Transit of Mercury 2019 Nov 11

Oct07
by catz on October 7, 2019 at 15:52 and modified on October 7, 2019. at 15:55
Posted In: astronomy

2019nov11

The transit of Mercury across the face of the Sun is fast approaching!
Time to start thinking and preparing for the event. This graphics shows that the entire transit will be visible for us in eastern ontario canada.

From wikipedia:
Transits of Mercury occur in May or November. The last four transits occurred on November 15, 1999; May 7, 2003; November 8, 2006; and May 9, 2016. The next will occur on November 11, 2019, and then on November 13, 2032. A typical transit lasts several hours.
Start 12:35 UTC
Mid 15:20 UTC
End 18:04 UTC
Total transit time = 18:04-12:35 = 5 hours 29 minutes.
Daylight Saving Time switches on Sunday 2019 November 03!
We are 5 hours behind UTC so for us the transit starts at 07:35 EST and ends at 13:03 EST.

our plans are to:
1) video the entire event with a camcorder with a solar filter
2) take still images every few minutes with a DSLR camera and a 300mm lens with a solar filter.
3) take still images with an astro camera on a telescope with a solar filter.

The path takes it very close to being across the middle of the sun as well.. providing for a longer transit time.

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complex!

Oct07
by catz on October 7, 2019 at 15:19 and modified on October 7, 2019. at 15:20
Posted In: tech

charger

This is a 2-3 year old ryobi 40v lithium battery charger. It has stopped working. I wondered how complex it could be inside… a transformer, a bridge rectifier and maybe a capacitor or two to smooth out rough edges. First I had to find a &@#$)@# torx screwdriver as they don’t seem to want people to look inside.

This is what I found:

inside charger


From the 110vac on the right the circuit starts with a transformer at the bottom, a bridge rectifier and then a 220uF capacitor.. exactly what I was expecting.
Then there was all that other stuff! Wow. Another transformer, some non-power handling diodes, lots of capacitors and a couple of ICs! A friend suggested the rest of the components are a switching power supply. And the other thing to note is the three output leads (red, black and white) to the battery.

A replacement charger is in the $140-200 range so cobbling together something that will charge would be very nice!

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library indexing

Sep17
by catz on September 17, 2019 at 09:48 and modified on September 18, 2019. at 08:51
Posted In: life the universe and everything, Science Fiction, space


We started work on indexing the library. We are trying out various processes on other collections to find the best method before we look to the science library (the largest).

The older method of getting all details including publisher, date, printing, edition, isbn, 2ndary titles, extra authors or editors.. was too much.
Now we are starting to settle on author, title and if we still have it on the shelf 🙂

General science fiction has topped out at over 1000 volumes.
Above is a snapshot of the Star Trek genre. We found it easier to take an image of the bookshelf and then manually transcribe the info from there, rather than moving the books to the computer or goign back and forth. We have also tried a barcode scanner and software, but the vast majority of our books were published before ISBN came into effect…
So far the Treks have gone over 200.
A guess at the science section.. over 2000? the gardening section? over 500.

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Sunrise over SuperSID

Aug16
by catz on August 16, 2019 at 15:17
Posted In: astronomy, life the universe and everything


Sunrise one recent morning looking over the TARDIS observatory, the Serenity Observatory and the SuperSID antenna.

Great way to start the day.. especially with hot-water-passed-through-ground-up-coffee-beans!

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David Levy Speaking to RASC Belleville and Kingston Centres

Aug12
by catz on August 12, 2019 at 08:48
Posted In: astronomy

Renowned Comet Hunter David H. Levy will be at Stirling Hall Theatre A on Queen’s University campus at 3:00pm on Sunday 2019 September 08, to speak to members of the RASC Belleville Centre and Kingston Centre. This is open to the public and there is no charge for attending.
Bio:
Dr. David H Levy, Wendee’s Husband
A short bio for a tall man.
David H Levy is arguably one of the most enthusiastic and famous amateur astronomers of our time. Although he has never taken a class in astronomy, he has written over three dozen books, has written for three astronomy magazines and has appeared on television programs featured on the Discovery and the Science Channels. Among David’s accomplishments are 23 comet discoveries, the most famous being Shoemaker-Levy 9 that collided with Jupiter in 1994, a few hundred shared asteroid discoveries, an Emmy for the documentary Three Minutes to Impact, five honorary doctorates in Science and a PhD which combines astronomy and English Literature. Currently, he is the editor of the web magazine Sky’s Up!, has a monthly column, Skyward, in our local Vail Voice paper. David continues to hunt for comets and asteroids, and lectures worldwide.
Stirling Hall is located at 64 Bader Lane, just off University Avenue. Street parking is available at no charge on Sundays as are the Queen’s University surface parking lots.
David has recently published his autobiography. Copies will be available for purchase at the event amd the author will be available for signing afterward.

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seti@home update

Aug12
by catz on August 12, 2019 at 08:23 and modified on August 12, 2019. at 10:25
Posted In: astronomy

It’s been over twenty years now of processing data from radio telescopes looking for signals of intelligence. There has been an ebb and flow of the data collected vs the processing power to go through it. We seem to be in a time of more processing than data gathering again.

