HBM

Our car broke down yesterday on our way to a fancy hotel :-(

Luckily, Mr Mercedes Specialist Techie bloke fixed it this morning but said we had to go for a long drive to recharge the battery which had conked out when the alternator (is that what it's called?) went ping and died. James drove and drove but wouldn't stop anywhere but we eventually fetched up here and I had to get out because my legs were seizing up and I figured I might not get out of the car ever if we left it much longer.

It was a crowded evening at Mono Lake on this August night, in spite of the clouds and threat of rain. We made the best of it, eeked out a couple of different spots in between the clouds clearing and returning. Thought for sure it was going to be a bust. Techie stuff: two small LED light panels with the warm color filter; it occurred to me the tufa is quite grey/white, so I cooled the foreground down in Lightroom. Learning never ends.

Onomatopoeia was stolen from heavily inspired by randompanda_0611's Onomatopoeia. I was also inspired by Adeel Zubair's and HMD BrickCustoms' respective Onomatopoeias as well.

Blue Beetle I just threw together, and he came out like that.

I had originally set aside the torso here for Agent Carter, but I changed my mind and I thought it suited Amanda Waller well, particularly on seeing it used so awesomely on Andew Cookston's file, aptly entitled Amanda Waller.

This shot is a pano from 5 RAW images shot on my tripod at Northbeach in Wollongong.

It’s shot through three Singh-Ray filters.. in order: Ciruclar polarizer (warming), three stop reverse Grad ND, and two stop hard edged Grad ND.

Despite all the techie stuff and playing in Photoshop I love the colour and atmosphere of this new day dawning – I hope you do too ;-)

Find this and other images of mine at redubble by clicking here

See it BIG View On Black by clicking this link

Thanks for your comments and favs - explored ;-)

Woohoo - front page! Thanks for letting me know prakaz ;-)

Apple 'Think Different' for Flickr Friday theme 'Fruit', Juneau, Alaska.

And have brought me with them.

We have our own place now. :-)

I have an apt. in a pretty cul de sac complex. Multiple buildings with 4 apts. in each. I have a bottom one which gives me a nice patio outside.

Toward the end of moving day, my upstairs neighbor comes down to intoduce herself with some biscuits she made. A sweet little Hispanic woman who lives with her husband, and whose son also lives in another unit in the complex.

"You need anything ...... ANYTHEENG ..... you call, they come."

So, I'm living with boxes, and minions.

Not much furniture......yet.

I had no dining table or chairs, but the day after the move my friend calls and says there's a sidewalk furniture sale in our town and there's a table, with a leaf, and 6 chairs.

A beatiful set. heavy, solid sandy wood with inlaid satiny sheen tiles. For an insanely absurdly low price.

I bought it, asked if they delivered......yes.

When?

Now, if you want. I did, they did.

And a night stand for the bedroom (Lane.....very simple) for $25.00

So far so good. Really going good.

I'm still at my friend's house till I get the bed set up and locate the sheets and blankets.

Rent includes cable and high speed wi-fi internet.

Which of course didn't work in spite of my brother spending one hour on line with Time Warner.

So, the techie is coming on Tuesday.

I'm sure this is all enormously fascinating to you.

I'm pretty busy, and feel like the white rabbit......no time to say hello, goodbye......so this is a quick hello.

Forgive me if I can't get out to see too many of your well worth seeing photos.

I'll catch up soon as I can.

I thought I would hijack the "aerial" category, but ... ;)

This picture is mostly about the new lenght blog post I just finished writing. It is about our third trip in Uyuni (mostly a techie post). Check this out :D

ericpare.com/photographing-the-salt-flats-of-uyuni-light-...

The whirlpool galaxy is actually two galaxies interacting with each other. The quite obvious spiral galaxy that is M51 and the much smaller galaxy catalogued as NGC 5195.

First discovered by Charles Messier in 1773, M51 is located 31 million light years away in the constellation Canes Venatici.

Data gathered at www.astronomycentre.org.uk/ on the 18/03/2025.

Boring Techie bit:

Telescope: Skywatcher Quattro 8"

Mount: EQ6r pro

Camera: ZWO 533mc pro

Filter: Optolong UV/IR.

Guided and controlled by the ZWO asiair+ using Altair Starwave 50mm & ZWO 120mm mini.

