TheSkySearchers

Hello, I'm back again.

Did you miss me, hey, every single day
Did you hang my picture on your wall...
-Gary Glitter

Starting to amass seedlings and supplies for the gardening season. So far I have tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. When my wife gets back from her current business trip she will pick out the ornamentals and flowers.

GCoyote wrote: ↑Fri Apr 29, 2022 12:39 am Starting to amass seedlings and supplies for the gardening season. So far I have tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. When my wife gets back from her current business trip she will pick out the ornamentals and flowers.

We're still 2-3 weeks away from last frost, so it'll have to wait a bit although my wife is already chomping at the bit to get the planters planted. I did plant a new clematis for her. The experts at the garden center (yes, a real GC, not HoPo ) said it would be fine as long as we mulched it.

Checking news reports - a pedestrian just got creamed by a commuter train a few blocks away from me. Hope it's not one of my neighbors.

The last frost here was this morning, ant there will be frost tonight as well.
There are still good patches of snow on my yard.

I got some new Hoka's, the Tennine GTX hiking boots with the heels sticking far backward. They should be great for my Grand Canyon rim to rim hike in June. I'll try them out tomorrow on the Baron Ranch trail when it opens up for the first time since the fire. Expensive but they save my joints.

I also received an Arduino Portenta H7 Lite today that I want to try it for some work related experiments. Amazing how powerful these SBCs are. So much easier to use than when you make your own PCBs from scratch! I need one with a better ADC than my Teensy's, I hope it works out.

I was going to set up tonight but there is too much wind for my big Newt, I figure it's better for me to get up early for my hike instead.

Cleaning! I loaded three small scopes in the car for my next trip to Pennsylvania. Two go in the next yard sale. The third I'm going leave there for unexpected clear nights.

I guess this place is as good as any. <begin rant> Sooo, I set up last night. Got a good polar alignment - quickly. Got NINA running. One target only for the night a nebula - SH 2-73. NINA / Cartes-du-Sul (spelling?) doesn't have it in the database. Manually input the coordinates. Slew to target... NO STARS! Yep, that's what NINA says. OK, maybe it's in the trees- could be close. Go inside and come out 30 minutes later... go through the whole thing again. Try a known target NGC 6060. Still no stars - but the guiding scope clearly has stars... WTF? repeat this procedure - I don't know how many times. Begin to question sanity. Begin to question NINA. OK - why don't I see any stars in NINA and yet I do in the guiding software. mmmmm. Fire up good old trusty Nebulosity. Set up Stellarium - slew to target. Take a 2 minute image. Nothing - at - all! WTF? And yes, the cover is off the scope. And I had gotten the focus really close when I finished the polar alignment earlier. At this point, it's now 11PM - I've been at this for at least an hour. I'm ready to scream. I calm down and using a flashlight trace the wires and finally illuminate the main camera. OMG! The freakin' camera has slid down the focuser tube. 5 minutes later I was imaging. And you know what really burns me up about this? I had heard a "slam" earlier in the evening - not sure when but probably when I first slewed the scope. I checked the focuser then and had not noticed the camera slip - because the tube looked to be correct - I didn't check the camera in the tube. ARRRGGH! <end rant> I'm going to paint the extension tube on the camera so I can see it better... Black is too hard to see. :veryconfused:

I don't have a lot to complain about at the moment. I've been reading and reading and reading... did I mention reading? I seem to do little else besides work, eat and read... it could be worse... I'll save the details for the reading thread, but somehow I've found time to read voraciously this year. I've already finished 20 books since January. Apart from that, working and ordering food over the weekends. My nephew plays on a collegiate lacrosse team in Kentucky, which is not next door, so made a road trip to watch some games and see some Kentucky sites. I also bought a plush tardigrade because... why not? And I'm now reading some Sky Guides recommended in a thread I started in the Beginner's forum. I should probably subscribe to Astronomy magazine as well. I started building a high powered rocket kit last year, to hopefully fly on an H motor to get L1 certification, but the winter months intervened and I need to resume construction. I'm also trying to refresh my math with online courses. Strangely, I don't get out much into the world these days. It's not unusual for me to not leave the house for five or six days at a stretch. Quite a change from the old commuting era, which I would be fine with not resuming. One can do so much from home now. Though I feel a little isolated and planted, I nonetheless feel like I'm actually doing things.

I had a client cancellation this afternoon, so having a clear afternoon to myself I decided to go for a walk in the Forest with my camera.

The last time I sneaked (snook) out whilst Sophia was at work I didn't incur her wrath, so I am guessing I will be okay again this time

It was such a gloriously sunny and dry day that the Forest was calling my name.

I went to one of my favourite places - Blackwater in Brockenhurst. Blackwater is the generic name we locals call it, which gets its name from the Forestry Commission car park there. Actually, there are two inclosures side by side - Fletchers Thorns Inclosure and Fletchers Hill Inclosure, but its easier to call it Blackwater.

