PupCam

Evening All Sorry to hear that, I know from experience that that is not pleasant, particularly when it decides to go back down the trachea which results in that organ deciding to shut up shop completely,both literally and metaphorically speaking. Most important thing then is to remain calm and remember Don't Panic (that's two HHGTTG references in 24 hours) but I find that much easier to say than do. As it happens, we went out to see friends this evening for a Take Away and social gathering. I really fancied a curry but it was way too late in the day for that so the blander (but still not without some risk due to the oiliness) Chish and Fips option was chosen. A precautionary slurp of Gaviscon will be taken in addition to the daily medication. Night All

Indeed there are and I immediately thought of the C Type Jaguars. This very interesting and it has to be said, rather depressing article was one of the first hits. Looks like the Range Rover replicas* are out then too. If they get their way, presumably a number of fine commercially made existing replica vehicles would have to be destroyed if they pursue retrospective application. Complete Muppetry .... ! * Not that I'd be wanting one of course, you know me.

Morning (pre-munch) All! I fear Flavio is rather unwell. Quick quick, get the doctor. Oh no, he is the doctor ...... We need a Plan B Happy Birthday to Shelia GPS constellation satellites aren't geostationary which is why your GPS receive knows (and sometimes tells you) how many satellites are visible at any instant at your location amongst many other things. They operate at an altitude of ~12,500 miles somewhere in between the low earth orbit stuff (Starlink ~300 miles, ISS ~ 250 miles etc) and the very narrow geostationary altitude at around ~ 22,300 miles. Agreed Where is your office Rick? I often look at the St Ives webcam (when doing my BP) and note there's a Coast Guard station there and I wondered if that was where you went but from that view it doesn't look like it! ION Sometimes I think my humour is wasted. Moving on ..... Pergola status: 2 Upright made ................................................................ 3 to go 1 Horizontal beam made ................................................. 2 to go 0 Cross boards (with twiddly ends) made ..................... 5 to go 2 Uprights & 1 cross beam erected and Crecoted ....... Tick Whilst up a step ladder Crecoting the embryonic new pergola an Apache flew over east to west about 100 yards south of me. If it was above 500' I will definitely eat my hat. If only I'd had a decent camera to hand. Indeed, if only I had a decent camera! Anglian Water have turned up today to dig up the pavement approximately 30' south of the recently excavated and filled hole containing the nice shiny new electrical connection to the first nice shiny new pole. Whilst I don't think the water leak that has appeared very, very, very recently can or should be linked to the recent electricity board shenanigans I can't help thinking of this All being well I'll be meeting up with the Bear tomorrow with the intention of going to look at some unmentionable objects running on parallel bits of metal. Right, it's munch time. TTFN

Evening All Pergola status: 1 Upright made ........................................................ 4 to go 1 Horizontal beam made ......................................... 2 to go 0 Cross boards (with twiddly ends) made ............. 5 to go Bear Comms: There's been some 👍 ION I've been reading this interesting article but I think the most astonishing bit is this: Starlink satellites are designed to make autonomous decisions to maneuver out of the way of other spacecraft based on data provided by the U.S. Space Force and the commercial space awareness firm LeoLabs. Between June 1, 2023, and Nov. 30, 2023, Starlink satellites had to maneuver 24,410 times to avoid collisions, which amounts to around six maneuvers per satellite. While high, that number is falling — but some experts are still concerned. My emphasis. Sort of suggests the statement from the HHGTTG that: "Space, is big. Really big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist, but that's just peanuts to space" might not be entirely accurate* 🤣 * I suppose to be fair that particular tiny, tiny little bit of space is particularly well packed and that's probably just to Pee the astronomers off! I'm tired after all that woodwork so night all!