248 light frames 60 seconds each.

Stacked with darks using WBPP in PixInsight.

Processed using Graxpert, StarNet2, PixInsight & Affinity Photo.

First discovered by Edmond Halley in 1714. It was 50 years later when Charles Messier added the cluster to his list of objects that he was not interested in, giving it the designation M13.

The cluster is 25,000 light years away from us and can be found in the Constellation Hercules. Giving it it's more prestigious title of 'The Great Cluster in Hercules'.

M13 is one of the brightest globular clusters visible to us, especially from the Northern hemisphere. Containing over 100,000 stars it is quite easy to detect with a modest pair of binoculars and a dark sky.

Leave a comment below if you find it with some binoculars.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -10c, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools.

Fireflies. (Zoom in to 100% for the show.)

Even for a hardened calculating techie like me, this was one task that ended up enchanting me nearly every step of the way. I had to figure out how to do this with the post-processing software (Affinity Photo handled this in its stride) and the technique (success on 3rd attempt) as I did not find any special recipes with a casual search online. I'm choosing sharpness over visibility for the fireflies (exposure is not too high and no blur/ halo effect used).

The color casting for the background is added to help distinguish the critters from night lighting in the vicinity. Bicubic resampling and a high quality for the JPG format export was also necessary to keep the luminescence visibility.

Lowenstark’s Information Files: 01-08-XX

Rith Valiant (only recently have I learned her last name) has taken role of a sponsor, essentially, to the League of Engineers. Thusly, she has delivered to us a state of the art establishment unlike any other – cutting edge technology brims from the place, and ultimately it’s run by a central computer core.

This computer core, and most of the subsequent technology, was designed by a girl (woman?) named Arson (presumably not her real name.)

Arson is a… panda, or something? Hybrid. What she is, is a foul mouthed, bloody brilliant techie… very assured of herself, as any employee of Rith is bound to be, and very thick. Thick as in right. You know what I mean.

I’m actually interested to see where this particular odd camaraderie will take me. She’s a tech head, but she considers this bunker something of her baby… but it’s also my home. I’ll make special note to change the locks. And not walk around naked. In fact, I’d better check the shower for cameras.

Another lazy afternoon down by the river at Dillon Falls, although this is the first time since we've called Oregon home that I barely made it down the dirt road because of all the snow. But I made it, and had this serene view all to myself.

Techie Stuff: shot at f/22 to create the sunburst effect. A Nik Fujifilm filter was used to create the Velvia ISO 400 grain effect.

For daily photos, updates and musings on all things photography - please like my Facebook page via the link below.

www.facebook.com/thuncherphotography

You can also visit my website at:

www.thuncherphotography.com

-30-

Best viewed in Lightbox, click on image to view Hi-Res version. © All rights reserved. Please do not use or repost images, sole property of Thūncher Photography.

A couch close-up capturing 11mm of colourful cloth.

Techie details: Min focus distance on the 1:1 macro lens with added 25mm extension tube, plus a 2x teleconverter. The result is about 3x magnification (at the sensor).

Another beautifully turned out racer, with colour matched roll cage Porsche at the Boxengasse Bicester Event August 3rd 2025.

This car was constantly surrounded by people BUT there is new "distraction option" in Lightroom Classic does an excellent job in removing distractions such as people standing around a car !!

( For the techie types who use Lightroom - The tool is hidden under the spot removal group at the bottom of the listings there is a white triangle - click that and it selects all people, which you can deselect some if you wish using the Alt key on a Mac; It with use Ai I think to completely delete people in your image.)

Hunting juvenile male Kestrel, just about to disappear from view in the long grass.......

Techie stuff.....

Nikon d500.....300mm f4 pf.....1.4x tele.....1/1250th sec....f 5.6.....iso 400.

Taken last night at Edlingham Castle. This fence irritates me as its too close to the castle and the only way to get the best views is to climb over the fence and trespass onto the farmer's land. I know land is valuable, I just wish it was about 20m further back in all directions. Mini rant over.

For those who like the techie stuff, this is four landscape photos merged in Elements. It's a funny format now but I decided against cropping further to keep as many stars in as I could.

Oh and HFF!!

The Juno Beach Pier at sunrise this morning. Juno Beach, Florida.

