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Last Notes

2026-09-02 02:39:32 CEST

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I'm not even exaggerating for lols here, that's literally what Microsoft support tells you to do. "If you created a custom template in Word you can use it in Word for the web after you save it as a document (.docx) file in OneDrive", i.e. there is no way to create a .docx from a .dotx in Word for web, you have to do that in an actually functional word processor first.
Microsoft half-arsed their web apps to an amazing degree. There are a bunch of things where the official answer to "How do I do X in Office 365?" is "That's the neat part, you don't." Editing the metadata of a document is another annoying one. Need to change the author or title fields? Got to download the file and use the desktop version for that.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/word/use-my-custom-templates-in-word-for-the-web
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2026-09-01 08:04:53 CEST

Microsoft: Use the web versions of our Office apps! They're great!
Me: So how do I create a new document based on my employer's .dotx template?
Microsoft: Oh, that's easy, you download it from SharePoint to your computer, use the desktop version of Word to create a new document from the template, upload that new document to OneDrive, then you can edit it in Word for the Web.
Me: So use LibreOffice. Got it.

2026-08-31 15:31:48 CEST

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Finally, a battery electric station wagon!

2026-08-20 03:40:39 CEST

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*old man yells at cloud*
This time my Proper Camera stayed upright and recorded the timelapse perfectly, but there was a bit too much cloud, especially during the darkest part of the night after the Moon set. Kind of cool anyway, but not as spectacular as I'd been hoping for. Should have seen the Milky Way setting almost horizontally behind the mountains.
#SidingSpringObservatory #Astrophotography #Astrodon
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2026-08-19 10:38:37 CEST

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Tonight the Thirty Millimetre Telescope and the Inaction Camera are hanging out together. That way they can share a power bank and the Thirty Millimetre Telescope gets to be in the Inaction Camera's shot, along with the Three Thousand Nine Hundred Millimetre Telescope. And, tonight, I HAVE TURNED ON THE DEW HEATER.
#SidingSpringObservatory #Astrophotography #Astrodon #Astronomy #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope
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2026-08-19 05:51:25 CEST

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🎶 Little fluffy clouds 🎶
The weather forecast says "mostly clear" for tonight. We shall see.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ng9Pf_p7Fw
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2026-08-18 21:21:56 CEST

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Experiments successfully completed just as astronomical twilight begins. Calling it a night.
#AAT #AngloAustralianTelescope #SidingSpringObservatory #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-18 20:26:04 CEST

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Too late for the demo but the humidity has now dropped, the outside of the dome has dried off, and we've opened up and are pointing the telescope at the night sky.
#AngloAustralianTelescope #AAT #SidingSpringObservatory #Astrodon #Astronomy
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2026-08-18 20:02:09 CEST

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Feels like home.
#AAT #AngloAustralianTelescope #SidingSpringObservatory #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-18 18:14:33 CEST

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I wonder how my Thirty Millimetre Telescope, Inaction Camera and Proper Camera are coping out there. I should have turned on the dew heater in the Thirty Millimetre Telescope. It does have the 3D printed lens hood/stray light baffle that would help keep dew off the lens to some extent, but maybe not enough for Siding Spring Observatory in winter.
#SidingSpringObservatory #Astronomy #Astrodon

2026-08-18 17:57:38 CEST

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This "skies are clear but the outside of the dome is dripping with condensation" situation is fairly common at SIding Spring Observatory in winter. I've experienced it many times before, with the AAT, UKST and Huntsman Telescope.
The telescopes here do generally stay open at higher humidities than at many other observatories, but even they have their limits.
#Astrodon #Astronomy #SidingSpringObservatory #AAT #AngloAustralianTelescope

2026-08-18 17:48:43 CEST

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Well that's a shame.
I'm supposed to be assisting with an on sky demonstration with the Anglo-Australian Telescope 3 am - 4 am. The skies are still (mostly) clear, and very, very dark but the outside humidity is over 95% so the telescope dome has been closed since 11 pm and is very unlikely to be opened again tonight.
#SIdingSpringObservatory #AAT #AngloAustralianTelescope #Astrodon #Astronomy
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2026-08-18 11:46:16 CEST

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I have also set up the Thirty Millimetre Telescope, near to the Three Thousand Nine Hundred Millimetre Telescope.
All my imaging devices (apart from my phone) have been given their tasks for the night so that will give me plenty of time to use my binoculars before I have more work to do at around 1:30 am.
#SidingSpringObservatory #Astrophotography #Astrodon #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope
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2026-08-18 11:39:19 CEST