The manufacturers don't specify the figure, they have to comply with the specification which is essentially this for modern cars with a push to lower the levels for future vehicles over the next few years. One of the very many tests undertaken as part of the type approval testing which have to be passed before the vehicle can be manufactured for sale. I believe the measurement is taken from 0.5m behind the exhaust outlet. As I say, personal interpretation or "musical" appeal doesn't enter into it being right or wrong. That isn't to say there aren't those who don't appreciate the glorious music from certain internal combustion engines; oh how I wish I had a car with a Merlin engine in it but I bet some of my neighbours are glad I haven't! Don't tell @New Haven Neil but I actually quite like the sound of some Harley Davidsons (there, I've said it) it's only when I actually see them I start feeling rather ill 🤣 Alan

Evening! Perhaps a rather sweeping generalisation? Petrol Monty is not 20 years old but is NOT COMPLIANT (and he certainly doesn't like that E10 petrol rubbish). I realise of course that the Ford Mondeo is a very rare, performance car and clearly not designed for driving round the streets of London* (where's the tongue in cheek Emoji?). Thankfully the need to subject him (and me) to the delights of driving "in London" can be counted on the fingers of one foot. * Other ULEZs may soon be available Unfortunately it doesn't depend on personal interpretation it depends on measurement against a standard to a procedure. Now you and I would probably suggest that the defined measurement procedure is somewhat dubious and open to miss application but it's got nothing to do with personal interpretation. What? By the Government! There was a time when motorists in the UK were positively encouraged by officialdom to buy diesel vehicles "to save the planet"** by, amongst other things, advantageous tax levels on diesel fuel. ** Now they've moved on to persuading manufacturers and users that the best way to save the planet is to dig up copious amounts of lithium and other materials and make loads of batteries. You know my views on that approach .... I dare say the tide will turn again sometime. ION Not a lot to report. Work has started on making the new pergola but don't get too excited, the first beam has been measured and drilled ready for cutting the two slots but that's all. A visit by Mrs Puppers' sister & brother-in-law today resulted in a fair amount of "Putting the World to rights" with all of the usual suspects being discussed. Unfortunately I suspect the world wasn't listening. TTFN

Afternoon I'm reminded once more of this don't play it if easily offended by language but it makes me chuckle ..... I'm reading an interesting book at the moment concerning the activities of Mr Royce, Mr Rolls and numerous others that culminated in the R-R Merlin engine. ("Merlin" by Graham Hoyland) I quite fancy a Silver Ghost* but can't quite find enough spare beans. * A proper one, not one of those garish, modern abusers of the name. ION Out on the RD on Saturday for another run over to Woburn for a caffeine based drink before getting slightly moist just as it was time to go home. Fortunately it didn't come to much because, as you know, Puppers doesn't do wet! Yesterday Mrs Puppers and I tried to go for a walk along the Great Ouse at Great Barford. It didn't go well because, well, the Great Ouse is currently everywhere 🤣. It was a shame that we couldn't get onto the bridge that overlooks the weir. I suspect the water's flow rate would have been extremely impressive. I suspect that there wasn't a lot of difference between the levels either side actually. We thought we'd cut our losses and go and have lunch at the Danish Camp. It was more like the Danish Ark but it was still functioning and lunch was enjoyed. When we went back to the car park some bright Herbert had neatly parked their monstrous, new modern vehicle in the gateway from the car park to the footpath. The precision with which they'd lined it up between the two "NO PARKING" cones had to be seen to be believed. I won't name the brand of vehicle as I have no wish to offend anyone. The only clue is probably the fact that I've actually mentioned the incident at all ..... Apparently I might be visited this afternoon by a chap who might want to relieve me of some pre-war BSA spares. It would be nice if I could recover some of the money expended getting the old Beeza back on the road. UPDATE: I have been visited by a member of the local VMCC. He has left with a phone full of BSA B21 photographs, a B21 engine push rod tunnel and a B21 engine tappet cover plate. He seemed please but I don't think I'm going to get rich quick selling Beeza spares! Never mind, hopefully another one will be saved and back on the road soon. TTFN

