Allsky Camera trials

Oct30
by kevin on October 30, 2008 at 10:24 and modified on October 30, 2008. at 13:25
Posted In: astronomy

We have been attempting to commission an AllSky Camera for some time now.  It helps when the clouds go away 🙂  So.. This is an SBIG ST237A camera with a wide angle lens, a proprietary control box and a parallel port data cable.   It is housed in a 30cm acrylic dome that has a circulation fan and a 5 watt heater that runs at night.  The camera control software is also proprietary, CCDSoft.  The object of this whole setup is to have the camera image all night long, in the hopes of spotting very large/bright meteors entering the atmosphere, burning up and perhaps a small chance of having one survive reentry.  Using three cameras spaced apart, we can calculate a flight path and a probably impact area.  This camera is the first testbed and once operational, would be used as a pattern to build two or more.

One of the issues is the overwhelming manual nature of the system.  We remote desktop in to the Windows XPPro workstation running CCDOps and connected to the camera control box, start up CCDOps, turn on the Peltier cooler and then decide on the exposure for the night (4 minutes for moonless nights, 2 minutes for mooned nights), then figure out how many exposures you can take before twilight (4 minutes each gives 15/hour, 9 hours gives 135 exposures).  Roughly.. as there is more time involved to download the image from the system as well.  They get stored on a linux file server where the next morning a series of bash scripts process them, renaming each image with its date/time stamp, converting them to .jpg from .fits and then combining and converting the .jpgs into an animated .gif  and then finally moving them into a local data storage  area.  In the morning we must manually connect to the workstation again, turn off the cooler and shutdown the camera.

We have attempted to use other software (such as Handyavi, Homewatcher etc.) but  none of them can see the camera.  Things that we want to do include: annoating the images to include location, exposure date/time, length of exposure, orientation ,etc, automate the start/stop of the imaging all night adjusting for changing sunset/sunrise times, find a better method to generate a video of the images overnight (smaller file size) and finally, some kind of automated processing to search for meteor events.

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Mexico Day 2

Oct28
by kevin on October 28, 2008 at 20:23 and modified on October 28, 2008. at 20:23
Posted In: travel

Sunday was cloudy and hot and humid.  It is amazing how fast we adapted to the climate and how much we loved it.  The beach was the first stop and all went out to test their individual stability against the surf.  The view back up the hill to the resort was also spectacular.  A good thing too… all that exercise up and down the endless stairs did help counteract all of the food and drink… a little at least!.

What next? afternoon torrential rains of course.  Funny how many pool participants did not even seem to notice, much less wine.  But it was warm rain.  A few hours of that along with the not so gentle sound of the surf, and relaxation started to set in.   Sunday was the day we discovered the room gecko.  A tiny little thing, maybe 10 cm long.  Supposedly more afraid of us than we of it, it soon showed up with friends out in the hallway.  Lots of friends.  Geckos everywhere!  And frogs and centipedes and more.  That would explain the heavy duty room door sweeps.

Darkness comes early? and faster than up north.   Luckily the pool had lights and eventually the long day came to an end.

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Mexico – Day 1

Oct26
by kevin on October 26, 2008 at 16:04 and modified on January 30, 2019. at 16:51
Posted In: travel

Puerto Vallarta Saturday Day 1.

The heat and humidity were fantastic.  Something to remind we Canadians what it is like in other, warmer parts of the world… and why in the Earth did we not take up the Turks and Caicos back in the early 1980’s on their offer to join up with Canada???  Saturday Morning showed the Bay (Banderas Bay) to be at low tide, albeit with a large storm surge kicked up by Hurricane Norbert.  We explored the site, moving up and down a lot of stairs and a lot of slopes.  Walking through the gardens and saying hello to the spider monkeys was great.  A lot of our tropical house plants were here as well.. only several meters taller than at home.