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Clear skies tonight! My Proper Camera has been set up to shoot a timelapse of the entire night looking towards the Warrumbungles. I also set up my Inaction Camera nearby to shoot a timelapse from a different perspective, but I don't have enough power banks for every device so the battery will die at some point before dawn.
#SidingSpringObservatory #Astrophotography #Astrodon
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2026-08-18 05:10:53 CEST

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It looks better from this angle. Less cable gore visible.
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2026-08-18 04:21:26 CEST

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You might think that maintenance on a robotic telescope would be highly technical, but to be honest most of what I'm here to do this week is very, very basic IT support type stuff, at a level just above turnitoffandonagain (almost everything here can be remotely turnedoffandonagain, so I'm not needed here for that).
The first thing I did was replace an Ethernet cable to fix a slow and unreliable connection.
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2026-08-18 04:01:08 CEST

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Hello there, Huntsman Telescope.
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2026-08-17 14:51:02 CEST

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It is, as forecast, mostly cloudy at Siding Spring Observatory tonight. There was a slice of sky towards the south that was only a bit murky though, so a few hours ago I braved the cold and pointed my Proper Camera at it. This is the result (single 15 second exposure, no tracking, 50 mm f/2.8 ISO 6400).
#Astrophotography #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 10:58:46 CEST

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The model of the Sun looks a bit odd, because it is also used to house a telescope.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 10:56:27 CEST

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Mercury by the boom gate was looking small, as is right and proper.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 10:53:10 CEST

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Venus half way up the hill was looking dirty, like Mars.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 10:50:30 CEST

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Earth just after the turn off has been oriented so that the best bits are visible.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 10:46:58 CEST

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Mars near the observatory turn off was looking a bit dirty.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 10:44:08 CEST

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Jupiter near Coonabarabran was looking similarly fresh.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 10:41:42 CEST

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Saturn between Binnaway and Coonabarabran looked recently repainted.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 10:38:12 CEST

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Uranus between Weetaliba and Binnaway had an unrealistically large number of holes in it.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 10:33:17 CEST

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I succeeded in my mission. Neptune in Coolah was looking a bit weathered.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 06:15:42 CEST

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Merriwa doesn't have a Big Thing, but it does have The Hut, and Pluto.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 03:58:40 CEST

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There's a Big Thing!
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2026-08-17 03:48:21 CEST

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Taking a break in Kurri Kurri. TIL that the maximum number of en route stops you can put into a Google Maps route plan is 8. I tried to put all of the planets of the Virtual Solar System Drive in, but ran out of stops at Mars. I plan to stop at each planet to take a photo.
#SolarSystemDrive #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-17 01:43:29 CEST

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Having to drive a petrol car like some sort of dinosaur. I'd much prefer to be driving our Seal for this trip, but that would have left my family with no car for the week so work booked rental car it is.
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2026-08-16 10:48:37 CEST

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I expect the European race calendar to remain exactly as it always has been, for the sake of tradition, until the riders are routinely dropping like flies from heat exhaustion.

2026-08-16 10:21:29 CEST

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Sure, the sensible course of action would be to accept that much of Europe is already too damn hot to be racing bicycles for 180+ km per day in the height of summer, that it is only going to get worse each year for the foreseeable future, and that rescheduling or relocating events is going to be unavoidable.
Professional road cycling doesn't exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to having a positive and proactive attitude towards change, though. The phrase "dragged kicking and screaming" comes to mind. Just look at how long it took for the UCI to allow road cyclists to use disc brakes.

2026-08-16 10:00:46 CEST

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Sounds like a much better climate for competitive cycling than, just to pick an alternative at random, southern France in July.

