I can see myself going out my back gate, down the lane, across the oval (playing field) and then into the river in 1 of those. ;-)

Cheers.

The cool thing is, that you just point it where you want to go, and it goes. Mine will be here about the first of October, and I can't wait to drive it into a lake. I will also have a 9.9 hp outboard on it, so I can move across larger lakes.

I have always wanted one, and it's finally going to happen!

Steve

---

Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

That looks fun - and with 9.9 on the back should be a usable on lakes - I've seen then trying without an outboard and they really struggle on anything other than really still water.
Stay safe, and bring us the tales of the trails :-)

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

No, just a small inheritance from my father's passing.

I can't retire, or buy a Porsche, but I can afford this one toy.

Steve

---

Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

That looks fun - and with 9.9 on the back should be a usable on lakes - I've seen then trying without an outboard and they really struggle on anything other than really still water.
Stay safe, and bring us the tales of the trails :-)

I will have a video camera, and post to YouTube. I am actually extremely excited about this.

Steve

---

Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

So in an attempt to discover just what happens to the hazelnuts I put out for the squirrels (however many I put out they all disappear overnight) I brought a "wildlife cam"

Basically a video camera in a watertight box with PIR sensors and infra red for night shots. It comes with different mounting options.

However as hard as I tried I have had no shots of any activity on the squirrel feeder at night, just cannot fine the right spot. I did try out the camera pointing at the lawn and got a couple of interesting bird shots.

This is a magpie coming in to land



And a jackdaw doing the same from the other direction.



Now I knew that several jackdaws visited the garden, however I was a little surprised to find out just how many,

https://youtu.be/R2K4vssj7zk

I will persever with sighting the camera and hopefully get the shots I want.

A couple of my normal shots.

The weather has been quite changeable here lately, with sun and rain, this was my daily shot yesterday looking across the Solent towards Hurst castle.



And one of the pleasure boats that does trips round the Needles the Fast Rib "Summer Rose" with Hurst Point light.

Bernie, as always your pictures are very soothing, and a pleasure to see.

Steve

---

Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

I drove this today, and will be getting a similar one shortly!



Steve

I hope you'll be posting some still photos here in addition to
your YouTube videos.

---

~Sue~

Of course. One thing I am really looking forward to, is being back in the woods without having to over exert myself. I will be taking pictures of wildlife and scenery and posting them here. Guessing from where I will be riding, I should see moose. This machine will give me access to some very interesting habitats.

Steve

---

Warning, addicted to SETI crunching!
Crunching as a member of GPU Users Group.
GPUUG Website

So by moving the wildlife cam much closer to the squirrel feeder I have discovered the culprit(s)

Unfortunately the only place near the feeder meant the actual feeder is too close and just out of focus, bit it did reveal these;



Then after dark:





So as I suspected the culprits are field mice not squirrels, there must be several as they get through 20 or so hazelnuts each night.

First shot is of the ISS and an iridium flare last year. Was taken from my parents back garden in Cheshire - it just popped up in my Facebook feed.

Second picture was taken in Cornwall - nearly ended up with a space station in my wine!

---

John Turner | Cheshire, UK

@Victor.
You are right. As far as habitation goes it is toast. Now there is a recycling goldmine waiting to be had in all that metal.
Now I noticed something on the roof that you might want. If it is the right size for your manufactured home. That weather guard might be worth a midnight shopping trip. Lol. Just kidding. Who knows if you ask the right person it might be given to you.

---

Nice pics John.
Well done on capturing the ISS - every time I've tried it's been too cloudy , indeed the "watch the station" emails are a good indicator that it's going to be a cloudy night for me.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

I cheated a little if I'm honest. There's an iOS app on my phone called NightCap - I think it just has a 'smart' algorithm that picks up any changes in images and merges them intelligently. It's quick and easy to do and captures the memories nicely, albeit not in the greatest quality. I couldn't find a comparable app for my Android devices.

I've tried using my DSLR a few times using long exposures and then trying to stack/layer them using Photoshop, but my editing skills aren't really up to standard - they just looked like I'd drawn a white line over a blurry landscape in Microsoft Paint.

Hopefully we'll get a few clear nights over the weekend for the Perseids. Whilst we're in the garden looking skywards I'll have my camera on auto-timer taking 30-60 second exposures (depending on the time of night). It's a lazy way of doing it but I've caught of handful in the past by doing that. I've just moved house though so I'm not sure how the light pollution (or indeed the weather) will play out.

Moon was very impressive last night at around 11pm.

---

John Turner | Cheshire, UK

When I have clear skies I do much the same, but use a shorter exposure time, no more than 20 seconds with exposure time plus 2 seconds intervals. I also manually lock the aperture down one stop from wide open. I normally use either the kit lens (18-105) or a super-wide (10-??) at just off shortest focal length. While the this exposure time results in slight over exposure around dusk/down, it is pretty good in the middle of the night Then I use one of the free image stacking software to merge them (far easier than using PhotoShop).
One issue is lens misting, to which end I will probably get a "dew heater", but that's on the Tuit List.

---

Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

First shot is of the ISS and an iridium flare last year. Was taken from my parents back garden in Cheshire - it just popped up in my Facebook feed.

Second picture was taken in Cornwall - nearly ended up with a space station in my wine!

Nice pictures. The ISS was in the sky here the other night, but I missed it. :~(

---

The mind is a weird and mysterious place

Didn't get many Perseids pictures last night/this morning, I saw maybe 40+ between 1230 and 0200, some were proper fireballs too and very impressive - I ended up just using my phone as opposed to the DSLR in the end, which resulted in very noisy shots!





Will try again tonight - hopefully we'll get another clear evening (this time I'll actually charge up the DSLR batteries!)

---

John Turner | Cheshire, UK

Same thing has happened to me - saw a fair few with the naked eye, but with the exception of a few flights coming out of Manchester I didn't actually capture anything. Think there was a thin layer of high level cloud masking them from the sensor (or at least that's what I'm telling myself).

---

John Turner | Cheshire, UK

If I haven't seen it. I would like too.
ulibelle

---

Pluto will always be a Planet to me.

I think sometimes it's the other way round - you need the good luck to see the shooting stars!

---

John Turner | Cheshire, UK