Astronomy Night

Last night I spent some time startgazing since it was such a great night for it. Last time I had taken a few pictures of the moon using what's called the afocal method. Basically holding the camera over the eyepiece of the telescope and snapping pictures.

Tonight I had a new accessory I had machined on my CNC to holed the camera for me. It worked quite well and when I figured it to use the self timer to let the vibrations fade before the picture is taken I got some great shots.

I then decided to try and take a few pictures of some stars and constellations. Turns it the star I picked was not a star but a planet! At first I thought it was Saturn with the rings edge on, but when I looked at my star chart I realized it was actually Jupiter. I also was able to see two of it's moons, but I have no idea which ones they were :)

The pictures were fairly dim, but I know I'm going to try new mode on my camera I discovered. It basically takes pictures one after the other for about 30 seconds then merges them all into one enhanced picture. I also realized i had the Asa set to 400 instead of 100. I'll be able to give it a try again tonight at the FAS observation at Sci Works.

Astronomy Night

Last night I spent some time startgazing since it was such a great night for it. Last time I had taken a few pictures of the moon using what's called the afocal method. Basically holding the camera over the eyepiece of the telescope and snapping pictures.

Tonight I had a new accessory I had machined on my CNC to holed the camera for me. It worked quite well and when I figured it to use the self timer to let the vibrations fade before the picture is taken I got some great shots.

I then decided to try and take a few pictures of some stars and constellations. Turns it the star I picked was not a star but a planet! At first I thought it was Saturn with the rings edge on, but when I looked at my star chart I realized it was actually Jupiter. I also was able to see two of it's moons, but I have no idea which ones they were :)

The pictures were fairly dim, but I know I'm going to try new mode on my camera I discovered. It basically takes pictures one after the other for about 30 seconds then merges them all into one enhanced picture. I also realized i had the Asa set to 400 instead of 100. I'll be able to give it a try again tonight at the FAS observation at Sci Works.

Target Shooting

Recently when I was at the Calibers shooting range I so a one page notice about Bullseye Target shooting being held every Thursday evening from 7-8pm.  I have a fairly nice .22 that I got from my Brother as a birthday present (actually it was my first gun, and still my favorite) a Buckmark Sillohuette, so I figured this would be a chance to shoot it more.

I showed up not really knowing what to expect in terms of what it would be like, except knowing they had three formats.  Slow fire which is 10 rounds over 10 minutes, timed fire which is two sets of 5 rounds over 20 seconds, and rapid fire which is two sets of 5 rounds over 10 seconds.

Of course the 10 minute round rarely lasted more than 5 minutes.  That's just an unbelievably long time to shoot 10 rounds.  I did fairly well, slowly improving with each round.

The timed fire was my favorite I think, you have 4 seconds for each shot which seemed to fit my shooting style quite well.  I was usually shooting my last round close to the end of the 20 seconds and had some really good targets.

The rapid fire was interesting, I had two misfires which really threw me for a loop, but I still did pretty good.

So after about 100 rounds I ended up shooting a total of about 743 out of 900, which considering it was the first time I've done target shooting with open sites at 25 yards I'm very happy with.

Now I need to figure out how to convince my brother to come with me next time :)

Target Shooting

Recently when I was at the Calibers shooting range I so a one page notice about Bullseye Target shooting being held every Thursday evening from 7-8pm.  I have a fairly nice .22 that I got from my Brother as a birthday present (actually it was my first gun, and still my favorite) a Buckmark Sillohuette, so I figured this would be a chance to shoot it more.

I showed up not really knowing what to expect in terms of what it would be like, except knowing they had three formats.  Slow fire which is 10 rounds over 10 minutes, timed fire which is two sets of 5 rounds over 20 seconds, and rapid fire which is two sets of 5 rounds over 10 seconds.

Of course the 10 minute round rarely lasted more than 5 minutes.  That's just an unbelievably long time to shoot 10 rounds.  I did fairly well, slowly improving with each round.

The timed fire was my favorite I think, you have 4 seconds for each shot which seemed to fit my shooting style quite well.  I was usually shooting my last round close to the end of the 20 seconds and had some really good targets.

The rapid fire was interesting, I had two misfires which really threw me for a loop, but I still did pretty good.

So after about 100 rounds I ended up shooting a total of about 743 out of 900, which considering it was the first time I've done target shooting with open sites at 25 yards I'm very happy with.

Now I need to figure out how to convince my brother to come with me next time :)

First night with a telescope

I inherited a telescope over the weekend and tonight was my first night using it. I think it's called 'first light' in Astronomy circles.

It was really amazing to see the moon and all the details on it. I even took my Lumix FX-150 and took some afocal (I think thats the right term) pictures. First with the Wider view 17mm eyepiece, then with a 10pm eyepiece.

For my first pictures I'm thrilled with how they came out. You can see them at http://www.fotki.com/ncbob under astronomy/planets/moon/Kronus 4.5"

First night with a telescope

I inherited a telescope over the weekend and tonight was my first night using it. I think it's called 'first light' in Astronomy circles.

