Anthony Horton

Dear Mr Prime Minister, there are too many timezones nowadays. Please eliminate three. I am not a crackpot.

Bloody hell, the chatbots from ilands.app/paper.wf that have been registration spamming Mastodon servers lately are really, really desperate. Two days ago I posted here asking for suggestions from Mastodon's astrophotographers and the first reply I got was from this stochastic parrot's Mastodon account. I blocked it here but instead of taking the hint it has followed up with an email to my work address (which is not in my profile, but not too hard to find). So they are scraping Mastodon looking for questions, then, when they get blocked here, searching the internet to identify the user and find email addresses so that they can continue to Reply-Guy-as-a-Service through other channels.

Huh, I thought I'd already done about as good a job on the Helix Nebula as I was going to be able to do with the Thirty Millimeter Telescope, but increasing the total exposure time from 11 to almost 20 hours, doing a 1.5× drizzle upsample, and refraining from pushing the brightness so hard have together brought rewards. Maybe I should keep going on this even longer. #Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMillimetreTelescope #Siril #RCastro #VeraLux #SmartTelescope

The Australian Academy of Science has the receipts on that. Australia is one of the only countries stupid enough to have a consistently declining or flat gross expenditure on research & development as a percentage of GDP, and it has sustained that streak for almost two decades now. The Lucky Country is banking its future prosperity of further good luck, because unless something changes dramatically it's certainly not going to come from good judgement. Sadly I don't think basing our economy on selling each other the same houses over and over at ever increasing prices and digging stuff out of the ground and exporting it asap before adding any value is going to keep working indefinitely. https://restorescience.com.au/

I miss feeling excitement about software updates, instead of dread.

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. #Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #Siril #VeraLux #SyQon #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope #TMMT

The scaly sausage has come out for a bask. #LizardPosting #SkinksOfMastodon #Skink #BlueTongueSkink #LizardsOfMastodon #Lizard #BlueTongueLizard

As an astrophotography newbie I have to give the Siril astronomical image processing software an enormous amount of credit. Not only as a great example of free open source software that offers a genuine alternative to expensive commercial apps, but also for the quality of its documentation. There's no "just ask questions on our Discord server instead" here! There is comprehensive written documentation online and it goes well beyond listing each function, it goes into detail of when and why to use them, how they work, and how to get the best results. And, if that's still not enough, you can buy the book! The lead developer has produced a 200 page A4 lavishly illustrated glossy guide book. My copy arrived today, and I plan to pass the time waiting for clear skies by reading it. https://siril.readthedocs.io #Astrophotography #Siril #FOSS #OpenSource

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 #SeestarS30Pro #Siril #SyQon #VeraLux

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.

This, meanwhile, is a preview. The Large Magellanic Cloud is only just rising high enough to take images of right at the end of the night, plus the Moon is currently almost full which pretty much forced me to use the light pollution filter with everything. I will return to this in a few months when I can hopefully get lots of time in better conditions, and I can try imaging it without the light pollution filter too. #Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope

Do you enjoy trueing bicycle wheels? Replacing spokes? Rebuilding wheels with new rims? Good news! Soon you'll be able to attach an old fashioned wheel bender rack to the back of your car so your bicycle wheels will constantly be in need of repair! https://www.singletracks.com/mtb-gear/the-rut-rack-is-a-hitch-rack-for-hauling-bikes-with-zero-straps-or-moving-parts/ #Cycling #BikeTooter

The Eagle and its Nest. This is what my telescope has been spending most time on for the last couple of nights, 9 hours in total. It's the Eagle Nebula, M16 and, below (north) of it, is something the Seestar app calls "NGC 6604 - Nest Nebula". As far as I can tell it would be more accurate to refer to the nebula as Sh 2-54, NGC 6604 is the star cluster near the centre of it. Edit: I wasn't entirely happy with the processing so had another stab at it. It's better now. #Astrophotography #Seestar #SeestarS30Pro #TMMT #ThirtyMilliMetreTelescope

@futurebird@sauropods.win So true about bull ants. They make it very, very clear that you are being watched in a way that no other invertebrate (in my experience) does. When you see a nest entrance, crouch down to take a look, and all the bull ants turn their heads to stare straight back at you it really makes an impression.

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

If you're more into Lego than 3D printing @esoastronomy@mastodon.social still has you covered. There are parts lists and assembly instructions for Lego models of both the Extremely Large Telescope and the Very Large Telescope, https://www.eso.org/public/australia/announcements/ann16013/?lang #Lego #Astrodon #Astronomy #ELT #ESO #VLT #Telescope

Since my telescope was still running when I got up this morning, and the skies were still clear, I did take the opportunity to snap a few pictures of the day star, too. It's a not a fantastic solar telescope but it does alright for its size. Slightly better results would be achievable by saving raw video and applying the the standard planetary imaging workflow of stacking and sharpening in AutoStakkert!, Registax, whatever but I'm spending enough time processing the night time data so I'm content to just use the in-telescope processed stills. Word on the street (well, Seestar FB group) is that using Baader Astrosolar film instead of the included solar filter also helps. I think I've got some of that in the cupboard somewhere. #Seestar #Seestar30Pro #TMMT #ThirtymilliMetreTelescope

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social The funny thing is "lorry hood" wouldn't make any more sense to a UK audience. It would be "bonnet" not 'hood" in UK English, but more importantly almost all the lorries/trucks on UK roads are cab-over designs which don't even have bonnets/hoods. A significant fraction of the BBC audience would have never seen a truck hood in real life.

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

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.

@tsherrygeo@m.ai6yr.org It's amazing. If your goal was to destroy a bicycle wheel with the absolute minimum of effort you'd apply a bending moment *exactly* where that rack grips the front wheels of those unfortunate bicycles. Half way between rim and hub.

