was just done by eyeballing my phone (pixel 6 Pro) at the eye-piece...

EDIT: solely using manual coarse focus controls and manual pointing (as the electronics box, which along with the direction pointing controls the fine focus is one of the duff bits )

Cant wait to get it set up with the ol' DSLR...