I will sub-title this visit REFLECTIONS. I absolutely love the reflections of trees and bushes in the streams that run through the Forest. The stream that flows here is called Fletchers Water. The tranquility here is so perfect, with the tweeting of the birds and the trickling sound of the stream as it meanders along its path.
Anyway, before I get too carried away with describing the landscape, I will show you a few of my photos instead. I took more but I will place them on my website at some point


Photographs never seem to do justice to the actual scenery. You just can't beat being there.

Here, no leaves on the trees yet.

Butterfly Maiden wrote: ↑Wed May 04, 2022 3:00 pm I had a client cancellation this afternoon, so having a clear afternoon to myself I decided to go for a walk in the Forest with my camera.

The last time I sneaked (snook) out whilst Sophia was at work I didn't incur her wrath, so I am guessing I will be okay again this time

It was such a gloriously sunny and dry day that the Forest was calling my name.

I went to one of my favourite places - Blackwater in Brockenhurst. Blackwater is the generic name we locals call it, which gets its name from the Forestry Commission car park there. Actually, there are two inclosures side by side - Fletchers Thorns Inclosure and Fletchers Hill Inclosure, but its easier to call it Blackwater.

I will sub-title this visit REFLECTIONS. I absolutely love the reflections of trees and bushes in the streams that run through the Forest. The stream that flows here is called Fletchers Water. The tranquility here is so perfect, with the tweeting of the birds and the trickling sound of the stream as it meanders along its path.
Anyway, before I get too carried away with describing the landscape, I will show you a few of my photos instead. I took more but I will place them on my website at some point














Photographs never seem to do justice to the actual scenery. You just can't beat being there.

Beautiful! So pretty and green. For us it is the other way around. Everything turns green during the winter and start to wither mid spring.

Butterfly Maiden wrote: ↑Wed May 04, 2022 3:00 pm I had a client cancellation this afternoon, so having a clear afternoon to myself I decided to go for a walk in the Forest with my camera.

The last time I sneaked (snook) out whilst Sophia was at work I didn't incur her wrath, so I am guessing I will be okay again this time

It was such a gloriously sunny and dry day that the Forest was calling my name.

I went to one of my favourite places - Blackwater in Brockenhurst. Blackwater is the generic name we locals call it, which gets its name from the Forestry Commission car park there. Actually, there are two inclosures side by side - Fletchers Thorns Inclosure and Fletchers Hill Inclosure, but its easier to call it Blackwater.

I will sub-title this visit REFLECTIONS. I absolutely love the reflections of trees and bushes in the streams that run through the Forest. The stream that flows here is called Fletchers Water. The tranquility here is so perfect, with the tweeting of the birds and the trickling sound of the stream as it meanders along its path.
Anyway, before I get too carried away with describing the landscape, I will show you a few of my photos instead. I took more but I will place them on my website at some point














Photographs never seem to do justice to the actual scenery. You just can't beat being there.

Just lovely! Very well composed! The 2nd and 3rd stimulated the urge to paint again. No worries though I’ll just take aspirin and have a nap. I’m sure to recover soon.

turboscrew wrote: ↑Wed May 04, 2022 9:06 pm Here, no leaves on the trees yet.

Here there’s still snow on the surrounding mountains and the early flowering trees are dropping petals.

Actually, the summer seems to be coming here too. The biggest pile of snow seems to be only about 1.2 meters high.

First round of vegetable planted!
Roma tomatoes
Sweet 100 tomatoes
Sun Sugar tomatoes
Anaheim Peppers
Sweet Cherry Peppers

Rattling around my office like a raw pea in a coffee can. Cloudy and cold. Again. Can't observe, can't go camping. My main route to work is under construction which requires a 15-minute detour. Boredom and frustration are horrible things.

And Netflix cancelled "Another Life", so once I exhaust episodes of "The Last Kingdom" I'm boofed.

pakarinen wrote: ↑Thu May 05, 2022 5:45 pm Rattling around my office like a raw pea in a coffee can. Cloudy and cold. Again. Can't observe, can't go camping. My main route to work is under construction which requires a 15-minute detour. Boredom and frustration are horrible things.

And Netflix cancelled "Another Life", so once I exhaust episodes of "The Last Kingdom" I'm boofed.

I was looking forward to more of "Another Life" ;( I've already exhausted "The Last Kingdom".

My electric oven burned out with lots of sparking fan fare.

I was able to find a replacement element in stock, should have by tomorrow.

We are pizza snobs, having our pies sent in from NJ.
Heating them takes 500F, so I guess that put a load on it.

Just fetched a packet of two books: The Cambridge Star Atlas and Interstellarium Deep Sky Atlas.
The Cambridge Star Atlas looks good, but the IDSA blew my mind.

Now that the sky was clear and moon was up, I tried to focus my cameras.
I seem to have failed storing the guide camera picture, but the main camera picture looks like this.
I think it's close. Exposure is a different matter, but this was just finding the extensions and spacers.