Evening All I replaced an LED strip-light in the garage today. It is the second of 3 that have failed now as they approach their 1st anniversary. As both failed in the same manner I queried with the supplier whether this was typical (if so, not very good) or maybe a batch problem. They did not admit to either a typical or batch failure but have replaced the two failed ones and at my suggestion provided a spare for the last remaining original one. They did this very quickly so I have to thank them for the no-quibble replacements but I'd I've preferred lights that didn't need replacing in the first place! We'll see what happens as we approach the second anniversary. I need to drill some 1/2" holes in the replacement pergola beams. For literally some years I've been tripping over my box of flat-blade timber boring tools in the garage. Recently I must have put them in a safe place ..... Can I find them now? Well of course not. On the last couple of RD rides I've noticed the right-hand cylinder has been running a bit warmer (typically ~75°C) than the left-hand cylinder (typically ~62°C). Now I don't know what the actual correct temperature is but I reckon that in general they should, if they are sharing the load, be running close to the same temperature as they are similar in design and operate in a simple, symmetrical environment. As I'm paranoid about holing a piston either though an over-advanced ignition or a lean mixture I thought I would check the timing. Both sets of new points had closed up a bit, I suspect because the heal of the followers had bedded in so that was corrected and the right-hand (hot) pot was slightly advanced so that was also corrected. Both plugs looked OK but if anything very, very slightly rich. The plugs are not really a very good indication of mixture here as the engine hadn't been run continuously at Wide Open Throttle for any length of time immediately prior to stopping it (for the so-called "Plug Chop") but I'll see how the temperatures are next time out. Why am I paranoid about holing a piston on a "performance" 2 stroke? Been there, done that, got the T Shirt in my boy-racer days ....... Still playing with Jupiter. I quite like the subtly of this one but this highlights the next problem; repeatability 🤣 Unfortunately my efforts are knocked into a cocked hat by the clever people on one of the Faceache astronomy groups as can be seen here. In my defence; his telescope, mount and camera is most likely far higher quality & performance than my humble beginner's job. But then only a 3 figure sum was spent on the equipment not a 4 (or even 5) figure sum. All in good time. Anyway full credit to the photographer/astronomer whose name I have unfortunately misplaced despite ploughing through the Fb pages trying to find it again - it's a beautiful image. Time for bed said Zebedee Night all.

Well until it comes to chucking out time at some local Derbies in the UK!

Morning (Pre-munch) All Is it not related to the ancient, basic "pack" instinct? LNER forever and you can stick your Hell of a Mess* railway 🤣 * with apologies to Mr @Dave Hunt Crikey! Good luck with that round here! They are too busy texting and shouting at motorcyclists on old motorcycles to notice their horse is carping all over the road or footpath round here. Anyway, they wouldn't want to get their nails dirty ....... No its a form of indicating one's ignorance and "I don't give a sh.." attitude (even if that's exactly what they've done; they've given it to everyone passing by) ION A trip to St Evenage this morning to attend an Outpatients clinic. I can't say I'm impressed by the traffic volumes around town at the end of "rush hour" these days! I couldn't be doing that everyday as I once did for 30+ years! Finally managed to part-process one of my Jupiter videos with a different tool (Siril) this morning. I've always struggled with the work flow before but finally managed to get it to stack a pre-processed video. The pre-processing with another tool (PIPP) centred the image in the frame and cropped it so that the image processed by Siril was consistent. Whether the stacking is any better or worse than using AstroSurface remains to be seen. Well, it's something to play around with because let's face it they'll be no new data for a day or six. Lunch followed by a blood test at the GPs beckons. TTFN

Anyone else here sick of the perpetual "We are very sorry but we are experiencing high call volumes at the moment" nonsense when phoning, well, just about any organisation? Me thinks I will be making regular use of this tool in the future because I don't believe it. If the call volume is perpetually high that means the facility lacks adequate capacity which means the bean counters need to find more money to employ more staff to operate their chosen "business model". I hope MSE are successful exposing and confirming what we already instinctively know. That could be considered to be a rantette!

