Friday, January 11, 2008

I'll be the judge of that...

Saw this on the shelf of the local "corner shop" and said to myself, yeah right.

It's bottle is flimsy plastic and it doesn't taste of much.

But BLOODY HELL IT'S HOT!!!!!

I dipped my pinkie finger in and had a bit about an hour ago, my tongue has just stopped burning.
Now I know what I'll be using the next time I can't get any fresh chillies or when I do a lazy chilly.


I've just taken my telescope apart, something that every astronomy site says NOT to do. Both the primary and secondary mirrors are now resting on my ironing board.
I took them out to clean them after I looked at them the other day and saw that they're both covered in a thin film of crap.
The reason I even checked them was the fact that I couldn't get a crisp image of Mars the other night, the best I could do was a fuzzy disc with just a hint of detail in the blur.

I may have made a big mistake. After some more research I found out that the fuzzy image could have been down to the fact that the scope is a 5.1" Newtonian and hasn't (in all probability) been collimated ever. It would also explain the wyred effects that happen to the stars.
Since I got the scope the weather hasn't been that great for observing most of the time, and only recently has Mars been visible to me, townie you see.
The scope is second hand and has some battle scars from it's life as a window display in a cafe. It's motorised and came with some eyepieces and a really sturdy tripod but no box, all that for the princely sum of £195.00.
So with some patience and a little care I should be able to clean the optics, re-install them and then collimate the scope with as little drama as possible.
I'll keep you posted.

ttfn

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dude, firstly that chilli sauce is evil, it should be banned. The reason it's in a plastic bottle is it melts glass and tarnishs metal.

And secondly, it's such a blokish thing to do, dismantling a gadget then realising it could be difficult to put it back together again. As long as there is no electricity involved I guess you can rebuild it. There is little chance of the return of 'the prince of darkness' if there is no electricity in there.

Enjoy your cultural celebration fella.

Ashley

Anonymous said...

I'm so pleased by this post for three reasons:
1) You have an ironing board. People mocked me openly for having an ironing board and using it;
2) You have a telescope! We're about to get one. We don't have much light pollution out here in the desert, so it should be fun;
3) You, too, take things apart with blind faith in your ability to put them back together properly.
Awesome! Or, as I like to say, righteous!


See? Ashley's not the only one who leaves super long comments!

Ed's next door neighbour said...

One of the regulars at the farmers markets. http://www.littlegreenmen.co.uk/

What the man doesn't know about chillies ... well, probably not worth knowing!

Ed said...

I have every faith in my own abilities to clean the optics and to put them back in the correct place, I marked the bits before dissembling it. The tricky bit will be the alignment.

If you live in the desert you should treat yourself to a huge scope. I would.

Cheers J for the link, I'll pay the site a visit while I have my tea, A chilli with wraps, yum.

Penny Karma, aka the F-Bomb Mom said...

I often treat myself to a huge scope, but that's really not anyone's business, is it?

Have I mentioned that my new favorite show is Little Britain? Yer, but no, but yer, but no, but don't give me evils!!!

Ed said...

What you get up to on your own time is your problem, PK.

Ed said...

Hi OLPP.

Right, stuff it.
Yes I do own an ironing board.
But I dust it and put stuff on it.
You actually use yours, odd ball!
Soss.

Anonymous said...

Morning Geezer,

New Gadget alert. Apple are releasing the worlds thinnest laptop, at its thinnest point its only 4mm. It doesn't have a dvd drive to save space, so instead it it can wirelessly read dvd's from other wireless computers around it. I think I need it...its on the apple home page. Also, this may be of use to you, VMware FUSION, it lets you run your PC software on the mac.

Anyway, I'm off to lust at beautiful but expensive toys on the apple site.... how much do you get for giving blood? Or could I sell my organs? How much are legs worth do you reckon?

Later dude.

Ashley