2026-08-16 06:14:18 CEST

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Packing for the trip to the observatory. One of the first steps, deciding what personal optics to take. I've opted for the Thirty Millimetre Telescope, my Proper Camera (with 4 lenses), my Inaction Camera, 2.25 tripods, 2 power banks, and my Big Binos.
The weather forecast for the week has improved a bit, but taking all this is probably still a triumph of hope over experience. Siding Spring Observatory and I have history.
#Astrophotography #Astrodon #Astronomy
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2026-08-13 12:50:34 CEST

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A few photos from my last visit to Siding Spring Observatory, for the Open Day during Starfest in 2024.
If you've never been, GO TO STARFEST. If you have been, GO AGAIN. It won't be the same once the Anglo-Australian Telescope has been closed down, and that could be as soon as next year.
https://www.starfest.com.au/
#Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-13 10:23:43 CEST

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So, bureaucratic hurdles have all been cleared and bookings have been made so it is now definite, I will be going to Siding Spring Observatory next week to work on the Huntsman Telescope and Anglo-Australian Telescope.
Apparently someone tipped off the weather, though. I will be there from Monday evening until Friday morning and it looks like it'll rain most days and be cloudy every night, with the possible exception of some of Tuesday night.
I was of course all set to take my telescope, Proper Camera, and action camera to take advantage of the super dark skies. I'll take them anyway, but my chances of getting much use out of them look slim.
I'm pretty sure this is my first visit to Siding Spring Observatory in 2 years, my first trip there for a work related reason in about 4 years, and my first trip specifically to do work on the telescopes in 6 years.
#Astrophotography #Astrodon #Astronomy
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2026-08-06 09:17:09 CEST

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Rage bait.
I remember that the technicians and engineers at the observatory all had their own, personal sets of Allen keys, and they would not lend any to anyone under any circumstances. This is why.
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2026-08-06 09:12:41 CEST

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The Forbidden Sippy Cups and a box of Science Tissues, for delicate wiping.
#Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-06 09:09:21 CEST

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I went to work in one of our actual optics labs, like a real scientist.
#Astronomy #Astrodon #Astrophotography
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2026-08-06 06:15:57 CEST

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More work/astrophotography crossover temptation. Now I'm being asked if I want to go to the observatory to do some work on both the Huntsman Telescope and the Anglo-Australian Telescope the week after next. Hmmm, a few nights at Siding Spring Observatory. I haven't been there for ages. Bortle 1 skies during a waxing crescent Moon.

2026-08-06 03:08:35 CEST

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Astrophotography temptation has landed on my desk again.
I've been asked to swap out some of the filters in this camera's filter wheel, before it joins the others on the Huntsman Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory.
#Astrophotography #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-08-06 02:22:58 CEST

RE: https://mastodon.social/@PatrickoftheG/117043154339624114
Admiral Adama was right.
No networked computers o̶n̶ ̶m̶y̶ ̶s̶h̶i̶p̶ in my kitchen.
So say we all.
#note17cc…6jxp

2026-08-03 07:16:27 CEST

RE: https://noc.social/@todayilearned/117027652458345508
Is this not common knowledge? I assumed it was, at least amongst people who drink G & T.
#note1p95…4997

2026-07-31 04:31:31 CEST

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I'm up for it. As far as I'm concerned year round availability of both mince pies and hot cross buns is all good.

2026-07-31 04:26:45 CEST

Xmas in July 🧑‍🎄🎄
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2026-07-30 11:19:49 CEST

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One of the FLI cameras seems to work fine, I can get bias, dark and light frames out of it and control the cooler. The other FLI worked fine once out of the dozen or so times I tried to get it to connect and an the final attempt I got an electric shock from the case. Going to call that one "not working". They are both very old MicroLine ML50100's.
I can't do anything with the ZWO camera until I've found the right cable and power supply for it.
The temptation to take any of these home to take pretty pictures with them is actually minimal, because I don't have any way of mounting them on my crappy telescope.

2026-07-30 07:46:13 CEST

It can be tricky to keep work and hobbies separate when one of my colleagues walks up to my desk and hands me three astrophotography cameras and asks me to test them.
#Astrophotography #Astrodon #Astronomy
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2026-07-30 03:22:29 CEST

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Lo-fi version of Greensleeves, like an ice cream van. It would definitely make people look.

2026-07-30 02:37:22 CEST

RE: https://me.ns.ci/@xkcdbot/117004844872693399
Now I'm trying to work out which row/column/diagonal is most likely... 🤔
#note1v5v…my9j

2026-07-26 03:50:22 CEST

My god, it's full of stars.
M24, the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, and neighbouring bits and pieces. Just over 4 hours 10 minutes of total exposure time over the last two nights with the little Seestar S30 Pro and its UV/IR cut filter. Not bad considered how irritatingly bright the Moon was being at the time. Processed in Siril with SyQon and VeraLux scripts.
I should have been using the light pollution filter under conditions like that, but I've already done all the big HII regions that are conveniently placed at this time of year so I've been trying to do stars and dust despite the Moon.
Edit: Full res, with *all* the stars, here https://drhotdog.smugmug.com/Nature/Seeing-Stars/i-B7XMtVm/A
#Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Siril #VeraLux #SyQon #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope #TMMT
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2026-07-22 08:43:48 CEST