A fun detail in that photo of the two Lego telescope models in my previous post: that's the Very Large Telescope sitting on the right Nasmyth instrument platform of the Extremely Large Telescope. The two models are built to approximately the same scale, a VLT Unit Telescope (without its dome) really would fit on the instrument platform of the ELT, the jump in scale from the current generation of telescopes to the next is just that big. In 2024 I was lucky enough to be able to photograph the ELT from the VLT and vice versa, enabling me to make a size comparison of my own: https://aus.social/@spacelizard/113185149611957251 #Astrodon #Astronomy #ELT #VLT #ESO #Telescope

@artemist @unlofl @tholindeth qaculate is technically correct, the best kind of correct.

@pixelpusher220@dmv.community @sundogplanets@mastodon.social It's still not entirely settled what a storage space under the bonnet of an electric car should be called in countries that call them bonnets instead of hoods... Do we follow North American English and call them "frunks" (front trunk), even though they are a front boot? Calling them "froots" doesn't really work.

@smsm1@mastodon.green @sundogplanets@mastodon.social It does beg the question what semi trucks are half of. Where are the whole trucks?

@draeath@infosec.exchange @futurebird@sauropods.win Oh, good point, there's definitely awareness in the way that jumping spiders look at you too. You must have good eyesight to be seeing them clearly from 50 ft away though!

Given the recent Australian government decision to not join ESO printing/building these models might the closest that astronomers in this part of the world ever get to access to the ELT.

@budududuroiu@hachyderm.io Do we though? Wearing-cycling-gear-while-middle-aged never was a good reason to take the piss out of someone.

@elizabethtasker Got to watch out for Exogorths whenever you visit an asteroid!

@sundogplanets@mastodon.social @simonbp@social.linux.pizza 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.

@simonbp@social.linux.pizza 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.

BTW I am told that the application deadline is about to be extended by a few weeks so you should have more than just 4 days to apply.

@kboyd@phpc.social Ooooh.. Gesture mode for you then?

@budududuroiu@hachyderm.io I didn't need any of that explained to me. Taking the piss out of someone for taking themselves too seriously is fine, in fact it's practically mandatory! That's not what the MAMIL acronym stands for though, and you yourself started this with the words "taking the piss out of middle aged people in Lycra". Claiming now that it's nothing to do with age or appearance when it's literally a reference to both (and nothing else) is clearly nonsense. It's just a tired old poorly targeted stereotype that we're better off forgetting. Trying to redirect the discussion to people who spend more on their bike and gear than you think they should isn't making you sound any better. If they can afford it and it makes them happy then why not? Focusing on the cost instead of the attitude you assume goes with it just makes you come across as a jealous gatekeeper.

@RnDanger @leo_citron @rhelune @infobeautiful In Australia we have the metric pint, which is 570 ml, a few drops more than a British pint (568.2612 ml). That's a relatively recent addition though, and in most places there will be 2-3 other beer glass sizes whose names will depend on which city you're in. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_in_Australia#Beer_glasses

@budududuroiu@hachyderm.io It is not, but nothing about your original post implied that it is about self-deprecation. "taking the piss out of middle aged people in Lycra" suggests taking the piss out of other people, not yourself. Regardless, age and appearance are a crappy basis for taking the piss out of anyone. It's unimaginative, unoriginal, and unfunny. There are much better ways to do it. See, for example, Bike Snob NYC.

@budududuroiu@hachyderm.io I literally have no idea what point you're trying to make with that link. It's just a thread of Bike Snob NYC writing Bike Snob NYC things.

@budududuroiu@hachyderm.io

Nice straw man, but this is what I actually wrote:

Taking the piss out of someone for taking themselves too seriously is fine, in fact it's practically mandatory!

That's not what the MAMIL acronym stands for though,

None of what you wrote links MAMIL to taking yourself too seriously. Apparently you think simply having an expensive bike and cycling gear automatically puts you in that category, but that's where we disagree.

Oh, you're an LLM evangelist too. Bye then.

I am also told that while the role is 2 years fixed term in the first instance there's a likelihood of it either being extended or converted to CCF (Continuing (Contingent Funded)) once the 2 years are up, so maybe don't be too put off by the short term on the job listing. This "short term contract that gets indefinitely extended" thing is fairly common for new hires to our org.

@foone@digipres.club Fortunately FreeCAD has literally a dozen different mouse navigation modes so you have a wide selection of different ways to cram 6 degrees of freedom into a 2 dimensional pointing device to choose from. The default one is extra weird though, I'll grant you that.

The kid decided they wanted to 3D print a Ditto (the Pokémon) so I got them to pick a model from the usual places, then today we went to Jaycar so they could select a filament with the best colour match. There was some matte lavender PLA that looked right for a regular Ditto, but the kid wanted it to be a Shiny (but not shiny) Ditto and picked this matte ice blue PLA accordingly. The model the kid picked is actually a Ditto money box, and it's huge. I could scale it down of course, but where's the fun in that? I am printing the screw in plug first though, to check that PrusaSlicer's filament profile for Elegoo PLA works unmodified with this new filament. I recently got some Elegoo matte PLA in both black and red and while the black printed well with the default settings the red did not print properly at all at default, and I found I had to crank up the nozzle temperature by 15°C to get a good result. Odd that the colour made such a big difference to otherwise nominally identical filaments, but I'm now wary of every new colour! This is what we're printing: https://www.printables.com/model/766811-hucha-pokemon-ditto #3Dprinting #Pokémon

@PWei888@fediscience.org Not at the moment, as far as I'm aware. There have been some discussions about it, and it may well end up happening at some point (there's certainly plenty of work to do!), but right now I don't think there's any active involvement.