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soil too basic

May09
by kevin on May 9, 2025 at 13:13 and modified on May 9, 2025. at 13:15
Posted In: gardening

After over 20 years of gardening onsite, we have finally gotten the soil tested. To our surprise (all right.. a little surprised), our soil has a pH over 7.4 to 7.9. Probably as a result of sitting atop limestone rock just 6-12 inches down.

This is more basic than recommended for most veg.
Our sources say a good vegbed pH is between 6.0 and 7.0

So.. We managed to track down some aluminum phosphate, a soil acidified.

This goes on at a rate of 1kg for 200 ft^2. So we will start with our VegBed4, which is about 800 ft^2 and use 3-4 kg.
This is where the tomatoes will be going in, in a few weeks.

So today was weed pulling, grass trimming. Later the acidifier will go in.
Then 10 bags of 15kg composted cow manure will go on, and then a good tilling.

After that we have some weed barrier that will go around the perimeter, because weeds and grass always infiltrate from the fenced edges of the chain link fencing.
And then, finally, the tomatoes will be transplant.

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Drip Irrigation for the Veg Garden

Apr10
by kevin on April 10, 2025 at 15:29 and modified on April 11, 2025. at 09:35
Posted In: gardening

Drip Irrigation at Starlight Cascade Gardens and Observatories

Background
Decades ago we started out first raised bed at our new home. We watered by hand from a hose from our well. Over the years we learned that overhead watering of plants is not the best for conservation of water, the amount of water actually making it into the soil and for the health of the plants (water on leaves, cold temperature of water, etc).

We now have 10 raised beds and two large veg garden beds. A 3/4” water hose runs to spot near each one. Drip irrigation is what we settled on as the best solution and we started with a kit from https://www.irrigationdirect.ca/ in Burlington Ontario

Benefits
Water goes directly to each plants roots, at a much slower rate giving the soil time to absorb it, the slower flow rate gives the water much more time to warm up on its journey from the well (above ground and in the sun), far less water use than otherwise and lastly, the ability to turn it on in the morning for less evaporation, with a timer for up to one hour and walking away in the morning not given a chance to forget to turn it off. We have 4 systems at present.

Each system consists of: a mechanical timer (purchased separately), a backflow preventer, a particle filter, and a pressure reducer. That feeds into the 1/2” supply line which runs perpendicular to the vegbed rows. From their the drip tape runs down each row.

In 2020 we started with this kit: https://www.irrigationdirect.ca/Drip-Irrigation-Watering-Kit-For-Row-Crops-XL.html for approx $205 (now approx $235) and have purchased expansion accessories as well.

Results
The system has been used for 4 seasons now, with most of the original parts still working. Some drip tape did not survive contact with the lawn mower or grass trimmer.

We measure our 1000-1500 garlic bulbs after harvest in both size and weight. The number suggest that this watering system has improved the quality and size/weight of the garlic.

We also use this system with our heirloom tomatoes. Before this our tomatoes routinely cracked with uneven watering, had blight caused by wet leaves from overhead watering and smaller sizes in general.

We highly recommend drip irrigation!

The Future
We are rebuilding/renovating some of our raised beds to minimize the tripping hazard of some of the main lines and to expand into some of the raised beds that do not have an irrigation system.
We are also now looking to expand this into the flower beds as well.

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Aurora 20250321

Mar22
by kevin on March 22, 2025 at 11:14 and modified on March 22, 2025. at 11:21
Posted In: astronomy

Some decent aurora showed last evening from about 21:00 edt to 01:00 this morning.
An allnight video is here:

https://starlightcascade.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/allsky-20250321.mp4

The startrail is here:

and the keogram here:

and the best still image from 23:19 EDT

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Napanee Community Garden 2024

Mar20
by kevin on March 20, 2025 at 12:30
Posted In: gardening


This was the 15th year (2010-2024) of the Napanee Community Garden for the Local Food Bank.

This is a small group of volunteers who plan, prepare, plant, weed, water, and harvest fresh local produce for the Food Bank in Napanee.