Techie Stuff: 30-second exposure. I used a magenta digital filter and generously saturdated the image to highlight some of the subtle colors that were naturally present.

For daily photos, updates and musings on all things photography - please like my Facebook page via the link below.

www.facebook.com/thuncherphotography

You can also visit my website at:

www.thuncherphotography.com

-30-

© All rights reserved. Please do not use or repost images, sole property of Thūncher Photography.

This little spider really is teeny, maybe not as big as my pinky fingernail. It has built a solid home base here between two dried flower stalks in one of my sea lavender plants. The stalks are maybe 7-8 inches (20 cm?) apart, and she (maybe) has it well anchored so it barely shimmers in a breeze. Day 2 of my bugging her with a light squirt of a water spray bottle. Pisses her off I'm sure, sends her into defend/attack mode. I just spent a few minutes with her then let her be. She snuggles up under that housing she's built and guards her sea lavender domain I guess. The plant is covered really well in webs. I'd love to see her with a fresh catch. The yellow background, by the way, is the flowering lantana.

A couple of techie notes: I did use a ring light here - a tradeoff - throws more light into her abode, but did seem to wash out the strands of webbing. The other is I used Denoise with mixed feelings; it had some trouble around the spider footsies and web strands. Be sure and check her LARGE.

IC410 is an emission nebula in the constellation of Auriga. Often called the Tadpole Nebula in reference to the two tadpole shaped clumps in the upper left of the nebula.

NGC1893 is the open cluster of stars in the middle of IC410. It's these stars that are ionizing and shaping the surrounding nebula. The tadpoles themselves could be collapsing in to new stars.

The nebula is around 12 to 12,500 light years away and 100 light years across.

The open star cluster is believed to have been formed 2 to 4 million years ago.

Captured from my back garden in Rochdale, UK. Bortle 6.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8"S with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Backyard Universe primary mask and Backyard Universe secondary spider. Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 101, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO filter drawer, ZWO asiair plus.

120s exposures.

Best 80% of 40 light frames.

Darks, Flats, Dark Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in PixInsight & Affinity Photo.

sitting on the Dock @ Novaowl in Novatron

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Novatron/128/10/0

Explore #234, Sept 3, 2008... go figure!...

Our dearly departed hard drive left us on August 25, 2008, and the replacement just arrived today, September 3, 2008, after a long Labor Day vacation... our techie's vacation, not ours. I don't begrudge him the vacation but... My Amazon Kindle had to be recharged every night.

He was able to save all our data (I think), but we need to reload all our software and get organized again. We're looking forward to getting back to our Flickr routine and checking in with all our dear Flickr friends! See you soon!

Rita and John

A re-process of some data gathered in August 2024.

Having improved a little with PixInsight, I feel I've improved a little on my older version of this.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -10c gain 101, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO filter drawer, ZWO asiair plus.

180s exposures.

Best 90% of 44 light frames.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked and processed in PixInsight & Affinity Photo

I love that I can travel light years and stay in my backyard.

This is an emission nebula IC410, also known as the Tadpole Nebula. There is an open cluster in the center of the nebula, NGC 1893. Stellar winds from these young stars sculpts some of the nebula's gas and dust into two tadpoles near the center of the gas cloud.

Techie Stuff:

Explore Scientific ED102 Scope, Skywatcher EQ6R-pro Mount, ZWO ASI1600MMPro-Cool, Nightcrawler focus/rotator.

Data: 8 hours over 2 nights in January 2019. Average exposure was 5 minutes. Combination of RGB, HA & Oiii (I took Sii but did not see any detail) Edit with PixInsight, Photoshop, OnOne2017

I study nuclear science

I love my classes

I got a crazy teacher

He wears dark glasses

Things are going great, and they're only getting better

I'm doing alright, getting good grades

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades

I gotta wear shades

I've got a job waiting for my graduation

Fifty thou a year'll buy a lot of beer

Things are going great, and they're only getting better

I'm doing alright, getting good grades

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades

I gotta wear shades

Well I'm heavenly blessed and worldly wise

I'm a peeping-tom techie with x-ray eyes

Things are going great, and they're only getting better

I'm doing alright, getting good grades

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades

I gotta wear shades

Timbuk3.

[Reposting one of my favorite textured shots, for contacts who haven't seen it yet.]

