TheSkySearchers

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Looking at available evidence:


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When the weather was warmer I spent a lot of time walking on the beach.

With the arrival of the cold I have been exploring my new neighborhood that has walkable sidewalks, I have started walking them and put in about 10 miles a day.

Here is an odd find from today, a real working pay phone

Ylem wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 5:23 am When the weather was warmer I spent a lot of time walking on the beach.

With the arrival of the cold I have been exploring my new neighborhood that has walkable sidewalks, I have started walking them and put in about 10 miles a day.

Here is an odd find from today, a real working pay phone

20231204_202554.jpg

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They exist?!




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Fighting with my PC. Had a corrupt windows update that's left a mess on my hard drive.

Nakedgun wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 1:08 am

Ylem wrote: ↑Tue Dec 05, 2023 5:23 am When the weather was warmer I spent a lot of time walking on the beach.

With the arrival of the cold I have been exploring my new neighborhood that has walkable sidewalks, I have started walking them and put in about 10 miles a day.

Here is an odd find from today, a real working pay phone

20231204_202554.jpg

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They exist?!




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There is one 50m from my front door: but they are no longer "pay" phones here in Oz- it is free for calls to anywhere in Australia...

An elderly friend lost her dogs to old age so my wife took her to a shelter to find a compatible pet so she would not be alone all day. She now has two kittens.

We ended up with five. This is them ignoring about $40 worth of cat toys while they fight over a bootlace and rampage around the bedroom.
...............

After 5 weeks of taking it easy I believe I am healed from my Aquablation procedure. This morning I was OK to have an abuttment fitted to my dental implant, and have an impression taken. The dentist told me to get some painkillers at my pharmacy and said I could not drive with it, because it is the equivalent of 3 beers.

Needless to say, I punted on the pain killers and am downing the first one of the 3 beers. Or more, as needed. Or, perhaps not as needed. Clearly, I hit some good milestones and can celebrate a bit.

Finally, clear skies. Took out the 102 this morning to check the new finder. Needed a minor focus adjustment and a small alignment tweak. Spent some time observing the moon, but δ Corvi was behind a tree so my intended double star of the day was obstructed.

I hope to get back out tonight or tomorrow morning, but the forecast is calling for intermittent cloud cover.

Lots of rain here with more in the forecast. Really excited to try out a new area from which to observe less than a mile from my house. Fortunately it has been logged so you can actually see most of the sky.

GCoyote wrote: ↑Wed Dec 06, 2023 6:38 pm This is them ignoring about $40 worth of cat toys while they fight over a bootlace and rampage around the bedroom.
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krakens 20231204 2 a.jpg

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They'll do it every time!




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Had to do a modification to my ride on mower yesterday. It's a Gravely brand, made in the USA so it uses imperial threads. But although it was expensive, more than USD6000, it's really poorly designed and assembled. Things have continually rattled loose and fallen off. Current time on the operating hours clock is only 140 hrs. This time it was the seat that came loose while I was mowing. The seat slide is designed so that the retaining bolts holding the seat to the mower have to be left loose in order for the slide to work. Guess what, the mower vibration rattles them loose and they fall out. A few days ago the third of four retaining bolts fell out while I was mowing and the fourth was loose. Suddenly the seat wasn't holding me on the mower, I was holding the seat on the mower. I was mowing the road verges leading up to our properties and my neighbour came out and finished them off. I had to drive into town and chase around for a collection of bolts and washers. Now if I was designing this and relied on the retaining bolts staying loose, I would at least have the bolts go into NYLOK nuts. But no such thought went into this bucket of loose bolts.

As I'm the only person using the mower, I have now locked the seat in place at the right position for me with a different bolting arrangement using lock washers. End of this problem but given the problems I've had in just 140 hrs, I'm expecting something major to fall off one day.


Joe

There is nothing worse than having expensive equipment turn out to be poor quality.
So far the Kubota equipment we use has been quite good.
Good luck with the future use.