Back when we were younger, we participated in the handson portions of this, but as years went on, we could no longer.
Now we tabulate the annual harvest and produce this report:

2024foodbankgarden-annualharvestsummary

A Big Thanks to Susan Withers for the data logging!
A big thanks to all of the volunteers for 2024!

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Firecapture ROI and cutouts

Mar20
by kevin on March 20, 2025 at 12:24 and modified on March 20, 2025. at 15:13
Posted In: astronomy

Lucky imaging, Firecapture, ROI and cutouts

Planetary Imaging took a Quantum Leap with the advent of Lucky Imaging and digital cameras.
Lucky imaging is the process of taking thousands of very short (millisecond) exposures, analyzing them, taking the best x% and stacking them to get a great signal to noise ration and images that surpass film based, ground based images from only a decade or two ago.

The shorter the exposure, the better chance of capturing a still image freer of distortion caused by atmospheric bad seeing. So the higher frames per second is the measure to work for.

I recently submitted an image of Mars to the BAA along with some information like… 2ms exposure and I was getting 100 frames per second (fps). 1000/2=500 fps theoretical and I was getting only 20% of that. The recommendation to me was to improve! Get a faster FPS! And use the ROI (Region Of Interest) and Cutout boxes in firecapture.

With the full resolution of the ZWO ASI585MC camera (3840×2160 pixels) and a 3.5ms exposure, I got 47 fps, or about 16% efficiency. The ROI reduces, at the camera, the amount of data coming down the usb 3.0 pipeline and results in increased frame rates.

I had been using a ROI of 1200×1200. That increased the fps to 83 from 47 (full resolution) and 29% efficiency. My best test result was using an ROI of 400×400 that achieved 220 fps or 77% efficiency.

There are issues with tracking and keeping the image in the Field of View (FOV), especially in bad seeing, where the image jumps up down left right and in and out) when the ROI is small.. that is why I had a bigger 1200×1200 FOV to start with.

The next feature I started using recently was the cutout box. This centres the image in the FOV and does it faster than the autoalign feature in Firecapture. It also reduces the amount of data saved to file.
Initially I started using a cutout box of 600×600 and am now testing it down to 400×400.

One other new feature that I was unaware of was the ability to have the ROI centre itself. In the past, I would set the ROI and in the 120 seconds of imaging run, the target would stay in the FOV, but maybe not the next or the next runs, without manually adjusting the tracking. This new feature of ROI autocentre means that as the target drifts out to the edge of FOV, it would recentre itself.

Amazing! This would work for at least 10-15 runs that I have tested so far. The limiting factor is when you run out of chip completely.
So.. the summary is:
initial starting performance with my setup for Jupiter imaging:
Celestron C9.25, x1.5 barlow, ZWO ASI585MC
usb cable3m,
HP Mini elitedesk 800 G3 computer
Intel Core I5-6500T; 16GB DDR4; Intel HD Graphics 530; Windows 10 pro 64 bit;
480GB nvme ssd; gigabit ethernet; USB 3.0
.SER file format
firecapture buffer enabled

Two extreme examples, image ID #138 and 136:
Case #1: Full resolution 120second run at 3.5ms exposure hit 47 fps got 5582 frames at 16% efficiency. Using the best 10% in autostakkert! Gave me 558 frames which is a pretty low signal to noise ration giving a notsogreat image quality.
Case #2: Last nights test of ROI 400×400, autocentering, cutout box of 400×400 hit 220fps giving 26091 frames at 77% efficiency. Using the best 10% to stack gives me 2609 frames, 4 times more signal to noise than before.
Looking at the images themselves

Case#1

copyright StarlightCascade Observatory


Case#2

copyright StarlightCascade Observatory


Looking at the images zoomed in a lot, Case#2 image is superior with much less noise resulting from the increased frame rate and more frames to stack as signal. Smaller ROI and cutouts are in fact better!