The Pavillon de Flore is the only remaining part of the former Tuileries Palace that used to extend all along the east border of the Jardin des Tuileries. It's now part of the Louvre, where studios for renovation of paintings and sculpture are housed. The actual historic Palais des Tuileries was destroyed by the Communards during the Paris Commune, in 1871. I took this picture from the Promenade du Bord de L'eau (waterfront promenade) on a cold winter evening at the last light of day. Paris was beginning to turn on its lights, as you can see in the picture. [History of the Palais des Tuileries and the Louvre below in my comments.]

TECHIE TEXTURE NOTES: This is one of those shots from my archives, taken with my Fuji Finepix on my first trip to Paris 5 years ago that just didn't speak to me the way the camera recorded it. Too blue (typical of the way Fuji Finepix S7000 records colors in my experience), too flat, no spark somehow, and didn't relay the atmosphere that was there. So I decided to try adding textures!!

Adding textures in a very delicate way has brought out the rich tones of the architecture. I used a rosy but very soft texture from LaBrume and a texture with warm yellow and ochre tones that had a golden glow in the center from Borealnz. 1. Made adjustments to each texture first, altering the rosy to more magenta in Color Balance, then by using the blending mode Multiply. 2. Lightened the Borealnz texture by using the blending mode Overlay. 3. Adjusted my own photo which was the background layer after adding the textures to it, with Curves to add depth, and additional Color Balancing after i saw how the photo interacted with the textured layers.

Thanks to both Borealnz and LaBrume for their textures!

L-R:

William Owen - Medic/Techie.

'Bert' Dunlop - Rusher/Cameraman

Sgt. Maxwell Harrison - Tactics

John Manley - Sniper

Edward "Bones" Cunningham - Veteran Member.

Kinda' ODST inspired.

Auch, I haz Oreos, U jelly?

This is what the view looks like from high atop the world, overlooking Tumalo Creek and the vast Deschutes National Forest. A 3/4 moon holds court in the sky, and a layer of light smoke from a prescribed forestry burn lingers over Bend. You can also see the snowcapped peak of Mt. Bachelor on the horizon; what you don't see is snow anywhere else, which is very rare for this time of year.

Techie Stuff: This is a 5 image pano, stitched in LR6.

For daily photos, updates and musings on all things photography - please like my Facebook page via the link below.

www.facebook.com/thuncherphotography

You can also visit my website at:

www.thuncherphotography.com

-30-

Best viewed in Lightbox, click on image to view Hi-Res version. © All rights reserved. Please do not use or repost images, sole property of Thūncher Photography.

Shot using three extension tubes on my macro lens ;-)

When I shoot macros I am in the habit of always shooting 3 or 4 shots of each "frame" at different fstops: f2.8, f4, f7.1, f10 often I opt for the larger f number but in this case I have merged two together, the f2.8 and the f7.1 to give slightly more detail than a normal f2.8. This is all techie stuff and normally I don't talk about it so I will shut up and let you enjoy the photo ;-)))

HBW all. :-)

View Large

Explore #95

The area south of Market street in San Francisco is undergoing a Renaissance of sorts. The older buildings remain, but they are rapidly being populated by techie software firms that remodel the innards but keep the outer look the same. You can tell by the newer windows that this is the case here. They almost look out of place next to the Gallo Salame ghost sign.

Louis Gabiati brought his salame making skills from Italy to SF in 1910. The salame is no longer made at this site, but it's still a West Coast thing. Grab a package on your next trip to the market. Your heart will thank you for it.

San Francisco CA

My favorite ride of the trip was where we rode above Lake Atitlan and ended with an urban downhill in the town you can see below. Colleen about to drop in a little techie descent.

The little pinwheel galaxy in Ursa Major. A face on unbarred spiral galaxy some 40 million light years away.

First discovered on the 18th of March 1787 by William Herschel. It's 2 main spiral arms are predominantly blue, which suggests mostly young hot stars inhabit them.

Many fainter more distant galaxies can be spotted in the background.

All data gathered at www.astronomycentre.org.uk/

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 60mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 101, Optolong UV/IR 2" filter, ZWO filter drawer, ZWO asiair plus.

180s exposures.

21 light frames.

