Author Archives: james

Landmark day for the barn conversion

Posted on November 9, 2019 by james

A large dent in my wallet has arrived in the shape of these: Sadly they’re mostly covered up to stop them getting damaged by builders’ boots. Other than the central post, much of the wood to make them actually came … Continue reading →

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Blobservatory Bitter is ready!

Posted on November 9, 2019 by james

Back in August I posted about making my first batch of beer in some time as a celebration of getting the observatory into a usable state. After a little time to condition, here it is: First impressions? It’s quite drinkable. … Continue reading →

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Mists and mellow fruitfulness

Posted on November 9, 2019 by james

Over the last few weeks I’ve been out harvesting the bounty of the local hedgerows, in particular the blackberries which grow almost everywhere around us. I’ve picked pounds and pounds (or even kilos and kilos if you want to be … Continue reading →

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DIY dew controller

Posted on November 9, 2019 by james

As we get later into Autumn it is becoming obvious that dew control is going to become necessary for my telescopes. To do that for all my OTAs would be quite expensive, so I looked around and found Robert Brown’s … Continue reading →

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M27 revisited

Posted on November 9, 2019 by james

I first imaged M27 quite some years back and it has always been a favourite, so it being the summertime this planetary nebula was an obvious choice for an early target. This time I used the Skywatcher ED80 and Atik … Continue reading →

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The observatory at work

Posted on November 9, 2019 by james

Work on the observatory has slowed somewhat as I need to catch up on other domestic jobs, but from the images I’ve already posted it’s obviously being used. I’m not sure I have the arrangement of mounts and telescopes that … Continue reading →

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It’s been a while…

Posted on November 9, 2019 by james

I’ve not posted about swimming (nor indeed anything else it seems) for a couple of months. This is not because I haven’t been swimming. However, on her return to school after the summer holidays my daughter managed to catch a … Continue reading →

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Swimming, 6th September 2019

Posted on September 9, 2019 by james

Last session of the week and I really wasn’t feeling very energetic. It was all a bit of a struggle today. Despite three fails I did better than yesterday however, my first failure coming on rep ten. Another low 38 … Continue reading →

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Swimming, 5th September 2019

Posted on September 9, 2019 by james

So, a new set for today: 400m f/c warm-up 24 x 50m f/c, target time 48.5s, turnaround 75s 200m swim down A tough start, though. For some reason I was feeling tired (too many late nights out in the observatory, … Continue reading →

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Swimming, 3rd September 2019

Posted on September 9, 2019 by james

Same set again today, and I was pleased to be able to complete the full set with a target of 49s once again. In fact I think all but one of the reps were lower than 48 seconds. Sadly I … Continue reading →

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