Stacking on Linux, deeply

Posted on February 10, 2024 by james

Pretty much anyone who is into amateur astrophotography will be familiar with Deep Sky Stacker (aka DSS). It’s a great application that takes combinations of light and dark frames (amongst others) and merges them to produce a single stacked output frame. It’s Windows-based, but allegedly runs on Linux (and perhaps MacOS?) under WINE. WINE is a very impressive piece of work, but I often struggle to make it work how I’d like, so my usual workflow for processing my images involves transferring the subs from the Linux machine that manages the imaging to a Windows box to do the stacking.

Some years back, DSS became open source and I considered attempting to port it to run natively on Linux. Professionally I have a bit of form for this sort of thing as my first “proper” job was porting development tools to various flavours of UNIX and UNIX-like systems, back in the days when there was an entire ice-cream parlour of flavours (and host processors). However, the process was just too slow going given that I’ve had very little to do with Windows (the less the better in my view) since before NT was released.

Fortunately for me, the DSS project team now have a goal to convert the code to use Qt rather than Windows’ native, err, windows, which has removed many of the stumbling blocks for me. The code is still pretty Windows-centric in places and my preference is to have the application “just work” without the user needing to install “extras” that might break other components of their system, but the opportunity to move forward grew.

So, I cloned the repo and started beating on the code (and the build system — having something that will work on, say, Launchpad is a major plus). Yesterday I reached the point (having fairly hideously hacked a few bits and pieces) where it’s actually possible to complete compilation of the main application (there’s a command line version and a live-stacking version too, but they can wait). That doesn’t mean it actually works. I’m quite sure it doesn’t. But it gives me hope that I’m heading in the right direction. And if it will compile on Linux, perhaps it might also be made to run natively on MacOS (not quite yet — there are one or two ducks that still need to assume the appropriate relative positioning first). But here’s what I’ve got:

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No dig diary, 9th February 2024: Bitter about the hairy cress?

Posted on February 9, 2024 by james

What is it with Hairy Bittercress? It’s an absolute pig to get rid of and seems to spread like crazy. I weeded my entire plot right at the end of August last year and normally that would be it until Spring. Anything unwanted that managed to poke its head out of the ground after that would be very likely to succumb to frost and die off. But not this Winter. Oh no. This Winter it’s been cressmageddon. Not only have the new plants germinated and grown quite successfully and even produced flowers…

They’re even producing fresh seed!

Looks like I’m going to have to have a late Winter weeding session from now on.

Apparently it is edible however, and allegedly “Placed under the bed is said to increase masculinity where its intoxicating scent will reach the nose.”. Not sure about that, to be honest.

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Memory Lane, 4th May 2022 (again again): Oi! Sycamore! NO!

Posted on February 9, 2024 by james

Each spring, over several weeding sessions, I have to get rid of buckets full of sycamore seedlings that are trying to grow in the veggie plot. Thousands of them get absolutely everywhere. And when it’s not the keys (or more accurately I believe, the samara) that are littering the place, it’s (what I think are) the cast-off male flowers.

Around the perennial kale (which as of the end of 2023 is almost as tall as me)…

Littering the asparagus bed…

Over an early sowing of carrots…

And amongst the shallots…

It’s a good job I don’t need to clear all of them up, unlike the seeds. There are enough issues with blown-in weeds as it is.

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Growing your own is too deer

Posted on February 9, 2024 by james

One of the bigger problems I have with “pests” in my veggie plot is the local roe deer. As I’ve posted before they’ll wander in and start noshing on whatever appeals to them, which is often what might appeal to me in a few weeks’ time. They seem to have quite distinct preferences however; the leaves on the beetroot are the first to go, then the parsley, followed by strawberry leaves, brassicas and eventually my father-in-law’s alstromerias.

Recently I came across this little project. Foxes can be a problem and in fact I’ve come face-to-face with one or two recently when I’ve been working at the front of the workshop and heard a disturbance in the chicken runs only to come face-to-face with a fox when I strolled around the corner to see what the upset was all about. Badgers aren’t really an issue, though one did creep up on me one night a few years back when I was out in the field with a telescope indulging in some early-morning astronomy. I’m not sure who was most shocked when I turned around and we ended up facing each other only a couple of metres apart!

Anyhow, I’m thinking the above project could possible be reporpoised to scare off the deer. I have loads of cameras hanging about from working on astronomy imaging, so I feel it should be possible to set something up. The only question that remains is what would frighten deer off? The sound of a burger being cooked on a barbeque? Ketchup squirting from a bottle?

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Memory Lane, 4th May 2022 (again): Bees a-bumbling

Posted on February 8, 2024 by james

My summer broccoli (or calabrese if you prefer) didn’t do very well in 2022. Or perhaps did rather too well, I’m not sure. It formed nice heads that just accelerated through “ready to pick” and charged on straight to flowering. As I didn’t immediately need the space I left the plants to flower and feed some of our furry insect friends (and actually my honey bees rather like them too).

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Snapdragons are go!