saturday morning at the beach

saturday morning at the beach

main pool area

main pool area

sunset over the pacific

sunset over the pacific


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Last few jobs of Gardening

Oct26
by kim hay on October 26, 2008 at 13:36
Posted In: gardening

It isn’t raining at the moment, so I thought I would move the Bull’s Blood beets (heritage) to garden 4A in the SW corner.  I moved 5 beets, so we will see how they over winter. I put 3-4 inches of straw over them, to give them some protection.  We will see how this works. The geramiums are pulled and put in a box for the winter, these too will go under the foyer.  I put the cana bulbs in sawdust for the winter (need more sawdust),  but these will have to be moved to the foyer storage area.  Also a red peonie tubor is put in here as well.  I may put this out in the front garden by the road, but not sure yet.  Filled up the bird feeders, cut down the dead hollyhocks, and the siberian iris seed stocks, if that is what they are.  I need to research this.  Its cool, with a SE wind gusting to 20-25 km. Rain is moving in this afternoon, but the fire is warm, so inside is where I will stay.

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Arrival in Puerto Vallarta Mexico

Oct25
by kevin on October 25, 2008 at 12:48 and modified on October 25, 2008. at 12:51
Posted In: travel

This was the scene that greeted us on our arrival late Friday afternoon in Puerto Vallarta Mexico.  rain. lots of rain.  We knew about Hurricane Norbert a few hundred km off to the west and also about Tropical Storm Odile heading our way from a few hundred km to the south.  But when we walked out of that plane we were hit by a wall of heat and humidity.

Leaving toronto a few hours earlier, it was maybe 14 degrees C and our typical 40% humidity.  Puerto Vallarta was about 35 deg and 100% humidity.  It was unreal.  Worse than walking into the tropical jungle section of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Montreal.

The airport was interesting.  We were hearded outside and waited to get inside buses that transported us across the tarmac.  Jumping large puddles we entered the terminal and started to walk through long wet, humid hallways back to the area that we arrived at, albeit one floor down.  Paperwork paperwork paperwork and presto! We were gringo touristas in Mexico.  then customs.. press a button, green light,  through some doors and BANG! 30 people all trying to tell us to come with them to our hotel.  30 minutes later we were on our coach bus with A/C, it was getting dark and we headed off on a 1 hour trip to the resort.. in the dark.. in the rain…  that was an experience in itself!  More about the Palladium Vallarta coming up!

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Adventures at SCO goes online

Oct25
by kevin on October 25, 2008 at 10:33
Posted In: Uncategorized

We’ve linked in the wordpress based blog into the Starlight Cascade Observatory & Gardens  webpage today.

This should give us a better ability to add images in, maintain archives and move articles around.

Mexican sunset

Mexican sunset

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Clean up day in the gardens

Oct05
by kim hay on October 5, 2008 at 08:27 and modified on October 5, 2008. at 08:45
Posted In: gardening, Uncategorized

Well, on Saturday after the dump run, and the early voting, we came back and cleaned up the gardens, and got them ready for the winter.  Kevin cut the grass, shorter than normal, and we cut down some branches of the trees.  Filled the bird feeders, and worked our butts off.

As a reward we sat out front in the chairs and took in the warm sunshine when it came out from behind the clouds. A glass of wine, great conversation, and realizing that soon, we will be on a beach in the warm Mexican sunshine watching sunsets on the ocean.

It has been a great year, the grass is still green, the gardens did well, despite the tomatoes taking a long time to ripen, and we got to go camping, and enjoy nature.

Today, more cleaning of gardens, too much spurge in the front garden, its taking over ……

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The Morning After

Oct04
by kim hay on October 4, 2008 at 07:04 and modified on October 4, 2008. at 10:38
Posted In: astronomy

August 13,2008

Last night and the night before, we were out watching the Perseid meteor shower. Last night at the predicted time of UT for the peak, there was a rush of meteors.

There were a lot of clouds moving in and out of the view, and mosquitoes , like crazy, but the night was good just the same.

