Monthly Archives: August 2012

Just Give Me a Buzz

Posted on August 20, 2012 by james

I received a phone call from BT last week. “Oh dear, what have they broken now” I thought. But no, it transpired that an engineer had been out to visit a “green cabinet” in a local hamlet and had to … Continue reading →

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My 10″ Dobsonian ‘build’

Posted on August 20, 2012 by james

I’ve quoted the word ‘build’ because in some respects this turned out not to be. However, there’s a fair bit of woodwork involved, so I reckon it still counts… Some months back I wrote that I had obtained a 10″ … Continue reading →

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Solar PV Generation Update, August 2012

Posted on August 3, 2012 by james

Well, at last we’ve had a little sunshine this summer, though ten days in July is a pretty poor showing even so. Can’t complain though; it’s a whole lot better than May and June. Generation for July was 407kWh. Lower … Continue reading →

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Nginx Rate-limiting with a Whitelist

Posted on August 2, 2012 by james

I recently needed to deploy a rate-limiting solution for a site where certain IP addresses would be white-listed and not subjected to the rate limits. Google found me an example in a blog that turned out not to work, though … Continue reading →

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Another Attempt at a Cygnus Widefield Image

Posted on August 1, 2012 by james

The evening after my previous attempt the sky looked better so I set up again mostly with the same kit (EQ3-2, 450D, 18-55mm lens at 18mm & f/4.5, but this time I used APT to control the camera from the … Continue reading →

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My First Widefield Shot

Posted on August 1, 2012 by james

Quite a few “firsts” this week. Makes such a change to have so many nights of clear sky. This night the sky clarity wasn’t great, but I wanted to try a widefield shot and wasn’t too worried about the outcome … Continue reading →

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My First SPC900 DSO Images

Posted on August 1, 2012 by james

We’ve just had a full eight days of clear skies and I finally managed to get around to testing my LX-modded SPC900. For the test I used my ST120 on the motorised EQ3-2. This is my first ever attempt at … Continue reading →

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Paper Planet Models

Posted on August 1, 2012 by james

I found a set of “nets” for icosahedron models of planets and moons recently and made one each of Jupiter with my daughter. They’re quite tricky to make the final joins on — you really need delicate slim fingers, not … Continue reading →

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