These were taken in poor seeing and poor transparency and a lot of wind and wind gusts. I really hope to test this again under much better seeing conditions!
There is still more work to do and maybe gain a little more efficiency.

There are potential bottlenecks still:
Usb3.0 data rate vs camera output
usb cable quality and length
usb port on computer
usb bus inside computer
data rate to drive (nvme faster than sata)
computer cpu and ram

USB cables are the bane of imagers… having spares and testing/swapping them out may have large effects.

Ensure that the usb port you are using for the camera is used by nothing else (ie a hub with a usb2 keyboard or mouse connected as well). Those will slow down the bus rate and the camera will be affected.

There are few planetary images in our Centre… so most of this article may not be of interest to you. Now. It will make a great reference in the future if you do enter into planetary imaging!

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Frozen soil 20250320

Mar20
by kevin on March 20, 2025 at 11:17 and modified on March 20, 2025. at 11:19
Posted In: gardening

Today we went out on the first day of Spring, the Equinox, and measured each vegbed to see how much of the soil had thawed.

Vegbed1, raised, garden ties 2″
Vegbed2, raised, 2″x8″x2 coarses 12″
Vegbed3, raised, garden ties, 5″
Vegbed4, onground, 2″
Vegbed5, onground, 3″
Vegbed6, raised, ties, 4″
Vegbed7, raised, 2″x8″x2 coarses, 2″
Vegbed8, raised, 2″x8″x3 coarses, 2″
Vegbed9, raised, ties, 4″
Vegbed10, raised, ties, 5″
Vegbed11, raised, 2″x6″x3 coarses, 8″
Herbbed, raised, 2″

Still have a ways to go before any of the beds get renovated this spring.

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Total Lunar Eclipse 20250314

Mar14
by kevin on March 14, 2025 at 10:53
Posted In: astronomy

This is the camera setup we used last night for the total lunar eclipse.

Skywatcher Star Adventurer on a tripod

Ball joint head

canon T7i DSLR with a 100-300mm zoom lens at 300mm f5.6

a usb heater on the lens, a dew shield on the lens

an intervalometer programmed for a 60 second interval

a plastic “rain coat” for the camera.

a small 5ah lithium battery pack with 5vdc output (meant to recharge smartphones) to power the heater

I had big problems with focusing.. digital zoom all the way in, focused, but on release of the focus ring, it changed/moved. then also it seemed to change by itself when nothing touched the setup. and then because the star adventurer was only loosely polar aligned and not levelled at all, the moon drifted a little during the hours and I released the ball joint to reposition it… and the focus changed again, even though I was careful not to go near it.

The total eclipse image shows the top edge is much lighter and some stars did show as well. even at 2 sec at iso 800 the image was overexposed.

All that said, I think it is still the best total lunar eclipse image I have ever taken!

whens the next one????

🙂

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Jupiter 20250311

Mar12
by kevin on March 12, 2025 at 20:52
Posted In: astronomy

copyright StarlightCascade Observatory

This is the best image of the run of imaging of Jupiter Tuesday evening. The highlight of the night was a double moon shadow transit, Europa first and smallest and second Ganymede and larger.

Form left to right is:

Ganymede shadow, Europa shadow, Europa, Ganymede

seeing was poor, transparency was poor and winds were gusty. Clouds rolled in before the transits were complete 🙁

This is the best image of the 49 runs, the best 10% 10K frames at 3ms ramping up to 10ms at the end of the 49 runs.

Jupiter diameter is only 38 arcseconds
Below is the animated GIF of the 49 runs.

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Mars 20250311

Mar12
by kevin on March 12, 2025 at 20:46
Posted In: astronomy

Whilst waiting for the double moon shadow transit on Jupiter Tuesday evening, I did a few runs of Mars imaging.

The wind was brutal.. gusting and then not. It did not get a lot better for Jupiter later on.. in any event…

This was the best 10% of 13K frames of approx 1.5ms each. Seeing was poor, transparency was poor and the Moon was nearing full phase.