Darks, Flats, Dark Flats.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in Graxpert, PixInsight & Affinity Photo.

We took a delightful little cruise around Else Cove - the Nature collective. you will love the prettiness here.

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Else/2/2/0

For years I resisted my son's pleas to get a computer. "I don't want all that technology in my life" I kept saying. Today I remember those words. Am driven mad with frustration trying to figure out how the vista 64bit system works on this new quad core ( whatever that means! ) computer. Absolutely nothing is familiar. Have stepped into an alien world & my techno-challenged brain is being severely tested. It was suggested I convert back to XP but the techie at the store (who looked to be about 17 !!) said "Bad advice. You don't want to do that. Soon XP will be obsolete & there will be no support systems available" Thanks a lot, Vista. As confucius says " Life is simple... but "you" insist on making it complicated" :)

Image : kathy adams of empowerment international is in the Toronto area, presenting a photo exhibit with jonathan hung. I went to the opening yesterday. Seeing Kathy again drove me back to my Nicaragua files...to find something simple !! This young boy was playing under the pier of Lake Nicaragua, on the shores of which the city of Granada sits.

explore #1.......many thanks to all....your incredible response is what took it there.

Thanks so much, everyone, for your very generous compliments on my last post :)

And for your support & advice here. All will be well. One day at a time. I'll get there..

I study nuclear science

I love my classes

I got a crazy teacher

He wears dark glasses

Things are going great, and they're only getting better

I'm doing alright, getting good grades

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades

I gotta wear shades

I've got a job waiting for my graduation

Fifty thou a year'll buy a lot of beer

Things are going great, and they're only getting better

I'm doing alright, getting good grades

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades

I gotta wear shades

Well I'm heavenly blessed and worldly wise

I'm a peeping-tom techie with x-ray eyes

Things are going great, and they're only getting better

I'm doing alright, getting good grades

The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades

I gotta wear shades

Timbuk3.

civic center plaza - san francisco, california

Also known has the Cocoon Nebula. Lying close to the constellation Cygnus the cocoon nebula is about 15 light years across and roughly 3,300 light years from us.

Inside this nebulous cloud is a group of young stars blasting out so much radiation that they create this wonderful floral looking emission nebula.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -10c gain 101, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO filter drawer, ZWO asiair plus.

180s exposures.

Best 90% of 44 light frames.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in PixInsight & Affinity Photo.

This video is literally me just having a bit of fun flirting with the camera which I filmed in slow motion on my phone, a wee experiment! I was so delighted to be dressed as a woman once more I simply could not resist having a bit of fun as I felt truly delighted and was loving it being Helene again.

Techie note: The video quality is not great on the phone when using slow motion capture and due to the ambient lighting being so low the image quality is quite degraded. It was though all about enjoying myself so this took priority.

Captured at www.astronomycentre.org.uk/ 02/01/2025.

Located over 2,500 light years away in the constellation of Cepheus new stars are being born in this stellar nursery.

Boring Techie bit:

Telescope: Askar FRA400 with .7 reducer

Mount: EQ6r pro

Camera: ZWO 533mc pro

Filter: Optolong L'eNhance.

Guided and controlled by the ZWO asiair+

Best 85% of 61 light frames 180 seconds each.

Stacked with darks, flats, dark flats & bias with DSS.

Processed using Graxpert, PixInsight & Affinity Photo.

From the Sharpless catalogue, this is an emission nebula about 5,600 light years away in the constellation of Cygnus the Swan.

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 110, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

Darks, Flats & Bias.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools.

Also known as Caldwell 3.

A barred spiral galaxy found in the constellation of Draco close to the dragons tail.

First discovered by William Herschel in April of 1793.

NGC lies 11.7 million light years away.

Data gathered on 5th of March 2025 at www.astronomycentre.org.uk/

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 60mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -20c gain 101, Optolong UV/IR 2" filter, ZWO filter drawer, ZWO asiair plus.

180s exposures.

40 light frames.

Darks, Flats, Dark Flats & Bias

Stacked and processed in PixInsight & Affinity Photo.

34,000 light years away towards the constellation of Canes Venatici lies the impressive globular star cluster Messier 3 (NGC5272). It contains upwards of half a million stars and is actually heading our way. M3 is moving towards our solar system at approximately 147.6 Kilometers per second!

