spotty

"You want to look at the sun!" my other half yelled.  I went out with the solar binoculars, and saw many large spots.  Wow.  "Can we take photos of it with the SeeStar?"

About an hour later, after installing the solar filter, levelling the system, uploading new firmware, levelling it again, rebooting telescope and tablet a few time, and lots of muttering: a SeeStar picture!

click to embiggen

Wow!  Multiple spots. Pairs of spots. A cluster of spots.  A row of spots. A ring of spots!

Through the binoculars I could see the five big spots plus a splodge where the ring is.  But this picture is something else.

100 MWh

We've had solar panels on the house roof since early 2014.  Earlier this month, while reading the meter, we realised we had generated over 100 MWh in that time.

And actually, it's a bit more than that, since we have had more solar panels on the garage roof since April last year (to offset charging the electric car), which has increased our capacity by ~50%.

So, we can have a smug green glow of satisfaction.  As long as we don't count my air miles!

sunflower sizes

We have sunflowers scattered around the garden.  Same seeds, different results.

all of 3 inches "high"

about 5 foot, but rather "weedy"

close on 7 foot, with a Little Shop of Horrors vibe

all weather

Today's weather: fierce wind, heavy rain, thunder, lightning, bright sunshine -- all at the same time!

it had to happen one day

 

micro veg

The onion harvest is ... disappointing.

(acorns for scale!)

The carrot harvest is no better.  I'm told these are supposed to be small carrots, but I don't think they are supposed to be that small?  And that few?

horse hair

We've walked past this statue of Apollo several times already, as it's on the route between the hotel and the restaurants.  Tonight we loitered, as this was the place to gather before walking down to the conference dinner venue.

It was only then we properly noticed Apollo's hair.

Medusa had snakes, so...?

Nice observatory

The UCNC excursion today was to the Nice Observatory, barely a 20 minute coach ride up a nearby hill.  Well over 30 minutes into the journey, around scary hairpin bends, near Monaco, the driver finally admitted he had gone the wrong way.  Turning the coach on a road I swear was narrower than the coach was long had several of us recalling the ending of The Italian Job.  More swooping around hairpins, and we finally arrived at the observatory, over an hour late, and slightly nauseous.

The observatory itself was great.  We saw three historical telescopes, one of which was the largest privately-funded telescope in the world in its day.

Too large to photograph the whole refractor; inside a lovely wooden dome

Next we went to see the Coudé (French for elbow).  This was a new design, using mirrors to allow the eyepiece to stay in a fixed position: no leaping up and down giant staircases to view and adjust the scope.  Ironically, the development of mirrors good enough for this purpose meant that refractors were replaced by much more compact reflectors, so very few of this design were ever built.

The Coudé, but where's the dome?

The "dome", a moveable shed on rails

Next, on to the final telescope, in an amazing building.  Designed (somewhat literally) as a "temple to science", it has a large, recently regilded, sculpture over the entrance.

A 100 ton dome on a solid foundation, with a dramatic entrance.

A closer look

Inside, another large refracting telescope too long to fit in one photograph.

The finder scopes are themselves quite large.

The other end.

The 100 ton dome was designed by Eiffel.  A dome has to rotate.  100 tons has to rotate.  Eiffel designed a combination of rails and hydraulic support.  Today, it's just rails.

Documentation

There was an exhibition of instruments in the large dome.  Because we were so late, there was no time to see it.  Grumble.