Posted on February 8, 2024 by james

I really out to be able to remember the proper name but right now it escapes me, so Snapdragons it is. Ah! Antirrhinums! Them’s the things.

Anyhow, to the point… I plan to sow a few batches over the next couple of months because the weather is hardly predictable and some might suffer where others sown at a different time could be ok, but this lot were sown a week ago and put into the propagator. They’re already up and running!

I don’t find the tiny seedlings are always easiest to keep alive so I’ll keep an eye on them until they look decently established.

First seeds up of the new season though. Something to celebrate!

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Cheap alternative to Charles Dowding’s module trays

Posted on February 8, 2024 by james

Charles Dowding has designed some lovely module trays for starting off his seedlings. I’d use them in a heartbeat. Unfortunately in the volume I’d use them, I really can’t justify the cost.

I particularly like the fact that they have a hole in the bottom of each cell that, for example, a finger can be poked through to release the plant from the cell. So, I decided I’d have a go at making my own.

I started off buying a stack of fifty trays like these. From memory they cost less than £15 delivered (I don’t get out lots).

I then found an offcut of ¾” conduit and ground one end into a cutting edge.

At which point my father-in-law pointed out that he had a proper hole punch that should do the job:

I have no idea what the “6” (or “9”) legend means. Perhaps it’s some sort of standard for hole punch sizes. Anyhow, it’s about 5/8″ or 16mm. He also directed me to an “anvil” that he’d cast from lead (from when he was into sea fishing and used a lot of lead for weights)

I imagine a lump of hardwood might make an adequate alternative. I tried softwood and the plastic of the tray just deformed into it.

So, whenever I need a tray for sowing some seeds, I take a few more trays than I need (there’s no denying that it’s a very tedious job, so it’s nice to just get ahead of the game gradually rather than having to do twenty trays all at once) and cut a hole through the bottom of each cell. The compost stays inside just fine if it’s pressed down well, and removing the plug by pushing it out with a finger means the walls of the cells don’t get damaged so the tray can be used repeatedly.

I still don’t like that I’m using plastic, but at least it’s now plastic that will last a few years rather than being single-use.

And yes, it may well cost more in the long run than buying Charles’ trays (because they’re not as robust), but it’s what I can afford now. I’m reminded of a passage in Terry Pratchett’s Men At Arms:

The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. … A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.

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Memory Lane, 4th May 2022: When I grow up I want to be a pineapple

Posted on February 7, 2024 by james

I’ve posted before about growing pineapple plants from the top of a fruit that has been eaten. I’ve been keeping working at it and had a couple of successes along with quite a few failures. I suspect it’s something that needs to be done relatively early in the year (perhaps mid-Spring?) so there’s enough warmth and daylight to encourage them to grow. Of course these days when Spring actually happens is anyone’s guess.

But I keep plugging away, and here is my latest attempt, in a jar of water in the greenhouse.

My first successful plant is still growing. I really must post a photo of that.

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Hamming it up

Posted on February 7, 2024 by james

From time to time we have been known to partake of the occasional slice or two of hamm purchased from the local butcher. A butcher who is highly recommended, it has to be said. My wife got chatting to someone in the shop last weekend who had driven forty- or fifty-odd miles from Bristol just to buy lots of meat to put in her freezer. Not entirely environmentally sensitive, but quite a statement about the quality of the shop’s produce.

Every Christmas my wife makes a “Boxing Day Ham”, cooked for hours in pan of all sorts of ingredients that include my home-made beer. There may even be some water involved. It may originally have been a Jamie Oliver recipe, or perhaps Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. It is absolutely delicious however. I got to thinking that we could make such a ham more regularly and feed it through our meat slicer. What we don’t want to eat immediately goes into the freezer.

After testing the idea and working out the cost (weighing the meat once cooled after cooking) we decided that it costs less then 10% more than buying ready-sliced ham, but tastes outstanding. I’ve never had sliced ham that tastes so good before. Cooking a new ham is now a regular event every two to three months and it’s lovely with home-smoked cheese in ‘cheesenam’ toasties.

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Being driven to distraction

Posted on February 7, 2024 by james

The DVLA have very kindly sent me a letter saying that me driving licence is due for renewal, presumably so they can issue me a new card with a more up-to-date photo that looks nothing like me.

These days it can all be done online! Oh, no it can’t. I need a recently-valid passport for that and I allowed mine to lapse more than three years ago because I really couldn’t see it being worth the £80 or so that they charge for a new one.

But I can (for about £7.50 more of your Earth Pounds) get the renewal done at a Post Office. Ah. Not at my local Post Office. The nearest one that does it is almost a twenty-mile round trip. And I don’t at present have a car thanks to someone driving their tractor straight out of a field entrance into the side of it (why on Earth would you need to look?) causing my insurers to write the vehicle off. There’s a story for another time. Buses don’t really happen around here, though I may perhaps be able to borrow my daughter’s car if she isn’t using it.

And unless I renew my licence or send it back saying I don’t want it any more, I may be liable for a fine of up to £1000! Not because I’m not allowed to drive, but merely because I don’t possess an up-to-date piece of plastic that says I am.

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