My employer, Australian Astronomical Optics at Macquarie University in Sydney, are currently looking for a electronics engineer to join our electronics engineering group. If you're an EE and would like to apply your skills to design, build, test and deploy electronics for astronomical instrumentation for the world's observatories then check out the listing here: https://mq.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/CareersatMQ/job/Wallumattagal-Campus-Macquarie-University/Electronics-Engineer_R000023641
Please boost for reach.
#Astrodon #Astronomy #AstroJobs #FediHire

2026-07-21 09:40:10 CEST

Not just bin chickens in the Central Courtyard at lunchtime today.
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2026-07-21 00:13:45 CEST

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Ah, ds9, of course. It certainly has that Tk look, I should have realised.

2026-07-21 00:04:19 CEST

Bizarre set of circumstances has got me looking into whether Tk of all things has Wayland support. The answer is apparently not yet, but it is being actively worked on.
https://core.tcl-lang.org/tk/tktview/3f58c0871c0be6b457cb

2026-07-14 16:51:12 CEST

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No, but I suspected as much. How big a bank of chargers, though? There are over 200 support cars working the Tour.

2026-07-14 15:37:13 CEST

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Fair point, the start of the next day's stage isn't always close to the end of the previous day's, and even when it is the teams can't always get hotels very close to either. If the team cars need a quick top up during a long transit to/from the hotel that's OK though, the important thing is that they make it through the stage without needing to recharge and pretty much any large sedan/station wagon/crossover SUV on the market now has at least twice the range needed to do that.

2026-07-14 14:54:16 CEST

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Replacing all the motorbikes with electrics would probably be tricky right now, but the cars? I think the only potential issue is congestion at public chargers near the team hotels since the TdF does involve a lot of motor vehicles in total. Worst case scenario they'd have to use extension cables and granny chargers at the hotels overnight.

2026-07-14 14:36:28 CEST

At least one Tour de France team (Uno-X Mobility) using EVs for their race vehicles: 👍️
The SBS commentator (David McKenzie) being surprised that an electric car can go far enough to make it through the day (maybe 200 km of driving): 🙄
#CouchPeleton #TdF2026 #ElectricCar #EV
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2026-07-10 02:54:37 CEST

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Nundah Woolworths.We're in a tiny little unit this time, but it's reasonably conveniently placed for seeing the relatives. A good number of cafes and restaurants nearby, too.

2026-07-09 06:35:10 CEST

School holidays again, which means, again, remote working from a holiday rental in Brisbane.
This also means I had a decent reason to try the coffee goon!
An unexpected bonus this time around is that the place we're staying in has a monitor on the (tiny) desk. Just a basic 1920x1080 24", but it's still better than the portable monitor I brought with me.
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2026-07-03 16:47:45 CEST

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That's better. I'm going to call this done now.
"Eta Carina in Context", all shot with the Thirty Millimetre Telescope (Seestar S30 Pro) from suburban Sydney (Bortle 7), mostly during full Moon, using the built in light pollution filter. Processing in Siril with SyQon and VeraLux.
50% scale version in this post, full resolution (6047×3411) here: https://drhotdog.smugmug.com/Nature/Seeing-Stars/i-RXPkcWj/A
#Astrophotography #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope #TMMT #Seestar #Seestar30Pro #Siril #SyQon #VeraLux
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2026-07-03 08:42:49 CEST

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The Thirty Millimetre Telescope is back outside and cooling down, tonight's Plan has been prepared, and now it's just a matter of waiting for it to get dark.
I will check the polar alignment before starting the plan just in case, but I have found that as long as I don't move the tripod I can detach and reattach the telescope without needing to realign it afterwards.
#Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope #TMMT #Astrophotography
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2026-07-02 17:02:52 CEST

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I'm still considering this a work in progress for now, but it's looking promising!
It's a mosaic of the area around the Eta Carina nebula put together from three pointings from tonight, plus a deeper stack of Eta Carina that I already had. I had to crop the combined image just a little more than I'd like due to some gaps, so I'll take some more data at the start of tomorrow night to fill those in.
#Astrophotography #Seestar #Seestar30Pro #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope #TMMT
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2026-07-02 15:06:07 CEST

