Category Archives: Projects

Time for a new white light solar filter

Posted on August 13, 2014 by james

I’ve had a white light solar filter made from Baader ND5.0 film (two, in fact) for several years and one of them was starting to look rather tatty so I decided it was time to make another.  Baader’s instructions suggest … Continue reading →

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Collecting meteorites from rainwater

Posted on August 13, 2014 by james

Allegedly it is possible to collect tiny fragments of meteorites from rainwater.  The story goes that they can drift in the atmosphere until they get caught in the rain and end up falling to the ground.  By trapping the flow … Continue reading →

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PST imaging adaptor

Posted on October 15, 2013 by james

To avoid the use of a diagonal I turned up an adaptor from a piece of aluminium that takes the PST eyepiece unit and allows a camera to reach focus without a diagonal, so there’s nothing else in the light … Continue reading →

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Modded PST fitted to a dovetail

Posted on October 15, 2013 by james

Someone suggested to me that Munsen rings might be a good way to fix my PST to a dovetail. As they looked far more straightforward than having to turn some fittings from solid aluminium I thought I’d give them a … Continue reading →

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Red Dot Rifle Sight as a Finder

Posted on February 21, 2013 by james

One of my RDFs died recently. It seems to be something they do. Anyhow, I had a red dot rifle sight sitting around doing nothing, so I removed the mount from the RDF and cut a plate from a bit … Continue reading →

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August 2012 FIT payment

Posted on October 3, 2012 by james

At the end of August our latest FIT payment arrived covering the late Spring/early Summer period. Obviously given the weather this wasn’t as high a figure as we’d been hoping for, but means that 8.6% of the installation cost is … Continue reading →

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Solar PV Generation Update October 2012

Posted on October 3, 2012 by james

And so the abnormal weather continues… Generation for September this year totalled 333kWh, up 7.5% from the previous September and a somewhat astounding 32% more than would normally be expected for September. That increase completely covers the failure to meet … Continue reading →

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Solar PV Generation Update, September 2012

Posted on September 11, 2012 by james

We have reached the end of the first year with out solar PV installation and quite an odd one it has been, too. We had one of the mildest winters and generated far more in the first six months than … 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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