It was really amazing to see the moon and all the details on it. I even took my Lumix FX-150 and took some afocal (I think thats the right term) pictures. First with the Wider view 17mm eyepiece, then with a 10pm eyepiece.

For my first pictures I'm thrilled with how they came out. You can see them at http://www.fotki.com/ncbob under astronomy/planets/moon/Kronus 4.5"

iPad 3G switching

I can still remember when the iPad first came out, I was certain that the WiFi one would be right for me. Well, that lasted about a week. Doing things on the iPad was so much better than the iPhone. Mostly it was because of the larger display. It's so much easier to use the touch applications with a larger display.

After 3 weeks I found myself wondering if I really needed my iPhone. I did some research and decided to try getting the 3G 16gb iPad and using either VOIP (which is now allowed over 3G) or a prepaid phone.

I tried the application from Toktumi, but the 2 second lag between response was just not ping to cut it. For my initial try I got an AT&T GoPhone. Depending on how the pricing is for Skype over 3G when they announce it I might try that. I also had been using text+ for my SMS, but every time I sent a message it was coming from a different number which just was not going to work.

For now I'm using a combination of the GoPhone and Google voice, and I'm really liking it.

I love the 3G iPad, it still has the same awesome battery life (it's almost 6 and it's still at 70%) and being able to use it anywhere is nice. I do want to find a good checkbook application, or I may go ahead and write one that suits what I want to do.

Next I'll be to cancel my iPhone and go totally with the iPad, GoPhone and Google voice.

New Mac Mini and the Apple Store is down

Just noticed that the Apple Store is down for an update, and that the Mac Mini has been given an overhaul.

It has a new slim aluminum case, that looks like it's about the size of the Apple TV, but unlike the older Mac Mini it has a removable lid to replace the memory (I wonder how hard it is to swap hard drives?) and it no longer has an external power brick.

Looks like the graphics have been upgraded, along with memory capacity, and it all looks like it's at the same price as before.

It's VERY tempting to get one, especially since lightning has zapped most of my Macbook, and Apple still apparently has not updated the Mac Pro yet.

More info about the AT&T deathstar

Well, I did some more research on how much data I use and found something interesting.

Apparently my iPhone includes WiFi traffic apparently in it's usage.  When I went to AT&T's site and looked at the history of data usage, I fit in with the 98%.  My highest month over the past 6 months was 1.7 GB, and my average is right at 1GB per month.

After seeing that I feel much better, and am going to proceed with trying the 3G iPad and see how things go.  If I find that I'm using it a lot more than I would my iPhone I'll switch to use the 3G just when I really need it or can't get on a Hot Spot.  Once I know if I can use the iPad with 3G, then I'll make the decision about canceling my iPhone contract and getting a pre-paid phone.

But (there's always a but) I think that the perception of not having an unlimited data plan is still going to have a HUGE negative effect on iPad and iPhone sales.  Unless something changes pretty quick, even this perception that may not be accurate is going to really hurt both Apple and AT&T and the development of future mobile devices and platforms.

AT&T death star

Well, up until now I've not had a huge complaint with AT&T, my cell phoneservice has been good, I've not experienced dropped calls or issues otherpeople have reported. My data service with 3G has been good for the mostpart, occasionally it bogs down. But for the price and unlimited data I wassatisfied.

Well this morning after reading the article about the price changes for boththe iPhone and iPad data plans I'm highly disappointed. Mostly with Applefor allowing AT&T to pretty much kill the usefulness of both my iPhone andthe 3G iPad I had been considering.

Now it's true I was going to cancel the iPhone because the cost is just abit too high compared to using a 3G iPad with a prepaid phone. I don't usethe minutes I have right now (which is the minimum I can get), so the 3GiPad for $30 and a prepaid phone seemed to fit me much better.

With the new rates AT&T announced today, if I had gone with the iPad my datawas going to be $65 per month (and that's conservative considering that Iwould use the iPad more than my iPhone because it's more convenient). Sonix the plans to get an iPad, without the unlimited data I can't justify thecost. Now if the data speed was more consistent, I might be worthwhile, butthe current state of AT&T's 3G network is poor at best. I'm fortunate innot living in a larger city where it's even worse. When I took a trip toLas Vegas my data connections were terrible, and I pretty much had to relyon WiFi hot spots.

As for the new iPhone 4G, there is absolutely no way I'll be upgrading now,the plan I am on now is tolerable, but paying so much for the data plan tome totally nullifies any benefit in an upgrade.

And of course when my contract expires AT&T will be switching me to the payas you go data plan, and I'll probably be cancelling my service with themand just going for the cheapest pay as you go plan and just go back to usingmy iPad and iPhone on WiFi.

AT&T is going to handily destroy one of the best products for connectivitythat has come out recently. When is someone going to make Internetconnectivity ubiquitous?