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One of my images got photobombed. My first thought was a group of Starlinks, but Stellarium said no satellites passed through my field of view around that time. So then I checked Flightradar24 and was able to confirm that the culprit was in fact a Boeing 777, specifically Qatar Cargo's A7-BFQ operating flight QTR8406 from Sydney to Hong Kong. I think the red smears near the middle of the image might be the engine nacelles, briefly illuminated by a flash of the under fuselage beacon.
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2026-07-02 12:30:33 CEST

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Oh, neat. If you have your Seestar connected to your home WiFi in "Station Mode" you can just connect to its internal storage over the network using Samba. So, if sufficiently keen, you can make a start on processing the images while its still outside taking more images.
I am experimenting a bit this evening. In addition to my 3D printed lens baffle (which might be especially useful given there's a basically full Moon out there) I'm using my 3D printed tripod powerbank holder, and I'm also trying out using 60 second exposures instead of 30 seconds. If I can use 60 second exposures without getting too much trailing it would be good, as it would halve the number of individual images I need to handle and would also increase overall signal to noise ratio a bit too.

2026-07-02 10:19:27 CEST

The weather forecast is promising two completely clear nights in a row so I made sure to get home just as it got dark and quickly set up my telescope. I already had a plan ready for it to execute so it should now run for the rest of the night fully automatically.
#Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope #TMMT
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2026-06-30 11:37:20 CEST

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Meanwhile my other package, having finally escaped from France, is dangerously close to falling into the exact same space-time discontinuity. The SUNSHINE WEST vortex regularly captures packages from MELBOURNE.
:pakidge:
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2026-06-30 10:43:39 CEST

Oh no. My package has become trapped in the Sunshine West space-time discontinuity, doomed to be perpetually in transit to next facility without ever actually leaving.
:pakidge:
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2026-06-30 06:06:52 CEST

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Incidentally, if you'd like to see the Anglo-Australian Telescope yourself in person, your best bet (short of becoming a professional astronomer and applying for telescope time on it) is to go along to StarFest over the October long weekend. Part of that is the annual Siding Spring Observatory Open Day, during which you can visit areas of the Anglo-Australian Telescope and many of the other telescope that would normally be closed to the public.
There'll also be a public lecture, science in the pub and a guided stargazing event in the Warrumbungles National Park.
https://starfest.com.au/
#Astronomy #Astrodon #Telescope #AngloAustralianTelescope #AAT #SidingSpringObservatory

2026-06-30 05:03:33 CEST

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In the meantime here's a timelapse from a mere 7 years ago of a "top end change" taking place on the same telescope. I gather it's rather less frequent now, but they used to go through this process roughly once every two weeks.
https://youtu.be/EA_2CXATBSw
#Astronomy #Astrodon #Telescope #AngloAustralianTelescope #AAT #SidingSpringObservatory

2026-06-30 04:59:45 CEST

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There's a fairly good change that I have a higher res, real time, with sound video similar to this taken during my time working on that telescope control system replacement project. Maybe I'll go digging in the data mines for it this evening.

2026-06-30 04:53:54 CEST

Because I just found it on an old USB stick I offer to you this 20 year old 320x240@15fps "video" of the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT) having a stretch.
This is the result of running a script in the telescope control software called "Cook's Tour". The original documentation describes the purpose of this script as being to "inducing nausea in the prime focus observer". When that was written the AAT was still used for prime focus photography (yes, with big glass photographic plates) which required an astronomer to be inside that black cyclinder at the top of the telescope (actually another fairly similar one) during the night, in total darkness. Cook's Tour would be a fun ride for them.
More recently it was useful as a test of telescope movement control during the mid 2000's when the telescope control system was being replaced, and it has always been and continues to be a good way to show the telescope off to visitors or get cool videos.
This version of the video is not in real time, it's been sped up by a factor of a few.
#Astronomy #Astrodon #Telescope #AngloAustralianTelescope #AAT #SidingSpringObservatory
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2026-06-29 09:29:24 CEST

Seems odd to see a duck perching off the ground, but apparently Australian Wood Ducks are "perching ducks" and do it on the regular. She did seem a bit unsure as to what she was doing up there though, as was her partner on the ground nearby.
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2026-06-19 15:59:06 CEST

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Hah, I realised I could see the "Pillars of Creation" from the famous Hubble Space Telescope images in my image of the Eagle and Swan Nebulae. Neat.
#Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astrophotography #Astronomy
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2026-06-18 01:24:29 CEST

