heaters good: Andy

Andy sent me a quick note. He had successfully tested his heaters and controller using a 120-12 adapter. Yeh! He was in the process of charging his portable 12V battery. Hopefully it is OK.

booked for next year!

The Farmer's Pantry apple orchard just booked me for 2 dates next summer!

fixed the Sony

The Sony VAIO laptop provided on loan to RASC Toronto Centre members I repaired today. I finally resolved a long outstanding issue with the DVD/CD drive. While it would play DVDs fine, it would not open or read CDs. After removing a couple of spam programs and cookies, thanks to Tread Micro, it seems to be working again!

charge your battery!

I sent the following note to the RASC Toronto Centre listserv. Or at least I thought I did...

Regardless, it is something we all should be aware of.

Some general advice for everyone with a portable battery or power pack or power "tank."

The advice pertains to portable lead-acid 12 volt batteries.

Charge it regularly!

Lead-acid battery technology is the same as in your vehicle. These types of batteries work best if they are regularly charged up. Your car's alternator is charging the battery as you drive to and fro. You need to do the equivalent with your portable. If not, the lead plates within the battery develop sulfur build-up. Then the battery will perform poorly and eventually not hold a charge.

If your portable battery comes with an AC wall-plug style adapter, use it once a month. Mine has overcharge protection. So that means I could leave the battery plugged in all the time! It would be topped up every time I needed it.

If your portable battery can be charged from your vehicle, be careful. Mine does NOT have overcharge protection with this feature. It could be overloaded, heat up, etc. That's bad for lead-acid batteries.

Lead-acid batteries do not have "memory effects" like Ni-Cd batteries. In fact, do *not* let them run down. Again, keep it topped up.

Do not let a lead-acid battery freeze.

One more time: charge it up. Keep it topped up.

Finally, as per usual, consult your documentation...
cheers,
Blake

(sent via Computer Ease webmail while at Skyservice)

another unhappy laser customer

I learned that Mickey also owns one of these "no name" 40mW lasers. And he's having trouble...

"The light output was fluctuating and then it just stopped working."

Exactly the problem I had with my third one!

tested Andy's dew equipment

Andy sent out a plea to the RASC Toronto Centre listserv. His dew heater wraps or controller were not working as he expected (during or after Starfest).

We gave him a bunch of suggestions but he didn't have some of the necessary tools to verify functions and parameters. To the meeting, I offered to bring my equipment (for comparisons) and my multimeter (for testing).

Tested his Kendrick 8" dew heater wrap. It showed 7 or 8 ohms. Same as mine. I had him wiggle it around and flex it. It did not cut out.

Tested his eyepiece dew heater wrap. It showed higher ohms, as expected. Nominal response to flexing and movement.

Tested the voltage output from his Kendrick IV controller. Seemed fine, in unloaded testing. Mine worked in a similar way, although it showed a lower voltage.

So, all the gear looked OK. But we were not getting any noticeable heat from any of the wraps.

We were driving this off his (small) portable 12V battery. When we checked the status gauge, it reported low. Oh! I was immediately suspicious of the battery. I asked when he last charged it. "Before Starfest," Andy replied. I suggested he charge it up and try again. And explained that lead-acid batteries need to be regularly charged. I offered to continue the testing in the parking lot with my (larger) power tank. Or to run it off a car. But he seemed satisfied at this stage that nothing was wrong with the dew equipment.

Hopefully the battery is not pooched...

agenda?

What does Konstantin Lysenko really want? As he introduced sky-map.org to the RASC Toronto Centre, he bad-mouthed teachers, school boards, Microsoft, Google, the Ontario Science Centre, others. Because they did not want to work for free on his web site? Really. What do you want?! What are you not telling us?

presentation booked

Paul M booked me to deliver a presentation during the Members' Night RASC Toronto Centre meeting coming up on Wednesday 15 October.

The topic of my presentation will be "make your own field-of-view templates for your star charts."

missed Starfest, again

It struck me that this year, if I had gone to Starfest, I would have known a dozen or so people there!

I've known about Starfest, Ontario's (Canada's?) big star party meet-up, organised by the North York Astronomy Association, for years. I knew about it long before I joined the RASC. But for many reasons I was always anxious about going. I did not know my experience level and felt self-conscious about that. I did not want to go alone but I could never round up someone equally interested. Most recently, I was trying to encourage Cindy and Terry to bring the boys.

Many friends (Phil, Katrina, Mickey, Angela) at RASC Toronto Centre asked me if I was going this year. Ironically, I had made other plans (primarily, Beerfest was on), so I couldn't attend.

Despite the damp weather, it sounds like it was a fun time. Michael M reported "Friday night was a treat with seeing above average." Andy B, while plagued with hardware problems, enjoyed the views at "Dob Hollow... with Adam C and his big-scope friends." Angela reported in and said that she and Jennifer had a blast.

Maybe next year, finally, I'll go...

wow, cards for me

Leslie made up RASC Toronto Centre business cards for me! Nice. These will be handy.

They were made however on an ink jet printer. Must avoid rain. And dew.

OK. The really weird thing is that it doesn't have the URL on it!

helped at oh 8 oh 8 oh 8 (Toronto)

I assisted at the Ontario Science Centre star party. We had a good turnout of RASC Toronto Centre members, despite conflicts with Starfest, a gaggle having gone up to the CAO, and iffy weather.

Hitched a ride to and fro with John B. Gave him some gas money.

I did not take my telescope offering instead to float about or fly one of the Science Centre 'scopes. Guy suggested we needed a floater so that's what I did. I took care, early on, of distributing name tags and making a list of the volunteers.

It was kind of liberating. Normally, you want to stay close to your gear. Footloose and fancy free. Whatever that means.

It also gave me a chance to try a lot of different 'scopes. I liked Isaac's Williams Optics refractor setup and Guy's Maksutov OTA.

The conditions were not bad with some scattered cloud. Jupiter was the "star" of the show. We also got good views of the Moon (although I missed the views of Lunar X!). Through breaks, members pointed to Albireo and ν (nu) Casseopeia. I encouraged Isaac to try for the Andromeda Galaxy. You could see it!

As usual, people (young and old) freaked out when I used the green laser... At one point, a young man asked me where I got mine and what I paid. He was pleased to inform me he got his on eBay for a tenth of what I paid. I asked him, "How many milliwatts?" Then I showed him, The Big Gun! It was very interesting running his 5mW and my 40mW side-by-each.

By the way, the replacement laser worked flawlessly.

I wore my new Soylent Green is People t-shirt!

beer for astronauts

Will invited me over to dinner, to his (or rather, his parents) cottage, while I was working nearby in Orillia.

I wanted to get the gang a nice bottle of wine. Fortunately, I found my favourite, Conde de Valdemar, a crianza from Spain.

While wandering the store, an ale with a colourful label caught my eye. Decided to try it, even though a light beer.


Not surprisingly, Will was familiar with the Barrie brewery, while I had never heard of them.

It was delicious!

Look closely between the kettles...

And they write their address the way I often have. Just, you know, so people don't get confused...