Afternoon All He is still suffering unfortunately although I did manage to tempt him out of his den for the day last Friday. It must have been the smell of the free bacon butty! I have mentioned to him a number of times the concern of fellow ERs for which he thanks you all greatly. I and others are trying to "keep an eye on him", I just hope he can get that blxxdy dog safely, securely and permanently away before too long. Apparently a great load of sugar beat was fly-tipped in Suffolk recently! Who'd have thought? I presume the price of beet must have hit the floor ..... Later reports suggest that it wasn't actually fly -tipped but stored in a lay-by because of the unavailability of the normal storage areas due to floods. Some asked why the council hadn't been asked beforehand. I suspect that that's down to "It's easier to beg forgiveness than seek permission"! Do I spy a business opportunity for Chimpy @monkeysarefun to set up a money-laundering Off-shore Banking division? ION Today has been spent mainly completing 8 health questionnaires (something like 350 questions in total) to aid a clinical study of the underlying health condition that's "knackered my pump". In so doing it will hopefully aid the development of more effective monitoring of the condition. Assisting the professionals seems the very, very least I (or anyone else for that matter) could do after they went to the trouble of scraping me off the floor, bringing me back to life and discovering what the matter was for which. of course, I'm eternally grateful! More hospital and GP visits tomorrow for unrelated matters.. It's all go being old(ish) and retired. TTFN

Morning All! Not entirely accurate with respect to Monty as he's too old and there's no data on this website for the earlier model. The other thing to note is that the Range Rover is not only wider than the terraced housing I was referring to it's almost as tall! (where's the tongue in cheek Emoji?). Also none of the occupants in those properties appear to have lowered themselves to owning a Mondeo*. * Monty is by far the best car I've owned. It cost £6.5K in 2008 (I think), it's now done just over 197000 miles and still has the original clutch and exhaust. No, I don't know how that works either other than I do know how to use the clutch properly unlike many who use them as a temporary brake on hills. I've driven 173000 miles of that total. It's had the usual consumables of course (tyres, pads, discs etc) plus I think in total 6 !!!!! suspension springs which probably says as much about Ford's springs as it does the condition of the roads The most annoying fault it developed a few years ago was to suddenly cut out and stop with a completely dead instrument cluster. Leave it for a period of time and then it would spring back into action for another 6 months as if nothing had happened. No fault found on diagnostics. Just after I retired the fault became hard and the RAC dragged it home from whence it had come to a halt. Two weeks of research on the web and poking about with an oscilloscope and a DMM on the Canbus finally revealed one of the special fuses (slow blow / anti-surge or similar) had an "interesting" failure mode. Mr Ford supplied a replacement for IIRC £2.52 and it's worked perfectly ever since. Of course two weeks diagnostics in a garage at £120/Hr or whatever it is would have written the car off - it's good to be technical 😃. Which reminds me. The headlamp levelling system has just stopped working so I need to go and sort that out. If anyone wants to idle a away a bit of time researching how cars are getting bigger then this might be useful. This photograph appeared on Faceache a short while ago. I love the irony! It shows the point has been well and truly missed and a brilliant concept has just morphed into a brand. ION BP much better this morning (it's within rather than below the normal band today) so I'm feeling much better than yesterday. A trip to Screwfix to buy some hardware for the Pergola re-build and a trip to a garden centre on behalf of the Head Gardner for some compost and other bits and pieces has been made. A Mugofcoffee has been consumed so I suppose I'd better go and unload Monty. TTFN