There is some blur off to the right of the planet.. almost certainly an artefact of processing the wobbly wind blown image. Mars was less than 10 arcseconds in diameter

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Jupiter Impact Detection Project

Feb24
by kevin on February 24, 2025 at 10:53
Posted In: astronomy

Jupiter Impact Detection

Besides imaging Jupiter for the outofthisworldlisness of Jupiter, its moons transitting the surface, its moon shadows transitting its surface, the Great Red Spot, bands and belts, and many other spots, amateurs can also watch for impacts on Jupiter itself. Anyone remember Comet Shoemaker Levy 9 in 1994?

So.. I have been aware of this concept, and even used the DeTect software package from time to time… but never in a consistent manner. During a Citizen Science Education and Public Outreach Webinar on Feb 23rd, I learned something tremendous. One can install Detect (https://github.com/DeTeCt-PSWS/DeTeCt-MFC/releases/tag/v3.9.0) on the same system as Autostakkert! v4 (https://www.autostakkert.com/) and… wait for it…

autostakkert!v4 will automatically invoke DeTect and have it search for Jupiter Impacts *whilst* at the same time, doing its normal stacking process!

As seen in this image (autostakkertdetect.jpg) .. there is a tiny icon that looks like Jupiter (highlighted) and the check box is now checked after install of DeTect on the system.

I am looking forward to have this additional value added science tool for use in the future. In the meantime you can also run it on the raw saved .SER files from the past. For those RASC-KC members that ask.. why do you save your raw data? This is another great reason!

So I fired up DeTect and aimed it at my online archive of 2025 Jupiter .SER raw video files. Processing those 87 files of approx 528GB will probably take a few hours. Especially since I just saw that there were also some Mars files in there… I wonder what it will do with them? After that I will starting running through 2024, month by month, probably in overnight runs.

This is the realtime display (image detect.jpg) of the software at work.

There is another big impact imaging project aimed at detecting lunar impacts… But I haven’t tried that out yet 🙂

(https://www.nasa.gov/meteoroid-environment-office/lunar-impact-monitoring/)

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Jupiter 20250221

Feb22
by kevin on February 22, 2025 at 14:04
Posted In: astronomy

Greetings!

Another night that looked promising, what with -7C before 7pm, and skies that looked clear.

One hour, 16 imaging runs of Jupiter and a final temp of -15C later I shut everything down and tried out a new processing method.

*instead* of running all 16 imaging runs (abut 70GB) through autostakkert at 5%, 10%, and 25%, then bringing in each of the 16*3=48 images into Registax and doing wavelets on them, and then bringing in one of the 5,10, or 25% runs into GIMP to do three operations of black point, colour saturation and unsharp mask, and then onto ImageMagick for annotation, I tried the new method. It came to me from one of the so many online video tutorials that I have watched in the last month that I can’t even remember where it came from! The above method can take hours (sometimes a few, sometimes 10), especially running through autostakkert.

This time I took the 16 runs, put them in autostakkert at 10% and turned on the “sharpened” option. This does a much poorer job then Registax, but is batchable and automatic. This took mere minutes. I then looked at the sharpened “draft” results and chose only the best few. Those “chosen ones” went back into autostakkert with sharpened turned off, and the best 5%, 10% and 25% turned on. Then onto Registax, Gimp and Imagemagick as before.

This best result shows that seeing was poor, if not very poor. The raw video shows Jupiter bouncing around left, right, up and down. Firecapture ROI and Cutout Box options can minimize those motions but cannot compensate for the “Z-axis” of in and out movement. The result is a fairly poor contrast, low resolution image of Jupiter.

I do however, love the new, shortened processing method. Instead of results tomorrow, they are available today!

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Live data uploading broke – now working again

Feb13
by kevin on February 13, 2025 at 11:57 and modified on February 13, 2025. at 11:59
Posted In: tech

The last successful automated data upload to this website failed on 2025jan17.
Just today, testing showed that it was functional again.
No cause was found.. perhaps just a glitch, perhaps something to do with updated packages… who knows?

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