What did you do today (2015)

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 25/09/2015 10:14:45:

Hi Nick,

i've lost count of the number of Astra/Vectra springs I've replaced, I'm surprised you couldn't just undo the top nut and let the suspension drop free, although I've never done a Mk 5.

Hi Neil, I would not like to try that method, as when the old springs were fully relaxed, the top mounting was past the threaded rod by 40mm or so and the new springs started at 50 – 60mm past the threaded rod, so even if I let the nuts ping off the old ones into oblivion, I would never have been able to get the new ones on.

Regards Nick.

[Bob Brown 1Participant @bobbrown1]

ha ha, it's called pre load, boing said Zebadee

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Spent a couple of hours at Townsend School, north west St Albans

Getting things ready for our exhibition tomorrow and Sunday

Gosh did I just mention our club exhibition which opens at 10 am.

[norman valentineParticipant @normanvalentine78682]

On the issue of diesel emissions I am hoping that it was only VW that were cooking the books. I recently got rid of a Chevrolet Tacuma petrol as the road tax was £500 pa and I could only get 28 mpg. I bought a Land Rover Discovery TD5 as its replacement, road tax less than half and over 30mpg from diesel that is currently cheaper than petrol. Plus, it is more fun to drive!

[Johnboy25Participant @johnboy25]

After 46 years of gainful employment, I've taken early retirement – today has been my last day. Now I can devote time to some of my projects that I've waiting to get on with. I've had a five year plan to set up a modest workshop which I've managed to do so, there's no more excuses for not doing anything! Cheers everybody! 😀

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

Posted by Johnboy25 on 25/09/2015 21:53:19:

After 46 years of gainful employment, I've taken early retirement – today has been my last day. Now I can devote time to some of my projects that I've waiting to get on with. I've had a five year plan to set up a modest workshop which I've managed to do so, there's no more excuses for not doing anything! Cheers everybody! 😀

 

Congratulations, hope you enjoy retirement, I certainly recommend it.

Edited By V8Eng on 25/09/2015 22:01:34

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

Johnboy, Ha Ha! You wait as you will not be able to keep up with the workload that comes up and you will find each day seems to get shorter and shorter. Then, things seem to get more expensive and your income gets less and less. Join our club, entry is free. Good luck on your retirement

Clive

[Raymond Sanderson 2Participant @raymondsanderson2]

I haven't read all the comments..best make that none of the comments fully on VW's problem with pollution control.

This seriously is nothing new VW have leaked oil, blown fumes and been under powered from way back, what makes anyone think a little tweaking of the software would have changed that. See any decent mechanic or engineer should have used their eyes, ears and nose………….guess thats just text book logic.

……..oh and I had 3 Beatles FiL had 3 last one past on to my son to drive.

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

Posted by Johnboy25 on 25/09/2015 21:53:19:

After 46 years of gainful employment, I've taken early retirement – today has been my last day. Now I can devote time to some of my projects that I've waiting to get on with. I've had a five year plan to set up a modest workshop which I've managed to do so, there's no more excuses for not doing anything! Cheers everybody! 😀

Congratulations! Enjoy your retirement. I did 49 years, don't miss it a bit!

Dave

[davebParticipant @daveb17630]

Posted by naughtyboy on 25/09/2015 16:43:13:

knocked up some tool holders for my ml6.

used up some inch bar offcuts i had lying around.

Nice job, looks like you've got the long bed version!

Dave

[Mad muppetParticipant @madmuppet]

Posted by Johnboy25 on 25/09/2015 21:53:19:

After 46 years of gainful employment, I've taken early retirement – today has been my last day. Now I can devote time to some of my projects that I've waiting to get on with. I've had a five year plan to set up a modest workshop which I've managed to do so, there's no more excuses for not doing anything! Cheers everybody! 😀

Congratulations

I have three months to go and hope to take early retirement and like your self after 47 years of constant employment. My workshop beckons.

Mad Muppet

[Mark P.Participant @markp]

Installed a spare night storage heater in the workshop.
Mark P.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Last night I had ago at the Andromeda Galaxy. It isn't brilliant, partly because of the bright moon, partly inexperience.

I also took a picture of Uranus. Four times the diameter of Earth, but very far away.

Now how did I manage that without any double entendres?

Neil

[mick70Participant @mick70]

got the ml6 bolted down and motor fitted.