We left the area we were in around midnight, and drove home, and promptly fell asleep. If I had a nap in the afternoon, then I would have been able to stay up.

Well today, we go camping……..maybe more meteors tonight.

till the next time, keep looking up, and turn your lights down.

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Today’s White Puffy Things

Oct04
by kim hay on October 4, 2008 at 06:58 and modified on October 4, 2008. at 10:43
Posted In: Uncategorized

From a previous post from older program (August 14)

Well, sitting in my office today, I watched the large white puffy things grow in the North. Eventually it did rain today, but not before I managed to do some solar observing, again the sun was blank.

Only one day to go, and holidays will be here. Our weekend starts off with a wedding, wedding shower, camping, gardening, and oh maybe the garage will finally get cleaned out.

Sara flies into Toronto tonight with her Nan, and then home by car tomorrow. Its been a couple of weeks now, since she has been gone, and now she is thinking of heading back out west to live…….

Home we went, and found another hook worm in the tomatoes, which are starting to finally ripen up……

well, time to drink the wine before it goes warm, and maybe kick back and watch some Olympics, since the garlic is all done, and drying quite nicely.

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Heritage Tomato Day, a taste of History

Oct04
by kim hay on October 4, 2008 at 06:54 and modified on February 4, 2009. at 13:00
Posted In: gardening, Heirloom & Heritage Tomatos

This post has been taken from an older blog program but I wanted to share the world of Heritage Tomatoes

Today, I am making a batch of an old recipe of Tomato jam. Had it when I was a kid on the farm, and loved it, but mine seems really liquidy at the moment, hopefully once the raisins go in, it will solidify. I used Heritage tomatoes, the only ones we grow. Good year for tomatoes, except they are ripening late. Lots of rain, but not enough warm weather.

The picture is from the Tomato Day that was held at Sisters of Providence, Seed Sanctuary on August 23, 2008. There were over 103 different types of Heritage tomatoes cut up for people to taste.

This year we only grew out 15 varieties, but there are a few rogue plants in veg garden 4B.

A project is to extent garden 4a and 4b by another 6 feet x 20 feet and build a strong fence of cedar posts up to 8 ft to keep the deer out. A new entrance way of cedar posts will be built, so next year we can plant the scarlet runner beans that came from Sandi, Kevin’s mom.

Still trying to find out the type of bean this is. So far I have found something similar called a Coco Blue bean. These are from 2006 and from Grandma Lida’s garden (Kevin’s Grandma)
If anyone can tell me for sure. The pod is purple, and the beans a white/cream colour.

Tomorrow we are going to the Garlic Festival in the morning and a wine tour in Prince Edward county, with dinner at the Warring House, a wonderful old stone house with gardens to die for.

The rain is slowly falling today, and the plants are thankful, its been 12 days since no rain…..

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The Countdown is on

Oct04
by kim hay on October 4, 2008 at 06:39 and modified on October 4, 2008. at 10:50
Posted In: Uncategorized

As the days of the calendar go by and the various events take place, the time is wittling away until our adventure in Mexico.   I am excited, nervous, will I pack everything, and get all the work done before we go.

I do intend on spending many wonderful hours on the beach and relaxing. Book in hand, binoculars and sketch pad will be travelling, so I can hopefully do some sketches of the wonderful area we are going to.

I still need to finish up some financial work, do the journal homework, write in the journal, and clean up the gardens.  Going to class on Tuesday for Heirloom seeds, and Wednesday night getting  a pedicure for the trip.

We shall see what we accomplish today….

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Ginger says hello

Oct03
by kim hay on October 3, 2008 at 22:42 and modified on November 5, 2008. at 16:55
Posted In: Uncategorized

Ginger at age 6 weeks or so back in 1994 July.  She was listed as a DSH (Domestic Short Hair) at the Kingston Humane Society… guess what?  Not! The fuzziness turned into long hair pretty quick.

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