Family life.. some hate it, some love it, but some relish it to the point that they will do anything to support it!
A convergence of hobbies
- Thread starter Fast14riot
- Start date
Might not be the right place. But this is a Fun Hobby. oh yeah & a great party...Mike in Ct
Started this Garden ornament in 2004. I finished the slate roof just this year. It is all recycled/salvaged materials most 100 years or older. Cost to build, about 900 dollars. Ps. We have roasted some tasty critters in there too!
Started this Garden ornament in 2004. I finished the slate roof just this year. It is all recycled/salvaged materials most 100 years or older. Cost to build, about 900 dollars. Ps. We have roasted some tasty critters in there too!
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I'm keeping you away from my Wife..."Pumpkin" grin Mike in Ct
GotRDid
Gold $$ Contributor
I don't eat them, but I'm told they are fairly tasty.
I'm sure "Pumpkin" would approve.
GotRDid.
I got into astrophotography a few years ago. It's turned out to be a challenging hobby and I've only started getting decent results this past year. Here's a collage of all the images I took in 2019:
High resolution images of each individual image can be found here:
https://www.astrobin.com/users/JamesR/
Amazing and beautiful work you're done with those pics !
My club (The Maine Highlands Sled Dog Club) has several fun runs and races every winter and a couple of teams come to them from southern NJ and Maryland. The Jersey folks never get to run on snow, but usually have the fastest team in the event!
Those Arctic rigs, aka "gig's" are really lightweight, the heaviest being less than 60 lbs. Great for racing, but for training - not so much.Back in the day, an outfit named Ridson, used to build both training and racing rigs. As you might suspect, the trainers were a lot heavier than the racers. I think the training ones had a way to attach additional weight(?).
When I ran big teams on land, I always used a 2 wheel drive, '92 Polaris ATV. It was heavy enough to give them a good workout, but not too heavy. Having 4 wheels, it was stable and could be kept in gear with the engine running to help them up steep hills. Being able to lock the brakes was a big plus if dogs had to be moved around, or a tangle needed to be undone. I did build a 3-wheeled rig out of an assortment of junk pipe and car and motorcycle parts, but only use that to run 4-6 dog teams. It weighs almost 200 lbs, but once it's rolling it'll fly!Nowadays I just do a little gig training in mid-late Nov, then switch over to a sled after there's enough snow on the ground to put in a decent trail. I do run on some of the local snowmobile trails, but also maintain about 10 miles of trail just for my team. That gets done with a pipe drag and a '98 Arctic Cat 550, Bear Cat. Absolute beast-of-a sled, with a 20" wide-long track, and a variable-ratio clutch. It'll go anywhere and through anything, but at 540 lbs when it gets stuck . . . it's stuck s-o-m-e hard!
Needless to say, there's a hank of heavy rope, a shovel and a come-along tied on the back just in case that happens, which is usually at least once a winter - phooey!
Chris Mitchell
I was just running two. Both over 30" tall at the shoulder. We were closing the gap until the deer left the logging road.
Fast14riot
Gold $$ Contributor
I also enjoy cooking, baking and candy making. My two most popular requests are my profiteroles and lemon bars. Both easy enough, but super tasty!
I know what that's like. You name a critter that can be on a road-trail, and I've had a team chase it. Most times it ends well, but I've been dumped (more than once) when a team chased something into the woods. Fortunately, the team doesn't get very far because they (or the sled) usually gets tangled-up in the trees. But what a hassle getting untangled! One time I had to actually cut several lines to free the dogs. I always carry several short segments of line with snaps on both ends on the sled, and used these to splice the lines back together. The gangline looked like $hit, but we made it back home.
Chris Mitchell
Adventure!!
Many people don't realize that those lights in the sky are not stars they are galaxies !I got into astrophotography a few years ago. It's turned out to be a challenging hobby and I've only started getting decent results this past year. Here's a collage of all the images I took in 2019:
High resolution images of each individual image can be found here:
https://www.astrobin.com/users/JamesR/
Thanks!
Fast14riot
Gold $$ Contributor
I got into astrophotography a few years ago. It's turned out to be a challenging hobby and I've only started getting decent results this past year. Here's a collage of all the images I took in 2019:
High resolution images of each individual image can be found here:
https://www.astrobin.com/users/JamesR/
Amazing work! What are you using for tracking and stacking?
Thanks!
For tracking:
- The mount is a Celestron AVX.
