This is the weblog of Brian Curd. A lot of it is written on the spur of the moment and any benefit you gain from it is worth exactly what you paid!
After a plaintive cry for help in the local media, yesterday I visited Keith just along the road from me. He had been having problems with his wireless broadband connection and I’d offered to help solve them. Turned out to be down to a Netgear configuration programme being used instead of the Zero Configuration thing [...]
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Filed under: Astronomy, Hardware, Hobbies, Isle of Wight, Software, Techie
These three fantastic pictures were taken from Brighstone during the recent Isle of Wight Star Party – they show what can be acheived if we can manage to keep our beautifully dark skies. Click a pic (and keep clicking for the Hi-Res versions) Details of the equipment used and the various exposure information is included [...]
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Filed under: Astronomy, Hardware, Hobbies, Isle of Wight, Photography, Software, Techie
Had a great long weekend out at Brighstone at the IOW Star Party. Loads of good friends, brilliantly (?) dark skies and wonderful viewing – I even won a prize in the raffle – now it’s time to sleep! Got to bed at about 2am Fri, 4am Saturday and 3am this morning (still on GMT) [...]
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Filed under: Astronomy, Hardware, Hobbies, Isle of Wight, Photography
Over on the right of my homepage you can hopefully see the output from a streaming webcam. For now, I am experimenting with it connected to a telescope to get in close to a bird feeder in the garden. Eventually I hope to use the thing for astronomy but before making any permanent mods to [...]
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Filed under: Astronomy, Hardware, Hobbies, Home, Isle of Wight, Photography, Techie
On Saturday 28 March 2009 at 8.30pm, people, businesses and iconic buildings around the world will switch off their lights for an hour – World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour. The WWF want a billion people around the world to sign up and switch off their lights for one hour. If they achieve their billion people [...]
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Filed under: Astronomy, Hobbies, Isle of Wight, Politics, Scams
I thought it was only right to mention this as it’s International Year of Astronomy: OK, so some of the quoted numbers aren’t quite right but it sums things up pretty well I think….
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Filed under: Astronomy, Funny, Hobbies
Vectis Astronomical Society have set the first three dates for our public celebration of 2009 – International Year of Astronomy. Sunday, 25th January – 7.30 p.m. to 11 p.m (ish) Observing the night sky Pointer Inn, Newchurch, PO36 0NN Thursday, 5th February – 8 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. Storytellers “Starry Telling” Quay Arts Centre, Newport, [...]
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Filed under: Astronomy, Hobbies, Isle of Wight
Once again, Lidl seem to have come up trumps with a couple of great astronomy offers: Refractor Telescope Kit with Tripod Professional telescope on durable, adjustable aluminium tripod Magnification: 35x – 175x Lens diameter (mm): 70 Focal length (mm): 700 3 high-quality oculars with 20, 12 and 4mm focal lengths Includes PC astronomy software, lunar [...]
The Isle of Wight is reported to have some of the best skies for astronomy in the UK; in order to prove and quantify this, the local Astronomical Society recently purchased a Sky Quality Meter (SQM) (shown below) and we are slowly lending it out to members so they can take reading from various places [...]
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Filed under: Astronomy, Hobbies, Isle of Wight, Software, Techie
Riding with Robots on the High Frontier is a website with the tagline “Saddle up for a trip with the robotic spacecraft now exploring the wild black yonder!”. It updates daily with superb photographs and animations from various exploration spacecraft. Well worth a visit! The Chasms of CerberusSent by: Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter | From: Mars [...]
