Archive for November, 2011

9 results.

software updates

Nov29
by kevin on November 29, 2011 at 07:05 and modified on November 29, 2011. at 07:09
Posted In: astronomy, tech

just a short note to point out that a couple of pieces of software that we use have been updated recently.

The first is the BOINC, moving up to v6.12.34 for windows and linux. BOINC lets you contribute computing power on your home PC to projects doing research in many scientific areas. We have been using the software to work with the setiathome project since 1999 August 13th. We run two accounts, one from home and one from work.
The home account has achieved:
Total credit 1,428,665
Recent average credit 559.65
SETI@home classic workunits 12,167
SETI@home classic CPU time 108,615 hours

The work account has achieved:
Total credit 3,196,766
Recent average credit 4,311.45
SETI@home classic workunits 48,425
SETI@home classic CPU time 443,950 hours

The other is a data logging program called radio skypipe v2.3.19. We use it to record data from the FM Meteor detection system and the radiojove radio telescope.

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Upcoming gardening events

Nov26
by kevin on November 26, 2011 at 12:01 and modified on December 6, 2011. at 05:42
Posted In: gardening

Winter is approaching so it is natural for gardeners and growers to start looking through seed catalogs and thinking about the spring.

NFU (National Farmers Union)
NFU NEW FARM PROJECT NEWS
FALL GATHERING 2011 – Dec. 10th, 2011
Just a quick note to remind you to pre-register by Dec. 1st to book your spot and help us out with event planning and food preparation. Online registration is quick and easy and can be done by going to http://www.newfarmproject.ca/fall-gathering/ and clicking on the “Click here to register” button, or by calling Ian Stutt at 613-353-6622. Registration will continue right to the event, space permitting.
Also, if you have any promotional material (business cards, brochures, etc), please bring them to display on the networking tables that will be set up.

From the Heirloom Seed Sanctuary
Winter Solstice Celebration
From this longest night, the days lengthen, so that even in the coldest time we can hope for more light. But like the seeds we must be patient and rest in anticipation of the burst of energy we will need come spring!
Please join the Heirloom Seed Sanctuary in marking the Winter Solstice at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday December 21 at the “Barn”
1200 Princess St. behind Providence Motherhouse.
Song, ritual and food will be shared. There is no cost for this event, but donations are always
welcome and help to support the work of the Heirloom Seed Sanctuary.

FEBRUARY 24, 25, 26 2012
http://www.kingstongardeningfestival.com
700 Gardiners Rd. (the old Norcom building) south of Taylor-Kidd
Friday 1:00pm – 9:00pm Saturday 10:00am- 5:00pm Sunday 10:00am- 5:00pm

Saturday Feb 25, 2012
Eco Farm Day 2012 Cornwall, ON
Eco Farm Day, hosted by Canadian Organic Growers, Ottawa Chapter, is the leading learning and networking conference for organic agriculture and food in Eastern Ontario and beyond.

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Linux Fedora 16 upgrade complete

Nov21
by kevin on November 21, 2011 at 08:46 and modified on August 2, 2012. at 08:46
Posted In: tech

The series of updates to the linux fedora servers completed on Saturday November 19th, 2011. There were a few
small issues but they seem to have been resolved for the most part.
Now we should have a countdown of about 6 months until the release of the next one! 🙂
In the meantime, we are now using the linux kernel v3.1.1, which you would always expect to have more features than the v2 series, but in reality, v2 kept that designation for quite a while and v3 is more of a name change than a major milestone.

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Jupiter anon

Nov20
by kevin on November 20, 2011 at 10:34 and modified on November 20, 2011. at 10:38
Posted In: astronomy

Two relatively clear nights in the last week with a lot of cloud, so outside to setup the Lx200gps and do some planetary imaging with the Meade LPI imager.
Jupiter is well up in the evenings now, in the east.
For the evenings run on 2011 November 18th we let the Meade imager software collect and integrate.