First Seen : Mon, 12 Apr 99 07:58:51 -0400
Overall Rank : 11,983 of 4,795,232
Percentile : 99.75011%

There is a nice article talking about the 20th anniversary here:
https://www.theringer.com/tech/2019/5/24/18637942/seti-home-aliens-citizen-science-extraterrestrial-life-20th-anniversary

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Fireball! 20190724 02:44 EDT (06:44 UTC)

Jul25
by catz on July 25, 2019 at 08:59 and modified on July 25, 2019. at 09:32
Posted In: astronomy

Zowee! A Big One! Meteorite that is.
This is a combined image of 8 all sky cameras capturing the event on Wednesday morning, 2019 July 24th at 02:44 EDT (06:44 UTC).
Our camera is middle row, 1st column, listed as “yarker” in the lower right identifier.

Also below is a video, 14Mb of the event:

The NASA page is at https://fireballs.ndc.nasa.gov/skyfalls/events/20190724-064340
There is a good chance of some surviving to impact the ground, to the southwest of Bancroft Ontario

The UWO release https://news.westernu.ca/2019/07/fireball-space-meteor-ontario/

The AMS Event: https://fireball.amsmeteors.org/members/imo_view/event/2019/3146

Spaceweathers’ coverage: http://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=25&month=07&year=2019

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Garlic Harvest 2019 – Day Two

Jul23
by catz on July 23, 2019 at 08:29 and modified on July 23, 2019. at 08:34
Posted In: gardening, garlic


Monday 2019 July 22 was the great garlic harvest of 2019 Day Two. We put in two hours of pulling the garlic out of the ground after loosening with a digging fork.
Vegbed 2 (70 ft^2) was partially completed on Day One and completely finished on Day Two.
Vegbed 3 (60 ft^2) was also harvested along with Vegbed 1 (110 ft^2).

Remaining are two more beds: vegbed 9 (60 ft^2) and vegbed 10 (60 ft^2). We should be able to make a dent in those after work today.

The ground is so dry that cleaning this year is done without water, just wiping the dirt off and then hung up to dry for a couple of weeks under the leanto shade with good moving air as some of the walls are just insect netting.

The spring growing season was very cool, cloudy and wet. This may have contributed to the larger than normal amount of winterkill this year, along with a much smaller bulb size in general.

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Summer cats

Jul08
by catz on July 8, 2019 at 08:16 and modified on July 8, 2019. at 08:17
Posted In: cats


There are never enough soft cushions to lay on.


And there is never enough food for Dora, here asking “you gots foods for me?”

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Summer gardens

Jul08
by catz on July 8, 2019 at 08:13 and modified on July 8, 2019. at 11:15
Posted In: gardening


This is the last of the mini-garden tie constructed raised beds. This is all we have built since the early 2000’s but in the end analysis, they are not deep enough for many crops, do not last very long before rotting out (16 years?), and are actually more expensive then dimensional lumber for deeper beds.


This is the newest bed, made from three layers of 2″x6″ x8′ lumber (depth of 17″). It is protected with a layer of weedcloth between the earth and the wood and was built in 2018. We will see how long it lasts!

Going forward each year, we will replace one of the older minitie beds and replace it with three layers of 2″x8″ lumber.

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The Tomatos are In!

Jun10
by catz on June 10, 2019 at 09:32 and modified on June 10, 2019. at 12:05
Posted In: gardening, Heirloom & Heritage Tomatos

It was a great last few days to be gardening.
We started transplanting Tomatos from the greenhouse stands outside (hardening them off the last few days) into the grounds of VegBeds 4 and 5.
Friday for 2 hours, Saturday for 6 hours and Sunday the last of the work was completed.

Some planting notes from 2019:
We have approximately 135 heirloom tomato plants of approx 60 types.
We plant them in rows running north south approx 1 3/4 to 2′ apart in the row.
Rows are 3′ apart.
We use 2×2 stakes that are at least 3′ tall (or at least started that way).
Each 2×2 stake/plant gets its own sign. We print off in alphabetical order, all of the Tomatos in 14 point font on 8.5″ x11″ paper and then have it laminated at the local Staples shop for approx $3 each. Then they get separated with scissors and then stapled onto the stake, on the north side of the stake.
The 2×2 stakes last at least 5 seasons. The laminated signage, at least 3-4 years.
Once in the ground, their small popsicle stick name from seed planting, is also put into the ground as a backup. Then we also add a sharp skewer stick about 6-10″ tall, right up against the plant stalk. This prevents cutworms from popping up in the night, wrapping around the talk and cutting it, killing the plant.
Lastly we heavily water them with a watering can. This is supposed to help reduce transplant shock.

We lost two plants the first night, even with the sticks. These were replanted with other types.

In general the plants are smaller and spindlier than we would like, but the weather is good and they should survive the first week no problem.

