Sunday, July 11, 2010

Solar Eclipse 2010 - July 11th

Up early to watch the total solar eclipse - on a live web stream, the only one I could find. It's in Japanese and obviously from a Japanese expedition - Wakayama University. They made it to totality but then the feed appeared to fail. The location was somewhere in the South Pacific. Another Solar Eclipse I've managed to miss the opportunity of seeing in location. I did quick survey of locations I should have gone to and found a small island called Mangaia in the Cook Islands, I bet I could have caught a few bone fish as well - next time maybe. If I win lotto maybe it'll be Frazer Island. Anyway, here are the first pictures I've found on the web, from Mangaia http://www.spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Constantinos-Emmanouilidis-Prominences_1278875772.jpg

Still nothing in the Australian news. The extra time in the FIFA World Cup is one headline and a body on a beach is another headline. The Rosetta flyby does get a mention.

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Long Time Between Posts

Some bloggers have no trouble generating material. I expect the best approach is to bang out whatever. I have a few started and not finished I might still dig them out and post them. I was inspired today, I don't know why. A bit of cold and wet start - not working means there's no pressure to get out there. I do have lots to blog about, lots of projects in pipeline:

- Getting my video astro video camera going. I need to finish building a box of electronics so I can keep everything in one place instead of devices spilling all over the outdoor furniture and cables going in all directions. There'll be some progress on this real soon. The latest blocker was almost blinding myself when a hand dremel threw a tiny piece of plastic into my eye. A visit to the opthalmic surgeon revealed two in-grown eyelashes that he promptly removed. After a few days, last night I eventually located a tiny particle of plastic, probably smaller than 0.5mm drifting about in my eye and managed to remove it - very carefully. So (probably) no more cutting into plastic boxes until I get a pair prescription safety glasses in a few days.

- I'm getting into TikiWiki had a bit of false start about a year ago. But now I'm working on a site for 7mm profile modelling and I think I'll try turning the Sydney City Skywatchers website into a TikiWiki site.

-I'm a building a NSW 'R' Coach in 7mm, this has stalled but should restart soon. I want to log the process in the Wiki.

Oh - and I need to find a job.