- My acquisition software (main sequence generator pro) uses platesolving to center the target. This is a big help since image sequences are spread over many night
- Guiding software is PHD2 (Push Here Dummy). This software connects to a secondary telescope and camera and locks on to a star after the main scope is centered on a target and sends nudge commands to the mount. This is what makes the longer exposures possible without star trails. Exposure lengths are typically 30 seconds to 10 mins depending on filter and light pollution.
Here's a picture of the rig. The top scope is the guide scope. The bottom is the main imaging scope. Usually a guide scope is smaller than the imaging scope but in this case, I just repurposed a cheap 80mm scope I had laying around:
My hobbies are seasonal. Now it is summer her in Australia, I am a surf bum, well at least a beach bum if there is no surf. Then it is time for snorkelling and diving. My guns got put away after my last competition in October and will come out again in autumn for a few months of F class (and 600-1000y BR from March to June.
In June I become a ski bum, spending more time off driving out to ski fields, with maybe a few little shoots or some testing when I'm not skiing. In late august or September I concentrate on F class again for a few more months and a competition or two before summer returns.
In June I become a ski bum, spending more time off driving out to ski fields, with maybe a few little shoots or some testing when I'm not skiing. In late august or September I concentrate on F class again for a few more months and a competition or two before summer returns.
Fast14riot
Gold $$ Contributor
Thanks!
For tracking:
For stacking I use a free program called "Deep Sky Stacker". Most of the post processing is done with a program called Pixinsight, although sometimes I'll use Photoshop for some minor tweaks.
- The mount is a Celestron AVX.
- My acquisition software (main sequence generator pro) uses platesolving to center the target. This is a big help since image sequences are spread over many night
- Guiding software is PHD2 (Push Here Dummy). This software connects to a secondary telescope and camera and locks on to a star after the main scope is centered on a target and sends nudge commands to the mount. This is what makes the longer exposures possible without star trails. Exposure lengths are typically 30 seconds to 10 mins depending on filter and light pollution.
Here's a picture of the rig. The top scope is the guide scope. The bottom is the main imaging scope. Usually a guide scope is smaller than the imaging scope but in this case, I just repurposed a cheap 80mm scope I had laying around:
Nice rig and great use of the freeware! That's one helluva TLR camera, lol! Makes my little Yashicamat 124 look like a toy, hahaha.
I've often wanted to get more serious about astrophotography, but with the initial expense being what it is, I tend to stick to putting my phone on my spotting scope to take pictures of Saturn and Jupiter and its moons. I sometimes will throw an old manual 2x TC onto a 300mm on my crop sensor digital body and shoot from the hip using "lunar 11" rules. Get some good ones occasionally.
ronsatspokane
Gold $$ Contributor
Thanks!
For tracking:
For stacking I use a free program called "Deep Sky Stacker". Most of the post processing is done with a program called Pixinsight, although sometimes I'll use Photoshop for some minor tweaks.
- The mount is a Celestron AVX.
- My acquisition software (main sequence generator pro) uses platesolving to center the target. This is a big help since image sequences are spread over many night
- Guiding software is PHD2 (Push Here Dummy). This software connects to a secondary telescope and camera and locks on to a star after the main scope is centered on a target and sends nudge commands to the mount. This is what makes the longer exposures possible without star trails. Exposure lengths are typically 30 seconds to 10 mins depending on filter and light pollution.
Here's a picture of the rig. The top scope is the guide scope. The bottom is the main imaging scope. Usually a guide scope is smaller than the imaging scope but in this case, I just repurposed a cheap 80mm scope I had laying around:
Very nice. I've played with it off and on but have not gotten serious yet. I've had a Williams Optical scope and the t-ring to adapt my APSC sensor camera for a couple of years. Picked up a field flattner a while back. Maybe I'll get around to it at some point. Too many other projects and commitments currently. This retirement gig schedule is a nightmare. May have to go back to work to free up a little time... NOT!
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. Right now it's short range benchrest but it use to be antique collecting and refinishing, bass fishing, rc planes, golfing, and a 69 Camaro. They have never converged. I have an airplane and fly to shooting events.
Before I got into Benchrest I used to fly R/C airplanes.
I designed this on a CAD program and built this from scratch.
86" wingspan 31cc Ryobi weedeater engine. The wheels hinges, spinner, prop and radio controls is the only thing I didn't do from scratch. Wing is balsa covered then silk and dope.
It flew great but hasn't been in the air for more that ten years.
I designed this on a CAD program and built this from scratch.
86" wingspan 31cc Ryobi weedeater engine. The wheels hinges, spinner, prop and radio controls is the only thing I didn't do from scratch. Wing is balsa covered then silk and dope.
It flew great but hasn't been in the air for more that ten years.
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