What have you been up to lately?

[Lady Fraktor]

The crazy half and I went for a hike to the village of Štôla after supper.
About 5 kms each way. We had a pint on the terrace and enjoyed the views of the valley and high tatras.

[DEnc]

I'm up to 192 species identifications in the iNaturalist app. Fifty one observations were logged around the house. The image is color coded for broad taxonomic groups, e.g., plants, vertebrates, etc.

[DEnc]

I have no photometry data so I thought I’d have a look at our hourly power use over the last 6 months, just to practice. The dominant period was 12 hours—nice! A secondary was 24 hours—probable harmonic? There are some tools to tease this apart in Grant Foster’s Analyzing Light Curves: A Practical Guide.

If we weren’t retired we might pick up the weekday/weekend difference too. I’m sure there’ll be some seasonal differences as more data are added.

BTW, the author’s tools are available at the AAVSO website as R scripts, or as a package in the VStar app.

[SkyHiker]

I got a repeater to connect with my tin can observatory. It allowed me to connect via WiFi but dang now the ethernet cable is no longer working. I like that cable for fast copying from the Pi4b to my laptop. Of course, I blamed the Pi first and started troubleshooting in Raspbian Linux. This took me a long time until I decided to check if my Galaxy could connect to the Pi with an ethernet to micro-USB. It worked! That means that the Pi is fine and that my laptop's ethernet is broken. The laptop is not even 13 years old, should I return it? I troubleshooted what I could but could not get it to show up under network adapters. In the device manager it was a hidden device and said that it was not connected to the laptop. Rebooting, updating, nothing worked. Eventually I started disassembling the laptop but gave up - maybe it's time to upgrade. Put everything back together, battery back in, boot... and my ethernet adapter shows up! I can connect to the Pi fine. Success for no reason whatsoever but I'll take it!

[Graeme1858]

The laptop is not even 13 years old, should I return it?

[DeanD]

The laptop is not even 13 years old, should I return it?

If it was a Mac it would be a "Vintage ++++++"...

[Star Dad]

I may be scarce in the next couple of weeks. FINALLY! Woo Hoo! The equipment for our new heat pump systems has arrived, and the contractor begins work on Monday. I hope the skies are cloudy for the next three weeks.... well they've been cloudy for the last month, so I guess I need not worry what with Canada going down in flames and all. But I have to get my "new" office (I took down a wall between two small bedrooms to make one larger room) ready before the inspectors come to look at the heat pump installation. Apparently, to get my refund, I have to get another Certificate Of Occupancy. Red Tape. <sigh> But getting RELIABLE heat will be very much appreciated. Hopefully no more frozen pipes just because it got down to 2 degrees Fahrenheit. Or the system just shutting because it didn't feel like igniting the gas. Cheers!

[OzEclipse]

CO2 Emission Accounting

@DEnc post https://theskysearchers.com/viewtopic.p ... 87#p247687 reminded me that I recently downloaded and analysed the past 2 years of power consumption data for my house between 9 July 2021 and 9July 2023. I also know how much gas and firewood I've used.

I wanted to see how I was faring against OECD benchmarks:-
OECD average 11.5 ton per capita per annum
Australian Population average 22.4 ton per capita per annum

When I take all energy forms into account, electricity, gas and wood. This is what I get:-

I export more electricity to the grid than I use.

Burning wood for heating bumps that up a bit but overall, living comfortably in my house results in average emissions of about 950kg of CO2 per annum
Important to note that this total does not include running my car which adds another 6.8 tons of CO2. My consumption this past two years has been boosted by a trip to Queensland Astrofest July 2022 and the eclipse trip to WA this year cumulatively adding 17000km out of the 28000km travelled in this period. Even so, this brings my total to 7.75 tons less than 3/4 of the OECD average and way below the 22.4 ton average of other Australians. WTH are they doing? Perhaps they're heating their backyards?

Joe

[Graeme1858]

I'm out capturing M71, M56 and NGC 6760 for Alan's Bi-Monthly Challenge and the outside light came on, I forgot to switch off the sensor. I thought, bloody cats! But it wasn't a cat that triggered the light, it was a hedgehog! So that's nice, haven't seen one for years.

Graeme

[OzEclipse]

Left work early on Friday to drive up to my dark sky property. Did a quick food shop, packed, hit the road. I had travelled 110km along the 160km journey when I realised I'd left the house keys back in Canberra. Road was a narrow winding section, so I had to drive another 5km before I could turn around. Got back to Canberra after 2+ hrs driving. Friday night was the only clear night so I gave up and stayed in Canberra for the weekend.

[DeanD]

Left work early on Friday to drive up to my dark sky property. Did a quick food shop, packed, hit the road. I had travelled 110km along the 160km journey when I realised I'd left the house keys back in Canberra. Road was a narrow winding section, so I had to drive another 5km before I could turn around. Got back to Canberra after 2+ hrs driving. Friday night was the only clear night so I gave up and stayed in Canberra for the weekend.

