Diver Down
Author: Andrew
An electrical engineer, amateur astronomer, and diver, living and working on the island of Hawaiʻi.
A New Family Member
Meet Electra, the newest addition to the Cooper household. Today we came back from the Kona Humane Society with a kitten. As per household tradition the name is that of a star, 17 Tauri, one of the brightest in the Pleiades star cluster.
It has been three months since we buried Adhara, three months with an empty, cat-less house. There has been something missing around this place. No fur-face looking to curl up with you when you get comfortable. No begging eyes at your feet when breaking up a roast chicken.
Meanwhile this little flash of fur has been streaking all over the house. Finding the interesting places. In and out and under everything. There are things we humans need to put away, out of little paws reach. There are other places where kittens should not go, a couple of those have been found already. But then, some things are learned only through impact.
High speed, wood floor, and screen door… Thud.
Yeah, saw that one coming.
Eventually she might slow down. Maybe? Perhaps? Before midnight?
After years of living with two elderly and mostly sedentary cats, a kitten is a real change. It will take time for us to come to know one another, eventually we will learn the routine. No regrets, I am truly looking forward to having a cat around again.
Did I say cat? Make that cats, there will be two. A second little fellow has been selected, but he is not yet ready to come home, a little surgery awaits before we can go collect him and complete the family. I will have to introduce him in a later post.
A Dummy Battery Adapter for the Canon 20Da
Another quick project to solve a little equipment issue. I realized I had a problem the morning before I was planning to spend a night shooting astrophotos up on the mountain. The batteries for my 20Da are old and do not hold a charge, no way I was going to be able to use the camera through the night.
I have the AC power supply for the 20Da, this is what I have been using for some time now. Shooting astrophotos in the driveway allows access to AC power. For field use this will not do, I need to operate fully from battery power. The camera batteries that I do have for the camera are now at least six years old, and do not hold enough charge to last.
Without AC power available I needed something that could plug into one of my 12V field battery packs. I really did not want to cut up the existing AC power supply to create a version to be used with an external battery. Plus, Canon used odd, proprietary connectors on the supply. (I really hate it when they do that!) I can not even use parts of the AC supply without modification.
With only a few hours available I came up with a plan. A little digging showed I had all of the needed components on-hand. Off to the work bench!
Continue reading “A Dummy Battery Adapter for the Canon 20Da”
The Moon, Mars, Saturn and Spica
A nice conjunction of a crescent Moon, Mars, Saturn and the bright star Spica will grace the evening sky tonight. All four will be within 12° of each other. The two planets and the star will all be about 1st magnitude, with the Moon showing about 37% illuminated.
The same quartet will get together again next month, for an even tighter grouping.
Postcard from the Summit – Tertiary Tower
A Morning at Three Tables
With the south shores of Oahu denied us by rough conditions, we spent a day diving the north shore of the island. The specified rendezvous was a site known to local divers as Three Tables for a little shore diving. With an iPhone and Google Maps in hand, Deb and I drove across the island along unfamiliar roads to Oahu’s famous North Shore.
There were quite a few divers already present, including a class just getting their certification. Our group just added to the party. Charles and Jeannie, who had been with us on the previous day’s aborted dive at the YO-257. Another visitor from Texas, Ray, joined us for the dive.
Leading the dive would be Gabe Scotti, the owner of Kaimana Divers. Christine would be his backup. While Gabe led off, Christine would play the caboose, riding herd on the group. It was a nice day to be diving, we chatted while setting up the gear. It was a relaxed, Hawaiian style morning.
An Astronomy Discovery in the News
So a little telescope called Hubble takes a picture of a galaxy, a really distant galaxy over 10 billion lightyears away. Odd, it looks like this galaxy has gotten it’s act together and become a spiral galaxy, a lot earlier than we thought proper spiral galaxies would form. What do you do? Get some time on a bigger telescope and get some more data… Using Keck the OSIRIS spectrograph astronomers show that this is indeed a proper spiral galaxy, 10.7 billion light years away, which means 10.7 billion years in the past. The universe has just served up another surprise for astronomers, this is the sort of stuff we love.
First spiral galaxy in early Universe stuns astronomers – BBC News
Earliest spiral galaxy found – CBC News
Astronomers find rare spiral galaxy in early Universe – The Sydney Morning Herald
Along with the sensible headlines there are those that play up the “This can’t be” angle of the discovery. For the most part the articles are fairly good, it is just the headlines that seem a little off, something to blame on the editors who write the headlines…
Hubble spots spiral galaxy that shouldn’t exist – Los Angeles Times
Astronomers Spot Ancient Spiral Galaxy From an Era When Spirals Should Not Exist – Popular Scince
Headlines are always an issue in science reporting. Written by editors with a tendency to the excessive and sensational. Editors who often have little understanding of the science. We have seen what that can lead to, something that has been pleasantly rare with this latest discovery.
First Ancient Spiral Galaxy Discovered From 10.7 Billion Years Ago – Latinos Post
Is this the “first” spiral? We have no way of knowing. I have found no such quote from the astronomers involved with the discovery. The reason we study the early universe is that we do not know. This discovery shows that there could be others, perhaps even older.
There are other headlines, predictable headlines from the usual suspects. Every time science turns up some surprise, something that does not fit a simplistic view of the universe, those with an ideological agenda attempt to use the discovery to push their views… “Look at this! It disproves everything!!”, ” The scientists have it all wrong!!” Quite predictable…
Mystery galaxy could unravel Big Bang theory of creation – Catholic Online
And of course, scientists will need to look for other exceptions to the rule. If an inexplicable and significant number of premature spirals are found, then the Big Bang theory will need to be rewritten, or disposed of altogether, no matter how beloved it is today. After all, it is just a theory.
Yes, again you see the “It is Just a Theory” gambit, the creationists favorite canard. All a discovery like this proves is that the universe is a complex and fascinating place and that we still have much to learn.
“BX442 represents a link between early galaxies that are much more turbulent than the rotating spiral galaxies that we see around us. Indeed, this galaxy may highlight the importance of merger interactions at any cosmic epoch in creating grand design spiral structure.” – Alice Shapely of UCLA, co-discoverer of BX442
Postcard from Hawai’i – Waterlily
Postcard from Hawaii – Banana Smoothie
Today the recipe was three apple bananas, a cup of yoghurt with the fruit mix (blueberry and açaí), a small handful of frozen raspberries, a double handful of ice cubes, milk and a squirt of agave syrup, blend on high.
Sipping over the keyboard as I type this, I am not going to need much supper.
Postcard from the Summit – Snowing
