by John Talbot
"The buttons of your mind were difficult to find and my fingers far too clumsy."
Yesterday saw me complete my longest cycle ride to date, 222.2km (138.1 miles). I’m trying to do Randonneur Round the Year (RRtY) which is an achievement in audaxing for completing a 200km event every month for twelve consecutive months. I did start in November and then couldn’t do one in December, so I’ve started again … Continue reading Longest Cycle Ride
M82 – Supernova 2014J, a photo by jochta on Flickr. A bright supernova in M82 was discovered on January 21st, the closest Type 1a supernova for 40 years. Here’s my image of it on January 25th when it was about magnitude 11.0. I have the collimation of my new 12″ telescope sorted now and this … Continue reading Supernova 2014J
(844) Leontina a video by jochta on Flickr. The first asteroid occultation observation from my observatory and it was +ve! Asteroid (844) Leontina occults magnitude 12.0 TYC 1196-00710-1 for 1.28s. Full story.
NGC 1662, a photo by jochta on Flickr. First image from my observatory. A fairly random, non-descript open cluster in Orion which was small enough and well-positioned to test the new mount and EQMod settings.This is a stack of 12 unguided 60s exposures through my smaller 200mm Newtonian telescope. No filters, flats or darks. Some … Continue reading NGC 1662
With the start of 2014, it’s time to look back on the previous year’s cycling. I’ve been keeping accurate records since September 2008. Last year was my best ever in terms of distance with 4,516 miles cycled (7,267km). Easily beating my previous record of 3,432 miles in 2011. Despite a poor spring (especially March) we … Continue reading 2013 Cycling Summary
Most people know I play league table tennis. I’ve been playing the sport since I was about 8-years old. My father played in the Oxford league for many years and my siblings and I were all encouraged to play and we all played league table tennis at some point. I’m the only one still playing … Continue reading Table Tennis – Mid-season Review
I think this will be the last post entitled “Observatory Build” as it is now built! I had three friends around at the weekend and we just about managed to get the roof on between us. I borrowed a hefty trolley from work which made getting down the side of the house and to the … Continue reading Observatory Build – Part 7
Big day today as Matthew and I spent all day erecting the observatory ready for the roof to be lifted on. First job was fitting the new fence panels, they’re not especially heavy but cumbersome to handle so it took three of us to slot them in. It was then all hands to the pump … Continue reading Observatory Build – Part 6
Just a short update to show the brickwork all completed ready for the wooden part of the observatory. The brickwork supports the base of the observatory and keeps it above the concrete base to prevent water seeping underneath and rotting it. The three bricks rear right will support the edge of the hole in the … Continue reading Observatory Build – Part 5
The concrete base for the observatory was laid yesterday. What my builder has done in two days would have taken me a month (or three) of Sundays!