Evening All Yes and parking in the UK is going that way too and it really hacks this Puppers off. IF* places are going to insist you pay for charging / parking or whatever then IMVHO there shouldn't be 36+ (I believe the number is) different parking Apps needed to park anywhere. No; legislation and standards should be brought in that provides a common interface for "exchanging money for parking rights". Companies should be free to provide whatever flashy Parking apps they wish. The user should be free to chose and stick with whichever one takes their fancy and it should work at EVERY parking location that fleeces you for money. The current system free-for-all joke is just plain stupid! * Personally I think that the public should be encouraged to use public transport by making parking at, for example, railway stations free and don't even mention the huge tax on the sick and their families at hospitals which I think is verging on the criminal! But is far from the majority, at least in the UK. There is a huge proportion of housing in the UK which is not really suited to car ownership with on-street parking the only option and more so now the norm is 2 or 3 abnormally large, bloated SUVs let alone having a myriad of charging cables laying across the pavements from the houses to the parked vehicles! The fact that the housing is not suitable for parking outside in older communities is no real surprise. They were designed and built in a time when car ownership was generally unheard of so it wasn't a consideration. The particularly appalling thing these days is that the modern rush to build 1000's of new homes is being done with no realistic regard to the amount of parking "needed" by those properties. This is something else that I think is verging on the criminal; developers, councils etc pay lip-service to "meeting the needs of residents" (which generates no cash) but then squeezing in another 25% of properties on top of what is probably a realistic density does. To go back to the original point; in my road alone (in a typical, smallish Bedfordshire village) there are many terrace houses that are not as wide as the Range Rover** is long (or even the Ford Focus) that is parked outside of it. This photograph illustrates the situation that is widespread in a significant percentage of streets in towns and cities in the UK. It also happens to illustrate another modern problem; what to do with the wheelie bins when there is no direct access to the rear of such properties. ** Other large vehicles are of course available I'm guessing 60km .... 😉 It wouldn't have been with me 🤣 ION After the small Thrashette yesterday over to Pure Triumph in Woburn I was going to join the chaps with a run over to the Danish Camp on the River Great Ouse east of Bedford. Unfortunately when I woke up my BP was rather low so I decided against it. When I finally perked up I was informed that a trip to St Evenage to visit some "Retail outlets" was required. We were stunned by the level of traffic, it seemed more like rush hour on a Monday morning or going home time on the last day before Christmas. Too many people, too many vehicles ..... moving somewhere quiet with few inhabitants (or visitors) becomes ever more attractive! Oh yes and I have been dining table chair repairing this afternoon. The joints on one of the Carvers had come loose so the front bar / stretcher or whatever it's called (you'll have guessed I'm not a furniture expert) was removed, the tongues and sockets cleared of old glue and then re-assembled with epoxy and all pulled together with ratchet straps. Me thinks that the 40+ year old dining suite might be passed it's best and perhaps next time it will be time for a replacement (after all, it's hardly Chippendale). TTFN

Evening All! As long as the system wasn't named Horizon we'll be alright ....... 🤣 ION Just before 8:00am there was much commotion outside. The crane truck was back to remove the old post. By 8:15 two had become one. Nice to see the way the flippin heavy and cumbersome pole was gracefully plucked from its socket and delicately manoeuvred between the tangle of overhead cables and deposited gently on the truck. And all done with such apparent ease. Then the "Mud Truck" returned to fill the swimming pool. The off-loaded mud was firmly tamped down prior to final tidying of the pavement line and replacement Tarmac being laid. Only time will tell if there was sufficient mud and adequate tamping (by the presence or absence of future sinkage)! (Excuse the ghostly reflection of Puppers' hand!) Important ION I managed to speak to @polybear this morning and even better managed to tempt him from his den to visit Puppershire. Long story short; The dog is still out but quieter than it has been. He's still in the tunnel but hopefully there's some light at the end of it now 🤞 And while we're on the subject, more best wishes to other ERs currently MIA. TTFN