Not a bad looking piece of paper. It's printed on some nice cardstock and has a gloss transparent watermark thing.
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2026-06-17 04:19:20 CEST

Agentic AI: very serious product, totally production ready, enterprise grade, and worth trillions of dollars.
Also might download git repos one file at a time via HTTP, enter an infinite recursion of subagent spawning when it hits a permission problem, and respond to hitting rate limits by retrying immediately.
https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/68619
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2026-06-09 17:58:59 CEST

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I've now reprocessed the other H II region images from last weekend. I'm still learning how to use Siril, but I'm getting there I think. I'm finding several of the Veralux scripts very helpful.
#Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astrophotography #Astronomy #Siril
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2026-06-08 15:05:42 CEST

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First attempt at reprocessing images from the Seestar S30 Pro smart telescope, using my Prawn Nebula data from Friday night.
The first image is processed fully automatically, by the Seestar itself, and the second is my manual reprocessing using the Siril software on my computer.
I'm still impressed with how good a job the smart telescope is able to do in real time. The results make for a great live preview and are honestly just fine for viewing on small screens. If you have the option it is definitely worth the effort to reprocess the data on a computer, though.
#Astrophotograph #Astronomy #SeestarS30Pro #Seestar #Siril #PrawnNebula
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2026-06-08 01:39:50 CEST

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Huh, the Seestar continued to discard about half of the exposures it took through to the end of the night but despite the less than ideal conditions it still managed to get something out of it.
Again these images have been done using the telescope's fully automatic image processing and better results would be possible with reprocessing on a computer. I did tweak the brightness and contrast settings a bit this time, though.
#Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astronomy #Astrophotography
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2026-06-07 15:49:14 CEST

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Looks like 3 nights in a row of clear skies was too much to ask for. It was clear at dusk but there's a lot of broken cloud out there now, and the app thinks it's only going to get worse as the night goes on.
The smart telescope is smart enough to discard bad exposures, whether they're caused by cloud, obstructions, or tracking problems, so I can just leave it running and it'll do its best with whatever breaks in the clouds that it does get, but I'm not expecting great results from tonight.
The Seestar only ended up with a total of 112 minutes on IC 4592 despite being on that target for almost four hours, so it must have discarded about 50% of the exposures due to clouds. In accordance with the plan it's now moved on to the Cat's Paw and Lobster nebulae, but it's discarding about half of the exposures there too.
#Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astrophotography #Astronomy
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2026-06-07 08:41:37 CEST

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My improvised power bank on a piece of string setup worked well last night, and provided more than enough juice to run the telescope all night long. With the internal battery alone the Seestar is supposedly good for 6-7 hours, a bit less if you're using the dew heater (which I will do), so having external power is handy.
I've set up a plan for tonight in the app, and put the telescope and power bank outside on the tripod ready. Again I'll be starting with a reflection nebula until the Moon comes up, then will switch to emission nebulae using the light pollution filter, then finish up with a planetary nebula, again using the light pollution filter.
We should be back from dinner about 7 pm, at which point I'll turn on the telescope, check the polar alignment, and tell it to execute the plan.
#Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astronomy #Astrophotography
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2026-06-06 22:37:29 CEST

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The robotic telescope's output from night two: the Lagoon & Triffid nebulae, the Swan & Eagle nebulae, and the Moon.
I did get an image of Sharpless 1 as well, but it's clear that would need a lot more time than the couple of hours I gave it to get a good image.
#Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astronomy #Astrophotography
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2026-06-06 08:22:16 CEST

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I've been using the Seestar app's planning feature to set up some imaging sessions for tonight. I'm thinking Sharpless 1 to begin with, taking advantage of the dark skies before moonrise to try to pick up the reflection nebulosity, then once the Moon is up go for emission nebulosity with the light pollution filter again, this time the Lagoon Nebula.
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2026-06-06 05:14:06 CEST

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And now I've tried solar observing mode with the included solar filter. The tiny scope isn't the ideal instrument for this kind of thing, but it does OK. Sunspots are clearly visible, and you can distinguish the umbra and penumbra of the larger ones.
#SeestarS30Pro #Seestar #Astrophotography #Astronomy
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2026-06-05 20:47:30 CEST