We have several experiments this year. One is to use two TPosts and run bailer twine inbetween them in a Florida Weave style, supporting the plants as they grow taller. If this works out, it will replace a lot of 2×2 staking and tieing up later on.
We are also letting an indeterminate type, a Sunrise Bumblebee, climb up a 7′ post, tying it up as it goes, to see if it will make the top. This will help keep the fruit off the ground and let it get more light.

One other experiment is to use 5-7-7 fertilizer . We chose one Russian Peasant tomato plant to receive an initial 2 tablespoons of fertilizer mixed into the soil, then the plant, then 4 more tablespoons sprinkled on the ground surface. Two other Russian Peasant of similar size and health act as the controls.
Typically we have never used after planting fertilizer on any veg plant… only compost and composted manure in the soil tilled in before planting.

Interspersed with the tomatos plants are more than a few basil herbs… something about eating fresh tomatos and basil.. perhaps even on a pizza! MMmmmmmm.
Marigold flowers were also put in with the tomatos.

A partial list of the tomatos:
SCGO Tomato Acadian Cherry
SCGO Tomato Alacrity
SCGO Tomato Amish Paste
SCGO Tomato Anna Russian
SCGO Tomato Ashleigh
SCGO Tomato Azoychka
SCGO Tomato Berkley Tie Dye
SCGO Tomato Bonny Best
SCGO Tomato Brandywine
SCGO Tomato Buckeye State
SCGO Tomato Burpee’s Dwarf Giant
SCGO Tomato Cleota Pink
SCGO Tomato Dandy
SCGO Tomato Earliana
SCGO Tomato Earliest & Best
SCGO Tomato Elbe
SCGO Tomato Eros aka Red Eros
SCGO Tomato Fargo Yellow Pear
SCGO Tomato Garden Peach
SCGO Tomato Georgia Streak
SCGO Tomato Golden Delight
SCGO Tomato Green Grape
SCGO Tomato Green Zebra
SCGO Tomato Ground Cherry
SCGO Tomato Honey
SCGO Tomato Hotset
SCGO Tomato Hungarian Pink Heart
SCGO Tomato Jaune Flamme
SCGO Tomato Jefferson Giant 1880
SCGO Tomato Jersey Devil
SCGO Tomato Lava Flow
SCGO Tomato Ledoux Special
SCGO Tomato Lemon Drop
SCGO Tomato Livingston Buckeye State
SCGO Tomato Livingston Globe 1905
SCGO Tomato Livingston Gold Ball 1892
SCGO Tomato Livingston Honor Bright 1897
SCGO Tomato Livingston Magnus 1900
SCGO Tomato Livingston Main Crop (post 1905)
SCGO Tomato Livingston Stone
SCGO Tomato Manitoba
SCGO Tomato Margaret Olson
SCGO Tomato Moscow
SCGO Tomato Mr Griffiths florida cherry
SCGO Tomato Mr Griffiths Lynda Silver
SCGO Tomato Napoli Paste
SCGO Tomato Nile River Egyptian
SCGO Tomato Oxheart
SCGO Tomato Peasant Russian
SCGO Tomato Pink Bumble Bee
SCGO Tomato Polish Giant Paste
SCGO Tomato Purple Yellow Bumblebee
SCGO Tomato Red Deborah Barr-Mom
SCGO Tomato Russian Saskatchewan
SCGO Tomato Sams Small Paste
SCGO Tomato Scarlet Beefsteak
SCGO Tomato Schellenburgs Favourite
SCGO Tomato Scotia
SCGO Tomato Sunrise Bumblebee
SCGO Tomato Tigerella
SCGO Tomato Yellow Brandywine

Because we are in this for seed-saving, record keeping is critical. After the plants are in, the signs are up, the notes are taken, transcribed and backed up, the maps are drawn, we also take a video camera and walk the gardens, reading out loud the row numbers, the plant names and other information.
This has saved our **ses more than a few times as one set of records gets lost, destroyed, or just fades away…

Moving forward every few weeks, we will support them trunks with velcro ties against the 2×2 stake.

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Time, spring, summer

Jun04
by catz on June 4, 2019 at 09:47 and modified on June 4, 2019. at 09:48
Posted In: life the universe and everything


Time has been slipping away of late. Spring was late, summer will be late and there are still so many things to do.
There is still a pile (smaller) of earth in the driveway, waiting to go into beds. There is still a lot of grass in the flower beds, waiting to come out. There is still a lot of planetary imaging to be done, especially as there has not been any in two years really.

So.. the next few days will be a trifle busy…
The strawberries have been covered to protect them from the ravages of the evil chipmunks… we hope to transplant all of the heirloom veg into the ground over the next 5 days. That will then free up time to move the rest of the dirt and pull the rest of the grass. Which then leads to cutting the lawn.. again.
Which then… finally! leads to mounting an old in storage 15cm newtonian optical tube on a bracket to attached to another optical tube on a mount. If the ZWO ASI 290MC camera then can come to focus.. presto! we may be doing some imaging again… before Jupiter gets too far around the sky.


This image of Jupiter was two years ago to this day. We now have a better camera and will be using a slightly smaller telescope… will see what happens!

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