Anyone want to buy a telescope? 🤬

Evening Each Yes they've introduced those gates around here too and I find them particularly irritating. You do their job for them by scanning and packing the goods and then you can't get out of the B place. Mind you I do understand that shop lifting is rife these days. May I make a suggestion? Perhaps these stores should employee staff again, you know like the good old days? Most of them are almost totally devoid of staff and a positive encouragement for the lower forms of life to just waltz off with the stuff without any thought of payment. Walk through most of these places these days and you keep getting knocked over by tumble weed. This really isn't rocket science (and I've done a fair bit of that). Yesterday's ~84 mile round trip up the smoke was ultimately successful. Thameslink services were basically halved but that wouldn't have been too bad except for the driver on the up trip was obviously feeling tired and needed to be relieved at Finsbury Park. We waited 20 minutes for the relief driver to turn up and get settled ..... Then when I got to the hospital I had to wait nearly 2 hours in the pharmacy just to collect the one little box of meds. The prescription was sent last week, and one of the excellent cardio nurses had already checked that they'd got it, got the drug in stock and AFAIK that it had been processed before I set off! On the bag containing said meds there was a request to tell them (the pharmacy) "How did we do today?" I think I'll suggest that they take a long hard look at their processes and maybe even try a spot of Business Process Re-engineering (is that still a thing? I'm trained in it don't you know!). It seems that hospital pharmacies are all very, very slow in my experience. Why is that? (Probably rhetorical; no doubt they are grossly under-staffed). A close family relative was telling me yesterday that her very dear friend who is very near the end of Stage 4 Cancer had to go back into hospital briefly recently. When they discharged her, she then had to wait over 4 hours for the meds to be sorted! Poor women. Although it puts my slight inconvenience into very sharp perspective really! Today was D Day for the overhead power line move to the new poles. We'd got up early to prepare (I was almost a real ER today) for the power to be switched off at 8:00. Various bods in their trucks started arriving around 7:15 and initial activities got underway. Come the magic hour the power was still on and chaps descended into the swimming pool hole filled with muddy water the other-side of our front garden wall. Mr Nosey (aka PupCam) went outside to say hello and see what the plan was. Well, basically it was to isolate the overhead cables by opening up the subterranean cable in the swimming pool and cutting the 3 phases. All done live, standing in a mostly bailed out swimming pool 😲. This was jolly good news because the power feed to Puppers Towers is 10' from the position of the cut on the live side so no power cuts at all for us today! 😀 Throughout the rest of the day I've maintained an "Interested spectator" position occasionally. It was all jolly interesting. A new feed cable up the new pole from the swimming pool was attached and the connections encased in the (let's hope it is) waterproof jacket. The final connections up-the-pole to bring the overhead cables back live were made just as was dusk was falling. Hmmm, nice arcs drawn as the connections were made! "Nurse, pass me the BIG wire cutters" Done up like a kipper Already and waiting .... That'll do .. You wouldn't catch this cowardy, cowardy custard applying for that job! ION I note the sky is clear and due to stay that way until later. Time for a little play in the garden I fancy! TTFN

