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Do I send a post-dated cheque?
I got a letter from my insurance company yesterday stating that they had written to me before about an outstanding premium due on my account, and that if I don’t pay it off soon, then my cover will...
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The Queen’s New Website…
The Queen’s new website was released today – even Sir Tim Berners-Lee helped her out at the official launch. I think she could maybe do with a new calendar too… Their current one (see screenshot on...
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Testing, Fixing and Costs
For those of you who don’t know me, you almost certainly won’t know what I do. Of course, there are probably a load of people who do know me, who still don’t know what I do (and, no, “Nothing” is not...
View ArticleWhisky
Tonight I am running a whisky tasting at my cricket club. Looking forward to 5 large measures each of some unfiltered single cask – even the one that I have no idea what the tasting notes were… (OK –...
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RAID Rebuild
I just had to rebuild a RAID 1 array on my PC after having a Barracuda go potty on me. Mine is a Promise PDC20376 on an old MSI KT4 Ultra – hope you have a better controller), and some advice: 1. The...
View ArticleTwenty Ten
Welcome to 2010. This year’s upcoming stuff: Annular Eclipse over Africa, India and China on 15th Jan Total Eclipse over the Pacific on July 11th (and quite a long one too) Total Lunar Eclipse on Dec...
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A (Gate & Fence) Post for Future Reference
Apologies for an odd and boring post, but this is for future reference way down the line. Specifically, this picture was taken on 18th Nov 2012, two weeks after completing this fence and gate. (It’s in...
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Lunar Eclipse of March 3rd 2007
The lunar eclipse of the 3rd March 2007 brought clear skies and good conditions across much of the UK, with only some thin high cloud arriving in Oxfordshire towards the end of the eclipse. Maximum...
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NGC2244 – The Rosette Nebula
RA: 06h 33m 45s, Dec: +4°59’54″ The Rosette Nebula is a large H II region located in the constellation of Monoceros, just to the left of Orion. The nebula is a large star forming region with a cluster...
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NGC2264 – The Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster
RA: 06h 41m, Dec: +9°53′ The Cone Nebula and Christmas Tree Cluster are part of a larger star forming complex within the constellation of Monoceros. A 2.5 hour exposure in H-Alpha light taken 22nd...
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M42, M43, NGC 1977 – The Orion Nebula and Running Man
RA: 05h 35m 17s, Dec: -5°23’28″ The Orion Nebula (M42 (NGC 1976) & M43) is located in the “sword” of Orion and is a large emission nebula that is easily visible to the naked eye. It is an area of...
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Circumzenithal Arc
Saw this circumzenithal arc on Friday 15th from Abingdon. Looks much like an upside down rainbow above the sun (which needs to be lower than 33 degrees or so for this to occur) – it occurs due to...
View ArticleDebian Wheezy, Apache+FCGI+PHP; changes to /etc/mime.types and php5-cgi
Here’s a potentially useful note for anyone upgrading to Debian Wheezy on a system that uses Apache2 + FCGI + PHP. If you’ve configured it to run using one of several guides (like these:...
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Refurbishing the Newtonian
“Newt” Raytrace for SPX350 I’ve been working recently towards finally completing the observatory dome in my back garden (that I bought almost 4 years ago now…) – with flooring done and power connected,...
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Orion Optics SPX – 6 Point Mirror Cell Mod
I’ve recently completed the first stage of modifying the mirror cell to convert it to use 6 point supports instead of 3 points. By modelling deformations of the 350mm mirror in PLOP, I get the...
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C/2014 Q2 (Lovejoy) – 8th Feb 2015
Field centred at: RA 02:00:07, Dec +45:10:35. Field size: 51.4 x 38.9arcmin; Field rotation: up is 179.9° E of N (plate solve by local astrometry.net instance) Comet Lovejoy was discovered in summer...
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