Jupiter with the Great Red Spot

 Exposing for the moons

 Great Red Spot transit

Using a x2 barlow lens for the first time.
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Asteroid 2005 YU55 a bust

Nov09
by kevin on November 9, 2011 at 10:52
Posted In: astronomy

We were preparing to go our and observe and image the close flyby of asteroid 2005 YU55.
It was scheduled to be within one degree of Altair at 18:07:30 EST yesterday Tuesday November 8th, 2011…. BUT it was totally cloudy over the observatory.
Too bad, but what with the near full moon it would have been difficult at best in any event.
Also the only imaging system up and running right now has a very narrow field of view. Too narrow to point accurately without a better prediction of where the rock was going to be.

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Fedora 16 Linux coming soon

Nov07
by kevin on November 7, 2011 at 11:12 and modified on November 9, 2011. at 10:50
Posted In: tech


Fedora 16 linux will be released shortly and we have at least 9 machines that will need the upgrade, scheduled for the next week or two, depending on how things go.
As usual, we start with the non-critical systems and work our way up to the critical ones.
I don’t see a lot of new features that mean anything to me, other than using kernel 3.x and maybe a newer gnome shell.

Updated 2011 Nov 09: Downloaded the live cd and the install dvd and did an upgrade of one system yesterday. Two more servers done this morning without any issues. There are around 100+ more updates after the reboot, from packages upgraded during the release freeze of the Fedora16 package itself.
It went very well. Nice new look. Plugged in a webcam and it worked right away. Not sure if the audio is working yet.

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Jupiter Saturday Nov 05, 2011

Nov06
by kevin on November 6, 2011 at 10:41
Posted In: astronomy

This is an image of Jupiter (jupiter15-139.jpg) from last night (Saturday November 5th, 2011).
It is using the Meade LPI software that integrates all on its own and this is the 139th image of the exposure sequence. Io is the moon closest and Europa the farthest.
This finished at 21:24 EDT. Each exposure was about 0.044 sec on the Meade LPI imager.

Also attached is the first image(jupiter15-1.jpg) of the sequence, just to give you an idea of how much difference the integration makes.

This builtin integration in the imaging software itself makes it difficult to use another 3rd party image stacker, like deepsky stacker v3.3.2. I could not figure out how to tell it to register the image when it was looking for stars as a reference and there were none.

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Napanee Food Bank Garden 2011 Summary

Nov04
by kevin on November 4, 2011 at 12:24 and modified on November 4, 2011. at 13:04
Posted In: gardening, napanee food bank garden


Napanee Food Bank Garden 2011 Summary
We kept a logbook of harvest this year and today I went through and transcribed it into a 2011foodbankgardensummary spreadsheet (11kb .pdf).

Basically the summary goes like this: 88 cabbages, 63 squash and 70 bushels of beets, carrots, cucumbers, green beans, lettuce, onions, peas, peppers, potatos, tomatos and yellow beans.

Thanks to all the volunteers, especially Susan Withers who made the logbook happen.
Now at least we have a baseline of harvest goods to look at, along with how much of each type of vegetable.
Kim & I spent approx 1 hr/week for 25 odd weeks tending our three rows. It was fun!
Our involvement was based through the Lennox & Addington Horticultural Society.

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telescope mods

Nov03
by kevin on November 3, 2011 at 09:48 and modified on November 4, 2011. at 12:28
Posted In: astronomy

Wednesday Nov 2nd saw us install a new dew shield for the LX200 made from camping foamy mattress and duct tape:) That and a 12vdc 1amp power supply to run the 12watt heater wrapped around the corrector plate and we were able to image for about 2 hours.

Of course it was warm enough that there probably wasn’t any dew to speak of!

The air was turbulent and windy enough that we thought the too-large dew shield was acting as a sail and wobbling the scope around, so we took that off as we were imaging the moon.

That did not help… the images were still showing a lot of distortion and “rolling” during the very short exposures.

All in all a good observing run. tracking was excellent but pointing was off (had to move about a degree to the first target, the moon and about a degree for Jupiter later on).

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