[Johnboy25Participant @johnboy25]

Thank you all for your kind regards referring to my retirement. I'm looking forward to not get out at the crack sparrows in the morning to go to work! Clive regarding the price of things – thanks heavens for eBay!

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 26/09/2015 14:51:47:

I also took a picture of Uranus. Four times the diameter of Earth, but very far away.

.

Neil,

This is curiosity not criticism:

What is the 'plate scale' of your system?

i.e. how many seconds of arc per pixel, and how many pixels wide is the image?

MichaelG.

[Gas_mantle.Participant @gas_mantle]

Neil,

The Andromeda galaxy photo is impressive, what sort of camera did you use and is the image stacked ?

I haven't had a go a photographing it yet but now that is the right time of year to see it I intend to give it a try.

Thanks.

Peter.

[OldMetallerParticipant @oldmetaller]

Neil- you want a double entendre? I'll give you one!

Regards,

John.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Gwlad all over this morning I can finally take this black armband off my leek..

Now, good question Michael. Well that image is resampled 4 times and the ~50-pixel blob is a 10-12 pixel blob on the original image, which seems bit large,especially as an online calculator tells me I should be getting 0.63 arc seconds per pixel which would make Uranus 6 pixels across.

Here's the original data, stacked and RGB aligned with no processing other than that:

Now I was using an iR filter (OK I forgot to remove it) that would be duplicating the one built into the camera that only fits between the barrel and lens of the Barlow. This extra length increases the power of the barlow towards x3.

So time for some back of an envelope plate solving

This is Uranus and the only nearby star as per an unused frame where the exposure is too high:

The star turns out to be HIPP551, with a magnitude of 8.65, and was 5' 6" away at the time the image was taken. Counting the pixels from the centre of each object to the edges of the frame I can find out how far apart they are horizontally and vertically. A bit of trig gives the actual distance between them in pixels as 703.

That makes the plate scale 0.435 arc-seconds per pixel, so Uranus should be 8.5 pixels across.

Perhaps if we play with the tone curve a bit to get rid of flare until it's 8 pixels across…

So repeating that on an original stack (with x2 resampling) then giving another x2 we get:

So which featureless blue-green blob is the best or most honest image of Uranus? I don't know.

I'll take a break then respond to Peter (and ignore John

Neil

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Peter,

Andromeda Galaxy.

It's a stack of 40 60-second subs at ISO1600 using a 400mm lens on a Canon 10D. Every sub had nice round stars so they have all been included. I used Deep Space Stacker (DSS) to stack them. The mount tracks but is unguided.

It was hard to get a good result with processing because the strong moonlight washed out the detail. Not sure if its worth going up to 2-minute subs.

Neil

[Gas_mantle.Participant @gas_mantle]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 27/09/2015 10:16:50:

Peter,

Andromeda Galaxy.

It's a stack of 40 60-second subs at ISO1600 using a 400mm lens on a Canon 10D. Every sub had nice round stars so they have all been included. I used Deep Space Stacker (DSS) to stack them. The mount tracks but is unguided.

It was hard to get a good result with processing because the strong moonlight washed out the detail. Not sure if its worth going up to 2-minute subs.

Neil

I'm well impressed with the results I assumed it was taken through your scope.

I really need to have another dabble at deep sky stacker – I've tried it a few times and barely get any improvement over a single image. I find the software difficult to use as a beginner and it tends to put me of using it.

Peter.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I have two scopes, 1200mm reflector and a budget 700mm refractor. M31 won't fit in the view using either scope, it's huge! I have a 500mm lens, and although in theory it will frame it a bit better, i think it would be trickier to get spot on and its only f8, while the scopes and the 400mm are all f6.3.

DSS is tricky to get the hang of, and you can't always appreciate the results until after furtehr processing then comparing your stacked & process image to a single processed image. I've sent you a pm.

[MuzzerParticipant @muzzer]

Saw this:

New use for a Raspberyy Pi

Solving the Rubik's cube with a raspberry pi!

Posted by Wonders of Engineering on Thursday, September 17, 2015

[Gas_mantle.Participant @gas_mantle]

Impressive machine

Just out of interest I googled Rubik Cube solving machine and found this beast made from Lego and a smart phone :-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=staapsj3eRQ

 

Edited By Peter Nichols on 27/09/2015 12:40:18

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Michael,

As an addendum, if you visit HERE you'll see an image of Uranus taken with a camera, scope and mount costing over forty times what I paid for my gear… indisputably better, but a good example of the law of diminishing returns.

Neil

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