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OK, there we go, the result of pointing the little robotic telescope at the Prawn Nebula for four hours.
It's kept all the data so I can try reprocessing this in Siril, but the automatic image processing has done a decent job.
#SeestarS30Pro #Seestar #Astrophotography #Astronomy
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2026-06-05 15:59:00 CEST

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The Moon is now up so I got out my tripod & wedge, switched to equatorial mode, and picked an emission nebula as my next target so I could use the internal light pollution filter. I think I'll leave this running for a couple of hours and see what I get.
#SeestarS30Pro #Seestar #Astrophotography #Astronomy
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2026-06-05 13:39:37 CEST

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A couple of quick galaxy snaps with the in-telescope automatic image processing. Not a bad start.
#Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Astrophotography #Astronomy
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2026-06-05 12:25:50 CEST

We are installed in Kurrajong for the long weekend, just outside the worst of Sydney's light pollution, which means I get to open my birthday present a little early.
I plonked the little astromech on the balcony table, spent literally a couple of minutes setting it up,, and told it to start imaging the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy. For now I've just left all the settings in their default fully automatic modes and it was even easier than I expected to get it working.
I'll let it run for a bit, and then start tinkering.
#Astrophotography #SeestarS30Pro #Seestar #Astronomy #Astrodon
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2026-06-05 07:14:13 CEST

Got the blue tongue out of his hide to check on him as I hadn't seen him since he shed, and I wanted to make sure he was OK and didn't have any stuck scales anywhere.
I wasn't sure if he'd be hungry as we're getting into the time of year where he might start brumating and go off his food for a couple of months, so rather than make up a dish of food for him I just offered him dog food still in the tray. It's fair to say he was indeed hungry!
#LizardPosting #BlueTongueSkink #BlueTongueLizard #SkinksOfMastodon #LizardsOfMastodon #Skink #Lizard
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2026-06-01 13:57:07 CEST

Dear hive mind, can anyone recommend an electromechanical (*not* electronic) rice cooker that has a ceramic coated or stainless steel bowl? 4+ cup (uncooked) capacity.
Our current rice cooker has a PTFE coated bowl which is starting to flake, as all PTFE coated things eventually do, so we want to replace it, ideally with one that won't end up doing the same thing. I see that rice cookers with ceramic non-stick coatings now exist, as do ones with uncoated stainless steel bowls, but all the ones I've found are overly complex electronically controlled ones. I really like the elegant simplicity of non-electronic rice cookers though, and would very much prefer to get one of those instead of bringing more unnecessary microcontrollers into my life. All of those, though, seem to have PTFE coated bowls of questionable durability.
@npub1j9l…jvxt did a video explaining how these traditional rice cookers work, and it's ingenious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSTNhvDGbYI

2026-05-29 04:21:15 CEST

Static fire with too much fire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZiykQT4kK0

2026-05-14 05:41:02 CEST

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Huh, I'd only call it a B-double if it had two trailers attached. More than two and it's a road train, as far as I'm concerned.

2026-05-12 05:19:43 CEST

If you have a 3D printer that you're not using (or, better yet, several of them) and you're looking for a project, here's an Extremely Large one for you: a printable 3D model of @npub1lsf…wrxj's Extremely Large Telescope, https://www.eso.org/public/products/models3d/ELT-3D-Print-model/
There are a *lot* of parts, many of which are small and intricately detailed. It would be a time consuming challenge to print and assemble, but it must be possible because there are photos of the resulting model bundled with the STEP file.
#3Dprinting #Astronomy #Astrodon #ELT #ESO_ELT #Telescope
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2026-05-05 01:14:54 CEST

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Of course, because the best way to deal with a wide range of numbers is to take the base 10 logarithm then multiply by minus 2.5.
"magnitudes per square arcsecond" are an even worse units crime though. Mixing reversed logarithmic units with normal units is just all wrong.

2026-05-05 00:56:32 CEST

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cgs units are weirdly and annoyingly persistent in astrophysics. erg/s/cm²/Å? Really? You're already using metric units, proper SI ones are right there.

2026-04-27 12:31:32 CEST

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HMAS Karangi belongs to the Silver Gulls now.
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2026-04-27 07:58:26 CEST

Green 011 surveys their domain.
#BinChicken #BigCityBirds
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2026-04-20 01:06:43 CEST

Truly we are a Stupid Country.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-20/strait-of-hormuz-china-renewable-energy/106581226

2026-04-08 04:14:51 CEST

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Boo indeed. If Australia can be in the Eurovision Song Contest why not European Southern Observatrory?