Author: Andrew

An electrical engineer, amateur astronomer, and diver, living and working on the island of Hawaiʻi.

WP Plugin Confusion

The world of WordPress plugins is a stew of confusion to a new WordPress user. Thousands of options are available for use with your blog, an amazing array of interesting features to add useful capabilities. From this, you are trying to choose what works for you. You really do need a few plugins to add key features.

For Darker View there a number of things I have determined I need to get working… Spam comment filtering, backup capability, statistics, social site support, threaded comments, and a decent photo gallery. I have the backup utility working now using the very nice WordPress Database Backup by Austin Matzko. Social site functions and statistics from Jetpack work smoothly.

The latest experiments center around getting a decent gallery function integrated. Two options appear to be worth considering… NextGEN Gallery seems to be the standard, but I had read that it was flash based, and I want things to work on an iOS device. In a later experiment I found that it does work on my iPad, so it is back on the list.

In the meantime I have experimented with DM Albums. This is a straightforward plugin with a decent interface. Just load the photos and put a single tag into the post. I like the effect, it seems to play well with my theme. The result is a nicely functional gallery.

DM Albums does have some sizing issues in the full screen mode, pretty annoying issues. The package has seen very active development lately, with two major releases already this year as they clean up the bugs and get everything working. Thus I am not giving up on this package just yet.

This issue is not done yet, I am just out of time to play with it for now.

[dmalbum path=”/wp-content/uploads/dm-albums/Hawaii 100/”/]

Postcard from the Summit – Daytime Shutters

Normally we do not open the shutters during the day. As any kid who has used a magnifying glass in the sun knows, direct sunlight and optics are a powerful combination. The amount of sunlight a 10 meter mirror could gather would result in something a bit more powerful than a child’s toy.

Occasionally it is necessary to do maintenance on the shutters, in the process opening the shutters during the day. It is a careful operation, turning the dome away from the Sun and positioning the telescope away from the opening. Still, it is an odd situation, daylight streaming into the dome, a place normally only lit by starlight or the dome florescents. Then there is the view…

Daytime Shutters
Looking out at North Kohala with the Keck 1 Shutters open during the day

Keck in Motion Scene Guide

I have been getting a few questions about the video. To answer a few of them I have compiled a guide to the scenes. Some quick explanations to what you are seeing, information on the camera used as well as the exposure information.

The video is a combination of two techniques. Many scenes were filmed as standard video then accelerated during editing to allow the motion to become clear. Examples of this are scenes of telescopes slewing and the interferometer delay lines moving.

Slower subjects, such as clouds or the stars moving across the sky, were photographed as time lapse. Here a large number of still images were taken. These are then processed and converted to video using Photoshop CS5 before loading into the video editing software, Adobe Premiere Elements. To construct the time lapse sequences sometimes required thousands of separate images, quickly filling memory cards and exhausting batteries. After dark it is long exposure time lapse that is used, with individual exposures often 15 seconds to one minute long.

Continue reading “Keck in Motion Scene Guide”

SB 2104 on Electronic Harrasment

This has been the year for internet legislation in the Hawaii legislature. First there was the terrible HB 2288 that would require complete records of all personal internet activity to be kept for two years. This bill has been deferred, and is hopefully dead, after active opposition in the press, social media and pressure from internet service providers. The measure received nationwide media attention, overwhelmingly negative attention, when it was first proposed.

The current focus of attention is on SB2104, which attempts to address online harassment. The bill defines electronic harassment as follows…

(g) Makes any form of electronic communication, as defined in section 711-1111(2), including electronic mail transmissions, that is directed at a specific person and causes emotional distress to that person and serves no legitimate purpose. SB2104 as of 10Jan2011

Other island bloggers have posted on this measure. Interestingly with opposite takes on the issue. Tiffany has come out in wholehearted support of SB2104, while Damon has come out in opposition, citing free speech issues.

I usually side with free speech, even in the face of offensive speech. I am particularly sensitive to anything that threatens our use of electronic communications, a tool that is increasingly important in our society. It is the net that has facilitated true social opposition and organization to counterbalance the abuse of governmental or corporate economic power. It was the stunningly rapid response on social websites and blogs that halted the SOPA and PIPA legislation in the US Congress. A clear example of the power available to our communities through these new media.

With that in mind I have some real problems with the language on this one. I can all to easily imagine this sort of legislation being used to stifle legitimate comment and opinion. While I applaud the intention, to limit cyberbullying, I am not sure if this can be addressed like this without impinging on freedom of speech.

WHAC Monthly Meeting

The West Hawai’i Astronomy Club Meeting is nearly upon us. As a reminder we will be at CFHT Headquarters this month. We have a guest speaker this month, so it should be a good evening…

Decoding starlight with infrared spectroscopy: Finding water in places where planets might form around new stars
Greg Doppmann, Keck Observatory
7:00pm, Feb 14th

Greg Doppmann is recent transplant to the Big Island, now working at the Keck Observatory as a Support Astronomer. He received his professional training in astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to research, Greg was also active in infrared instrumentation for the McDonald Observatory while at Texas. After graduating in 2002, he took a postdoc position at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

In 2004, Greg moved down to La Serena Chile and became an instrument scientist at the Gemini Observatory. More recently, he was a member of the scientific staff at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson for 5 years before moving to Hawaii.

His current research interests are focused on star formation, where he uses large telescopes with infrared spectrometers to measure physical properties of young stars that are embedded within nearby star forming clouds. In his spare time he enjoys hiking, cycling, gardening, and flying.

Venus and Uranus

This evening Venus and Uranus are very close, with the pair separated by a mere 19 arc-minutes, about 1/5th of a degree and well within the same medium power telescopic field. This a is chance to find the ice-giant with relatively little effort, there will be no nearby bright stars to confuse with the 5.9 magnitude Uranus. At high magnification both planets will be seen as disks, Venus 16 arc-seconds across, and Uranus a bit over 3 arc-seconds across. Venus is now far enough between the Earth and the Sun to become somewhat gibbous, being about 70% illuminated.

The Moon and Mars

Tonight a nearly full Moon will rise together with the planet Mars. The pair will rise about 20:28 and will be about 9° apart.

Mars is approaching opposition, as the Earth draws closer to the red planet it is getting larger and brighter in our sky. It is now over 12 arc-seconds in diameter and shining at -0.8 magnitude. Opposition will occur March 3rd.

Live Webcast for Keck Lecture

On Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012, Keck Observatory will be hosting a live webcast of an astronomy talk by Dr. Tom Soifer of Caltech. The title of the talk is “Seeing the Invisible Universe.” Dr. Soifer also serves as the Director of the Spitzer Science Center and is a member of the Keck Observatory Board of Directors.

The webcast begins at 7 pm Hawaiian Time, 9 pm Pacific Time (5 am GMT, Feb 10) and will be streamed from the Kahilu Theatre in Waimea-Kamuela, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Watch in the window below, or click on the UStream link.

The live webcast will play in the box below beginning at 7 pm HST / 9 pm U.S. PST, or can be found via the Keck Observatory Facebook page.



Live broadcasting by Ustream