Boring techie bit:

Skywatcher Quattro 8" Newtonian Reflector steel tube with the f4 aplanatic coma corrector, Skywatcher EQ6 R pro mount, Altair Starwave 50mm guide scope, ZWO asi120mm guide camera mini, ZWO asi533mc pro cooled to -10c, Optolong L'enhance 2" filter, ZWO asiair plus.

Stacked with DeepSkyStacker and processed in StarTools.

The group shot of all the cake plowers...

Me, Trevor, Alli, Lisa, Courtney,Mr. Fab,Ted Murphy, VCDan, Techie, Michael.

Captured 26/01/2023 just before 3am

The bright red star to the far right is RR Ursae Minoris a 4.7 magnitude binary.

-Magnitude is used to measure the brightness of stellar objects, the higher the number, the fainter the object.

-A binary star belongs to a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound together and locked in orbit around each other.

Boring techie bit,

Skywatcher quattro 8" S & f4 aplanatic coma corrector

EQ6 R pro mount guided with an Altair 50mm & Altair GPcam

Canon 450D astro modded with Astronomik CLS CCD EOS APS-C clip filter. Neewer Intervalometer used to control the exposures.

104 exposures of 120 seconds each with the best 50% stacked together with calibration frames. 2 images were produced from the data. One stacking on the comet, one stacking on the stars. Separately processed then combined together.

Software used, PHd2, DeepSkyStacker, StarTools, Affinity Photo.

It could be but it's not.

It's my new fitness watch.

Like many others, we have gained a few "pandemic pounds" we need to get rid of. We thought fitness watches might provide some motivation to get off the couch more often. My wife did the research and our son (the resident techie) helped us figure them out.

It incorporates more features than I can understand but learning how to use it has been a fun project.

It even vibrates every hour to suggest I get up and move around. It's surprising how quickly a sedentary hour passes these days.

Tracking my activities (steps taken, flights of stairs climbed, kilometres cycled or walked, etc.) really has provided motivation to be more active. It has been too easy to spend time indoors (and close to the refrigerator).

I know... we shouldn't need another digital assistant to get us off the couch, but so far this gadget has given us the boost we needed.

Another shot from our Christmas stay in Wales. Reminds me of the film Brigadoon:-)

Recovery disks turned up Monday but unfortunately I had no success with them. Techie guy reckons my new hard drive is a duff one:-( Engineer is coming out on Friday to hopefully fix it, so we are still without our home computer - boo hoo. Mind you yesterday I would have found it difficult to focus on anything after a very 'merry' New Year's Eve party - lol. Spent the day vegging on the sofa watching TV.

Look for it 27,000 light years away in the constellation of Hercules. Also known as NGC 6341 it is one of the oldest star clusters in the Milky Way and was first discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1777.

With an estimated 300,000 stars 100 light years across it should be quite easy to find in a pair of 10x50 binoculars, the best month for observing it is July.

Data gathered at www.astronomycentre.org.uk/

Boring Techie bit:

Telescope: Askar FRA400

Mount: EQ6r pro

Camera: ZWO 533mc pro

Filter: Optolong UV/IR.

Guided and controlled by the ZWO asiair+ using Altair Starwave 50mm & ZWO 120mm mini.

Best 90% of 120 light frames 60 seconds each.

Stacked with darks, flats, dark flats using DeepSkyStacker.

Processed using Graxpert, StarNet2, PixInsight & Affinity Photo.

This is a planetary nebula around 2,600 light years away.

Planetary nebula is formed after a star very much like our own Sun burns through all it's fuel. The star swells up in size and then rapidly shrinks right down to become a white dwarf. As it shrinks, it's gaseous outer layers are left to just simply drift outwards continually expanding. This particular one is approximately 2 light years across.

It gets it's name the Owl Nebula from the two dark patches that kind of look like big beady eyes.

Boring techie bit.

Skywatcher quattro 8" S & f4 aplanatic coma corrector

EQ6 R pro mount guided with an Altair 50mm & Altair GPcam

Canon 450D astro modded with Astronomik CLS CCD EOS APS-C clip filter. Neewer Intervalometer used to control the exposures.

60 - 2 minute exposures with the best 70% stacked in DeepSkyStacker with calibration frames.

All other processing done with StarTools.