Even More Mount Mods One of the many difficulties I struggle with using the Cheap-O-Scope are the dual purpose tube clamps which hold the tube in the required positions both longitudinally and in roll. The trouble usually is that having got the scope balanced you then want to look at something which requires it to be pointing in a direction other than horizontal and when you've got it pointing in roughly the right direction you then find you need to be Harry Houdini to use the eyepiece. So you loosen the clamps until you can rotate the tube at which point it slides down through the clamps aided by gravity which completely mucks up the balance. Return to the start position, do not pass go, do not collect £200 ....... So I decided to get a Dovetail bar and clamps so that, once again, I can attempt to separate the two completely separate functions. After a suitable perusal of various astronomy supplier's websites (most of which list loads of stuff not actually in stock) I resorted to the big A. I plumped for this rail and these clamps. I managed to find some suitable if not perfectly correct screws to bolt the clamps to the original head bracket and the rail to the tube clamps. I have to say first impressions are how much better it is although I still have to add a couple of fixed bands to the tube that will prevent the tube from sliding through the clamps when loosened. One thing is apparent though and that is the fact that there is not a lot of dovetail on the Arca-Swiss design and it is perfectly easy to undo the clamps sufficiently that would let the whole tube fall out if the orientation happened to be suitable. That could really spoil one's day (or night!) so I'll have to watch-out for that. I've got a feeling that the Vixen style has bigger Dovetails and that this may not apply in that case but I couldn't find any sensibly priced 400mm long Vixen bars. Oh yes the clamps each have a couple of bubble levels built in. Can't imagine why; they'll never be used perfectly horizontally or vertically so they are as much use as the proverbial chocolate fire guard! Angle of Dangle Device The AoD device can be seen in the last photograph. It's the black plastic box stuck onto the RA / Polar axis housing by means of the grey coloured clip (the clip is part of a savagely mutilated Dyson vacuum cleaner accessory holder - it's the first time it and thus the Dyson vacuum cleaner has been of any use to mankind whatsoever. You may gather I'm not a fan of Dyson .... Anyway, the AoD device basically measures the angle of the RA axis which, as we know, needs to be set equal to the telescope's latitude in order to polar align it. The device is an Arduino connected to a little 3 axis IMU (accelerometers and gyros) module which it uses to determine the angle of gravity (and thus by inference the AoD). A tri-colour LED indicates when the axis is pointing too high (Blue = sky), too low (Green = ground) or precisely correct (Red). The Blue/Green LEDs flashes at an increasing rate as the correct position is reached to give you a clue as to when you are getting close. In order to calibrate it the tripod and mount are positioned and levelled and the polar alignment is done in the traditional manner. When this has been done a calibration button is pressed which records the IMU outputs when the position is correct. The next time the scope is used the tripod is positioned and the mount is levelled. The axis can then be adjusted to get the AoD gadget LED to show red and Hey Presto the angle should be set. In practice it gets pretty close but generally requires a tiny bit of fine tuning. Not unexpected I suppose as the IMU module was cheap and therefore not of the highest instrument grade accuracy or stability! Software next time .... Alan

Another quick fertle with Saturn from earlier in the month. Well at least you can guess what it is so that's something I suppose. I managed to get a version of another capture program (FireCapture) running on the old Windows 7 astronomy laptop and get it to recognise my astrocamera. I will give that a try next time we have a half decent night sky. It will make an interesting comparison with Sharpcap which is the program I've been using to date. Unfortunately Saturn is pretty much done for the time being as it rises ~10:00am and sets at ~8pm so no chance of copping that again at the moment. Unfortunately its rings are on the decline as well for the next few months (years?) as it slowly tilts so the very thin rings are edge on to us. Still, patience is a virtue. Night All

Evening All! Today's excitement has mainly been watching the electricity board men replacing the pole that carries the mains cable for a good part of the road that resides outside Puppers Towers. It was all done with a double post-hole spade, the crane with a bit of chain on the end of the arm, a long pokey stick and a very long lever with chain on the end (think giant oil filter removal wrench). They didn't quite get the hole deep enough first time round and had to go another foot down (~6' in total) so had to lift the pole out and do more digging. The fact the water table is only about 24" down meant the hole filled up almost as quickly as the mud was removed! Still they got there in the end and no property or power lines were damaged in the process. Looking forward to the power blackout on Thursday (Not!) when they transfer the power lines from the old poles to the new poles. Power scheduled to be off from 8:00am until 4:00pm IIRC. On the cards for tomorrow is a trip "Up the Smoke" to collect some medication. For reasons best known to the NHS and completely unknown to the patient the GP is unable to prescribe one of my many medicines and I can only collect it from the hospital. If I park the car in the station that's getting on for £30 in total for the pleasure of the collection. It's ironic that on my return I will be able to drop into the GP's and collect the other 9 or 10 medications that I normally have. I'm sure there's some logic ...... let's just hope the good folk of ASLEF are putting on some form of service tomorrow even if it isn't going to be the full Monty. TTFN