Had a run of 3 clear nights / mornings, so I've been doing at least some observing daily. I think I'll put a camera lens ring back on my 50mm and use it on my little Benro tripod for "coat pocket" grab-n-go.

Yesterday I ordered a 3-panel welding screen of 6x6 panels on castor wheels with brakes. The cheap model I found comes with bright orange-red panels, lol. But in the dark, nobody can tell. The screens are translucent for welding but should block normal light completely. On the wheels it should be taller than me, hopefully that's enough for visual with my Z12. If it needs to be taller, I can try extending the wheel posts. For astrophotography with my AVX it sure is tall enough.

My observatory cannot see the Northern skies, that's why I am planning on using my AVX on the driveway, occasionally. I contemplated getting a 5x7' lean-to metal shed and turning it into another sliding roof observatory like the one I have but placing it on my driveway in front of my son's bedroom will not look good. I could put it on wheels to move it off to the side and get around potential permit issues. Getting permanent power to it is near-impossible though, so I would have to work with a battery or extension cord. Not ideal either way.

So, a screen that is easy to set up and does not blow over with the slightest wind is the best solution. I looked at room dividers first, but they are too light and usually have translucent panels. The price of this unit is unbeatable, so it's worth a shot. It may end up on Craigslist pretty soon, free for some local welder, we'll see!

@SkyHiker I never thought of that. I've been using patio umbrellas. Lets us know how that works out.

Bought a SkyWatcher AZ-Gti mount. Seems to work ok in my living room in the daytime. TBD how well it works at night.
I'm thinking that even if the goto isn't that accurate, point and track should come in handy.

Two days ago, I unburied the brick pathway leading to my observatory from the dirt thrown up by gophers over the past 15 years. It was a grand new sight after I was done. Next day, the resident gopher had burrowed underneath, moved the dirt through the burrow elsewhere, and I could start taking the bricks out and leveling again. But first I set 2 traps. Lo and behold, a few hours later the gopher was caught. One down. I ordered 16 solar powered noise makers that gophers don't seem to like, and will plant them all around the house. Hopefully they will stay away,

SkyHiker wrote: ↑Wed Dec 20, 2023 6:29 pm Two days ago, I unburied the brick pathway leading to my observatory from the dirt thrown up by gophers over the past 15 years. It was a grand new sight after I was done. Next day, the resident gopher had burrowed underneath, moved the dirt through the burrow elsewhere, and I could start taking the bricks out and leveling again. But first I set 2 traps. Lo and behold, a few hours later the gopher was caught. One down. I ordered 16 solar powered noise makers that gophers don't seem to like, and will plant them all around the house. Hopefully they will stay away,

I tried those solar powered rodent repellent noise things as well. My big problem in California was voles, they basically took over the backyard in 2018 and were impossible to get rid of. There was some kind of population explosion and the hawks and foxes couldn't keep the population in check.

So the noise things were useless. I went to Berkeley Horticulture and asked them for advice and was told there wasn't any save for poison. Furthermore the guy said if there were a magic solution to get rid of them he'd be a millionaire.

I ordered some Vole Scram online in a 50 lb. bag and that repellent didn't work either. In fact more showed up.

I hope gophers, being a different species, repond to the audio repellent. Eventually we roto-tilled the backyard and that seemed to temporarily throw them for a loop, but now a year later I hope the owners aren't having the same problem. Good luck Henk.

helicon wrote: ↑Thu Dec 21, 2023 4:02 pm I tried those solar powered rodent repellent noise things as well. My big problem in California was voles, they basically took over the backyard in 2018 and were impossible to get rid of. There was some kind of population explosion and the hawks and foxes couldn't keep the population in check.

Thanks for that. After looking up gophers vs moles vs voles, I now realize that the critter was a vole. Dang, I was hoping the sound repellent would work. I will try them anyway, since they are already ordered.

Hi folks, we don't have the problem here, but I assume you have seen this? https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-get-rid ... he%20scent.

Might be worth a try.