Quarantine – Week twelve

History in real-time.

Monday 2020/6/01

I’ve been in my current job 11 years today. I’ve mostly worked on the REF case study today.
Spent the day blocking adverts on Twitter and processed images of the moon taken a few days ago. Probably the last of the astro images for a while, as the nights are too short and too bright to do any useful imaging.

The Moon on May 29th 2020
The Moon on May 29th 2020

Tuesday 2020/6/02
Discussions about REF document. Mentor session with student and plans to set up a mock viva for her next week. Long evening chat with CCFS staff about upcoming year.

Wednesday 2020/6/03
This day occurred, lots of news happened (and has been happening for  couple of weeks)  I’m not the right person to write about it. It doesn’t help I’m writing these posts days later.

Thursday 2020/6/04
Took the dog for a long walk over the park. Managed to find part of the path of a stream I’m semi-convinced flows under the park. Will do some more research on this when I can access the library again.

While out, twitter blew up, I’d RT a female engineer & academic who had tweeted about fixing her TV volume. I thought it a neat hack. She got a bit of a pile on from some followers of mine who can’t read and proceeded to tell her how to do analog electronics – she teaches it at university level FFS! Apologised for the idiots attracted by the RT and blocked the worst of them.

Friday 2020/6/05
Today really felt like a Saturday.
Went for a run, my lungs were on fire. It’s depressing how quickly you lose lung capacity if you don’t exercise for a while. Had a three hour Teams chat with Jason and Marion in the evening.

Saturday 2020/6/06
Did some of the work I should have done yesterday. Went out for some groceries, social distancing and masks seem to be holding in the co-op.
Spent rather a lot of the day working out how to migrate this site away from WordPress. I decided on WordPress 16 years ago when I started this website up – the plan was to use that while I worked on Amorphia – my own CMS. Amorphia never really went anywhere and WordPress stayed installed. I think I’m closer to being able to ditch it now, but I’m not entirely there yet.

Sunday 2020/6/07
Slept late. Went for a shorter run, lungs easier; lots of standing water in the park where I think the stream runs – more evidence for it I think. I did some engineering on the bike pedals to take off some of the spikes for safety. Finished off the script for the next conservation video.

Quarantine – Week eleven

The ongoing train wreck just ploughed through the burning orphanage and is headed for the oil refinery.

Monday 2020/5/25
Speculation is rife that Dominic Cummings will resign / not resign. He’s giving a speech from the garden of Number 10 later. Most irregular.
Later : We’re fucked. People will now do just what they want.

Imaged the Ring Nebula. Was surprised how bright it is, visible in even a 30sec exposure

The Ring Nebula. the remains of a star they died around 5000 years ago.
The Ring Nebula. the remains of a star they died around 5000 years ago.

Tuesday 2020/5/26
Did some experiments with some simple wireless sensor networks

Wednesday 2020/5/27
More wireless network experiments. Discovered after several hours of debugging that I only has transmitters on the network, nothing was set as a receiver, so the network never formed. Everything was just shouting into the void. I know the feeling.

Thursday 2020/5/28

Friday 2020/5/29
Happy Oak Apple Day.

Saturday 2020/5/30
Finished a three-night imaging session on the Bubble Nebula. Time to find a new target.
The government still hasn’t fallen.

My uncle Richard died. Complications of heart surgery.

NGC6735, The Bubble Nebula
NGC6735, The Bubble Nebula

Sunday 2020/5/31
Fixed my long neglected bike.  Took it for a ride, about three miles, a lap of the park and some surrounding streets. It needs a new seat and also a handlebar extension.

Quarantine – Week Ten

Plans that either come to naught, or half a page of scribbled lines.

Monday 2020/5/18
Another day I should have been away with M. Builders did more on kitchen. Camping upstairs while they work. Found an old circuit I’d made as part of a radio I planned to build. Never did get around to finishing it.

Tuesday 2020/5/19
Students had their formal exam. Seemed to go OK. Staff meeting in evening where I picked up three questions to mark or second mark.

I also re-imaged SN2020jfo in M61, a week after my first images to see how it was progressing. Brightness seems about the same, so it’s not fading yet.

Supernova SN2020jfo in M61
Supernova SN2020jfo in M61

Wednesday 2020/5/20
Started marking the exam questions. Using the TopHat exam and tutoring system, seems to go well.

Started to image the Leo Triplet galaxies, probably a bit too late in this season, as they are already passing the meridian as the sky is darkening enough to start imaging. Has planned to get about 5-6 hours on these this night, but the clouds rolled in just after midnight

Work in progress shot of the Leo Triplet of galaxies. Really need 6+ hours to do this justice, this was just under two hours due to clouds
Work in progress shot of the Leo Triplet of galaxies. Really need 6+ hours to do this justice, this was just under two hours due to clouds

Thursday 2020/5/21
A few meetings about marking for the exam. Most of day seemed to be taken up with meeting. Most heavily laden bookshelf decided to start to come away from the wall. Urgent unshelving of books needed. Weeded the collection a little too.

Friday 2020/5/22
Final exam grades submitted. Shelf fixed back to the wall. Reshelving occurring. Useful exercise really, as I found a couple of books I knew I ad, but hadn’t seen in years due to the stacking on that self.

Saturday 2020/5/23
Watched Greg Jenner (Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen) at the online Hay festival. More bookshelf work

Sunday 2020/5/24
Took the dog for a walk, got dive bombed by swifts in the park.
Watched Adam Rutherford (How to argue with a racist) at Hay Festival.

 

Quarantine – Week nine

A week that’s happening.

Monday 2020/5/11
I should have been in either Edinburg or Cardiff with M today. Part of a long weekend away for a work meeting she was attending. Instead I sat in a long meeting about student exams to be sat this week.

Took a photo of galaxy M61 (no common name) because there is a supernova in it currently visible.

SN2020jfo in galaxy M61. The first supernova I’ve ever seen or photographed.

Tuesday 2020/5/12
From 10am until 2pm I helped invigilate the exam. No major issue occurred. Two students kept switching away from the exam software, they will have to explain themselves.

Wednesday 2020/5/13
Marked the exam question I was responsible for, also marked the a missing practical session report from the same students. Builders have retuned to finish the kitchen.

Thursday 2020/5/14
Wrote code all day, or tried to. Building noise meant concentrating was difficult

Friday 2020/5/15
Finally got the code working how it should. It may have already been doing that, but it’s been though a few re-writes, so I re-wrote it all. Now to make it play with the image viewing part of the application.

Saturday 2020/5/16
Actually writing this live on the website! Have been in the loft to find M’s old fridge I’m storing for her. Will use it for milk this coming week as I’m camping upstairs while the builders work. Have eaten rather a lot of Brie today already (writing at 13:21).
Had dinner and walked the dog.

Sunday 2020/5/17
The new cherry bakewell chocolate digestive biscuits are very moreish.

Quarantine – Week eight

A week that really didn’t register.

Monday 2020/5/04

I took a photo of the moon.

The moon, 90% full on 2020/05/04

Tuesday 2020/5/05
I did something. Dunno what though. I really should keep better notes. Probably wrote code all day.

Wednesday 2020/5/06
I took a photo of the the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)

The Whirlpool Galaxy

Thursday 2020/05/07
The day must have happened, but I have no recollection of it.

Friday 2020/5/08
Saturday 2020/5/09
Sunday 2020/5/10
These days also occurred without trace.