What a pain!
Sounds like a good argument for a nice hiding place for a spare key...
I think I would have been tempted to try my house-breaking skills.

Wishing you better luck for your next trip!

[OzEclipse]

Left work early on Friday to drive up to my dark sky property. Did a quick food shop, packed, hit the road. I had travelled 110km along the 160km journey when I realised I'd left the house keys back in Canberra. Road was a narrow winding section, so I had to drive another 5km before I could turn around. Got back to Canberra after 2+ hrs driving. Friday night was the only clear night so I gave up and stayed in Canberra for the weekend.

What a pain!
Sounds like a good argument for a nice hiding place for a spare key...
I think I would have been tempted to try my house-breaking skills.

Wishing you better luck for your next trip!

Hi Dean,
I can only get in by smashing a window. House is otherwise quite securely locked. And then, I would have had to leave the house unsecured. I only have one of each key at present.

I have already removed and repaired one deadlock lock and have trouble where I have to fiddle with a couple of others. When I am back living there in August after this job, I'm going to get the whole house re-locked by a locksmith. Then I'll have spare keys.

Joe

[SkyHiker]

With my wrist finally getting significantly better I am getting back in the game. Last night I decided to swap the Mak-Newt with OAG/filter wheel/ASI2600MM for the 12" GSO astrograph Newt with OAG/CC/ASI2600MC. This may not sound like a big deal but the more equipment you pile on the harder it is to swap the optics. I have a box full of adapters that come from who knows where. Today I am sitting down to figure out - and document - how to put it all together. It is a mess. One painful thing is that I had to use a huge plumbers wrench to loosen an adapter ring on my ASI2600MM. Why? Because my OAG only fits in 6 positions and its prism has to be placed precisely at one of the long ends of the sensor. So, when I put it together, I torqued it too much to make up the difference. Otherwise, I have to mess with shims made from sardine can lids. Hopefully today I can put an end to the madness and make a box for my adapters with documentation where they come from and what to use them for.

[GCoyote]

SHINGLE’S :::
I have been dealing with a bout of shingles!....I’m very curious, as to who else here has had to deal with that affliction and their experience’s dealing with it?

I hear that shingles can be excruciating. Thankfully the Shingrix vaccine is “spectacularly effective”. Perhaps once symptoms subside it’s “worth a shot”?

I’m buried in the author line of this first-in-humans test of one of the components of the vaccine, the adjuvant MPL. (I spearheaded the development and execution of the lab testing of the T cell responses in the trial.) Funny, from internal R&D I knew I was a high responder to MPL, and sure enough, decades later when I got the Shingrix vaccination, I felt the worst I’ve been in decades—flu-like symptoms for two days. But that’s what it takes to get the robust response to the vaccine antigen, and apparently it’s far milder than the symptoms of shingles.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12399193/

..

Interesting. Since nearly everyone in my family past the age of 60 has gotten shingles at some point I went ahead and got vaccinated a few years ago. About two months ago I developed a rash on my left side. Wasn't sure what it was, just a mild itch but it kept spreading so got checked out. Turned out to be a rare break-through case of shingles. They gave me the standard meds for for it but after a couple of days the symptoms negligible with the dermatologist said was normal in break-through cases.

Really glad I'd gotten vaccinated at that point.

[GCoyote]

What I've been up to mostly is gardening, heat and humidity permitting:

Front of the house -

The seating area of the patio -

The wildlife feeding area -

[pakarinen]

I've been sitting inside, trying to limit my exposure to wildfire smoke. Heavy rain last night, so maybe some of the schmutz has been washed away or moved on. We're right on the line between good and moderate air quality right now.

[Frankskywatcher]

UPDATE :: MAKUSER

I’m not sure how many of you may have noticed that Marshall a.k.a. MAKUSER has been conspicuous by his absence.
While going for a routine doctors visit he was immediately referred to the emergency room i.e. hospital for a few things that his doctor had noticed.
He asked me to let you all know that is why he has been absent and to please think of him while he is in hospital.
He hopes to be released mid week of next week and that he will keep me updated and I will do the same to the forum.
All The Best Frank

[Graeme1858]

Thanks for the Update Frank.

Let's hope he's feeling better and home soon.

Regards

Graeme

[Frankskywatcher]

Thanks for the Update Frank.

Let's hope he's feeling better and home soon.

Regards

Graeme

Thanks and I con cur.

[pakarinen]

Woke up at 0230, so I decided to take out the 102. It was 50-60% cloudy, but experience has taught me a sky like last night often clears by dawn, so although I could only see an area around Jupiter, I decided to stick it out. And bazinga! Clouds cleared and I had a good couple of hours of observing before dawn.

Also switched to a spiral-bound journal to take notes instead of using a voice recorder and transcribing them later. One advantage to old school paper is I can do quick sketches when I'm taking notes.