2008-02-14

First flight

No, wait, 'twas supposed to be first light!

These new entries seem to be coming up with an alarming speed this year, the first quartile isn't over yet and already a second blog post. Anyhow, last night the weather was pretty clear and dark although a bit windy, so it was time to go out and see the world thru a new and inexpensive 102/1000mm refractor.


Mare Serenitatis
Mare Serenitatis



O'boy, and see I did. A bit of gazing in the gale force winds revealed a shaking disk that didn't diminish into a point, most likely Mars if I did my math and pointing correctly. I also got to see the Great Orion nebula in all the grayness of low light stargazing. And took a few shots of the moon thru the scope with a hand held camera, as my T2-rings haven't arrived yet.

With the shortest (10mm) ocular plus 2x Barlow the Moon was shaking in the wind, but the few moments of good seeing were astonishing, like hovering a few hundred km above a rolling lunar surface. No wonder people get so carried away with astronomy even as a hobby. I can hardly wait for a high pressure to park itself here and bring calm, clear and cold skies. Especially if the T2-ring would be here, so I could learn more about this thing called astrophotography. A few more skills are still on the to-learn list, such as learning the constellations and star hopping to find the dim deep sky objects with more than just random chance.

Other things that I have planned is to finally update the blog-engine from this ancient MT to something more recent, such as Wordpress or a newer version of MT. Main requirements are ease of use, easy integration with Gallery2 and possibility to update from cellphone with an MMS or e-mail.

2008-02-05

Pientä puutyötä

Edestätakaa

Kaikkea sitä ihminen tekeekin, kuten alustan printterille, kun kaupasta ei löytynyt sopivaa. Pintakäsittely puuttuu vielä ja hintaa on tullut varsin paljon:
- 18x400x800 pyökkilevy 10.45
- 4x parkettipyöriä a 2.75 = 11
- 16mm alumiiniputkea 2.60
- muttereita, lukkoruuveja, aluslevyjä 3.84
- ruuveja 8 kpl (evt hinta)
- Yhteensä noin 30€ plus reilu tunti puun ja alumiiniputken leikkaamista.

Tuohon kun vielä lisää jonkinlaisen pintakäsittelyn puulle, on tuon vekottimen paras kestää kunnossa ja kauan.