[Astronomy Outreach]

we usually have some members attend the herstmonceux astronomy weekend every year, its a great place. now one fact you may not know but my ex's great great Uncle used to be a engineering technician at herstmonceux - maintaining the telescopes, there is still a room in the centre (not public access) that is called stans room, and the racks of spare parts for the domes are stored there to this day - all neatly labelled.

[Astronomy Outreach]

generally light pollution is greater nowadays which certainly doesnt help, we have a dark sky sight and its stunning from there (just 5 miles out of canterbury too) if you moor up at hardly cross that is somewhere I have had good views of the milky way, you really do have to try and  get somewhere you cant see any other lights though.

[The Mysterious Ways Of Planners.]

2 hours ago, YnysMon said:

Cnut, surely? 

From an Anglo Saxon nerd. 

I was tempted to use that spelling, but considered more might recognise the spelling I used

[Astronomy Outreach]

Tonight I was at one of the local colleges, they had organised an astronomy evening for local primary school kids and parents, so myself and a few others from my astronomy society went along to provide some telescopes that the youngsters could look through.

After we had set up on their hockey pitch and they had extinguished the floodlights we had crowds of parents and kids come visit us for a look through the telescopeskids from about 4, up to some of the students at the school, and parents of the younger kids.

This was the third event they had put on, due mainly to being 3x oversubscribed for places (though you had to book a place it was provided free).

Luckily tonight was reasonably clear, so we showed people the moon, Jupiter and Saturn, the Pleiades and the orion nebula amongst others.

I also took along my camera and big lens to get some shots of the moon, unfortunately it was so cold that my camera batteries all gave up the ghost so I only got a few pictures. also included a shot of jupiter, not the best but i was running a 1000mm lens at 1/800s on the moon.

[The Mysterious Ways Of Planners.]

1 hour ago, dom said:

It'd be interesting to see how they'd cope with the issue of tides vs listed building.

Probably try and get king Canute to visit.

[Uncle Mikes Friday Quiz 2024]

4 hours ago, MauriceMynah said:

Trust me Grendel, thermal long-johns and shorts is not a good look.

so? as long as I am warm, I dont care.

[Uncle Mikes Friday Quiz 2024]

I am sorry to hear that Bern, Unfortunately I will be unable to attend tonight (unless I drop in late as I am doing an astronomy outreach at a local college this evening - this might even call for long trousers (and thermals)

[Ice Heads-up 2024]

6 minutes ago, Gracie said:

Welcome home Jean and have a lovely time Biker  Sorry for the thread drift x

its headed south into the path of the Titanic

[Removal Of Sunken Vessel]

I see we are having a go at the unlicensed and unregistered boat owners- do we have any proof that this boat is unregistered and untolled before we start jumping to conclusions, I dont see that stated anywhere in the news article, and barring some quick action on my part could easily have been me last year when I arrived at great yarmouth with a blocked bilge pump and 6" of water in the fore cabin, (not really thinking it advisable to stop halfway across breydon).

luckily i managed to unblock the bilge pump and get it working after a fashion which eventually cleared the water out (the float switch had also jammed under a beam shelf rendering that inoperable too)- not a situation you want just a few hours after relaunching in a wooden boat.

[Having Replacement Bones]

an electric bike is good exercise, you have to pedal to make it go, but not so hard you get exhausted, and its easier going up hills on one

 

[Domestic Cookers - A Heads Up.]

we bought a third hand miele washing machine it was the industrial model, (the instructions were there on how to fit the coin meter) we bought it from a person who had worked at a care home, she bought it from the care home where it had been used almost constantly for many years, we used it for about another 8 years until we were given a brand new machine from my ex's great uncles house. then we finally got rid of the miele, though by then it was in sore need of new bearings (i am sure that if I had replaced the bearings it would still be being used to date.)

[Domestic Cookers - A Heads Up.]

we once bought a hotpoint washer dryer - this was when they first came out, we had all sorts of issues with it, because they had not engineered the circuit board correctly and the contacts kept corroding- we must have had about 4 replacement circuit boards- each was an upgrade from the last- eg one had gold plated contacts, eventually they raised the circuit board voltage to try and overcome the issue. never really did though.

[Domestic Cookers - A Heads Up.]

4 hours ago, Vaughan said:

I think it used to be called "planned obscellence".

nowadays its more unplanned incompetence

[Having Replacement Bones]

just avoid airport security machines and large magnets

[Electric Or Gas Cookers]

however the downside of heating with electricity on board is the amount of battery power required, presumably lithium batteries, which are neither cheap or particularly green in their own right.

[The Broads Is Not A National Park!]

32 minutes ago, batrabill said:

The incredibly obvious point being that there is lots of boating in the Lake District. 

but does the national park there have the prime responsibility to maintain the navigation, i feel not.

[Car Talk]

its not just the luton carpark fire, there were all those car carrier fires that now seem to have disappeared off the radar, but they were such that several car carriers refused to carry EV's, and just try getting a cross channel ferry with an ev nowadays, you have to jump through hoops to get aboard. eg dfds wont allow damaged EV's aboard. one norwegian ferry company has put a blanket ban on ev's.

[Using Ballast To Get Under Potter Bridge]

Having been a party to an unintended ballasting event last year, I have to say that 4" of water in the front cabin is no fun thing to clean up after. And that your Hull design may well mean that only one end of the boat sits further in the water.

[Rip Ian Hathaway]

Rest in peace Ian, you have moved on  to a  place where no suffering exists. 

[My Day]

no, just to access my back garden from the road, the path is technically not even on their property, but a previous owner took the fence down and no amount of telling the new owner will get him to reinstate it (as he sees that it gives him a bigger garden, so at least once a year I use the access to ensure I can say its in constant use and to stop him saying its unused and fencing it in (the council actually owns the path).

[My Day]

yesterday I spent an hour from 3pm to 4pm (after I finished work) clearing space, and getting the wall plate up on the side of the conservatory, today the hour was spent getting 12 8' x 4' sheets of OSB round from the front of the house to the back (and also exercising my right of passage across the bottom of my neighbours garden while doing so) tomorrow I may get the front wall done and get the first roof beams in place (weather permitting) the biggest two reasons for slow progress are that I only get 1 hour of decent light after I finish work and that its only just above freezing at the moment out there.

[Wee Takingg Sods]

arent Haribo diuretics, if so that will aid in the extraction process.

[Tolls (that’s Not A Swear Word!) Amongst Other Things.]

for me the most damning part is that the CEO of the Broads Authority had the temerity not once but twice to try and get them to retract/ reconsider  their stated opinion, as it must have taken them some time to carefully consider their stand to have posted such in the first instance.

most people instead of trying to get them to reconsider would have taken time to consider why they posted such in the first place and consider what they were doing that caused it- it just goes to show the audacity of the Broads Authorities guiding power.

[Wee Takingg Sods]

27 minutes ago, Turnoar said:

Haribo’s by any chance?

 

often its a little pack of Parma violets

[Wee Takingg Sods]

yes that sort of a communication endears me to a company and they get my favour (as do the companies that place a small pack of sweets in with the item I ordered.) its down to individuality in the customer service, rather than just the standard response.