Afternoon All Which isn't surprising given the vast number of Acts on the statute. Whilst the fundamental intent of ignorance of the law is no defence is understood (and it would clearly be impossible to train every citizen on every Act) really for laws that do not follow common sense and common decency (whatever they actually are) it's all a bit one sided really and could be taking the Micky if someone were prosecuted under some archaic and bizarre but never repealed act e.g. "For treading on the cracks in the pavement after twilight whilst carrying a brace of ferrets" or whatever. One hopes that folk are no longer subjected to such ridiculousness although I suspect that on some occasions that might be a forlorn hope! Because she may well be obliged to. Can't say I'd relish tucking into a pie that include gravy avec bird guano. Birds usually find the need to minimise take-off weight immediately prior to take-off. Certainly far more attractive than Fanny Craddock! ION We've now returned from a few days away well on the way although not "Over the Border" to the Distant (Signal) West (© Gwiwer) and very nice it was too. We returned via the country route from the east of Swindon but had to avoid the roadworks at the Botley Interchange. We saw quite a bit of Oxfordshire we'd not encountered before including Witney. It seems that Oxfordshire in general and Witney in particular is trying to emulate Wales ..... Some would say FFS whilst I might be a little more restrained but I have the same sentiments. Today has been very laid back. I'm feeling extremely tired and apart from sorting out a couple of medical appointments and some internet surfing nothing has been done. If I can stay awake I might have another play with some of the most recent astronomy data. But then again I might not. TTFN

Morning All Puppers reporting for duty. Sorry, bit low profile for a bit, nothing sinister in this case just a good deal of unspecified pottering with Junior Puppers. Thanks to Baz and others for the concern but in this case everything is good. Like Baz, I hope the same can be said for the other MIA. I’ve been skimming and rating the occasional post. I was going to quote Flávio’s post but it’s too difficult on my phone. Suffice to say Here! Here! to his statement in bold. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve uttered the same sentiments. These Councils that think the opposite must be right up one end of the intelligence Bell curve. I’ll leave you to work out which end. And on that note I say TTFNQ

Test message sent ….

Morning All. You'll find me a very sleepy Puppers today. A little bit late going to bed last night but when I got there I just couldn't get to sleep. 12:00, 12:30, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00 ......... Too much staring at PC monitors tarting around with planets I expect. When I did finally nod of the usual culprits were around to make sure many hours were not wasted by continuous sleeping! I fancy an eyelid inspection will be forthcoming shortly. Jolly windy here last night and slightly moist. Having checked out the St Ives webcam last night whilst doing my BP I thought @Gwiwer was being let off lightly. Mind you it looked like there were some brave souls out fishing in small boats as they do some times. Rather them than me! Some remedial action has been necessary this morning. The removable fence panel at the end of the garden had partially removed itself by ripping the supporting bracket from the concrete fence post. It pivoted round the other end and came to a halt up against my trailer. Temporary repairs have been effected but the whole panel and its mountings will require replacement when the better weather comes and I CBA. The vertical bird feeder-cum-honeysuckle support had adopted a jaunty angle of ~60° by means of opening up the soggy muddy hole in the ground in which it lives. Again a temporary repair has been effected by returning it to the vertical and filling the resulting hole alongside with 1/2 a brick wedged in position. Again, more permanent repairs will be required in due course. Following yesterday's RD thrash, both my leather motorcycle trousers and motorcycle boots have been returned to black from the the muddy brown colour which they were on my return. Now, what to do next? TTFN

Well I had a go ........ As the Optician would say; "better or worse?" I think it's more likely to suggest that both our cars are not garaged and indicates how infrequently we clean them 🤣 Night All!