Category Archives: Articles

The velocity of light in vacuo

Posted on March 17, 2010 by Greg Parker

The extremely fast – but ultimately finite velocity of light in vacuo, strikes me as very odd.  Why does it have this particular value?  Wouldn’t it be very interesting if the finite velocity of light in vacuo is actually telling us … Continue reading →

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Alien technology?

Posted on January 26, 2010 by Greg Parker

O.K. so this is getting quite a ways off deep-sky imaging, but I just clicked on a site that I thought was going to tell me about ultra-black materials and I was instead treated to a monologue of how the … Continue reading →

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More on the Golden Solid angle and angles in general

Posted on January 20, 2010 by Greg Parker

I have asked some friends to put up the Golden Solid angle on their sites to try and find where this might occur in Nature.  Some people in trying to help with a reply have gone astray with both the … Continue reading →

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Geminids tonight!

Posted on December 13, 2009 by Greg Parker

There’s plenty of clouds at the moment 🙁 but I’m hoping for just a few gaps in the cloud tonight.  No Moon – and it should be the peak in the Geminid meteor shower (13th – 14th December 2009).  Went … Continue reading →

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Inner space – again!

Posted on December 5, 2009 by Greg Parker

Well as the weather is not allowing me to take outer-space images, it’s back to some inner space work again.  This time an opalescent beetle leg gets photomicrographed using a 23-frame focus stack put together using the Helicon Focus software. … Continue reading →

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The Golden Ratio and living systems:

Posted on December 4, 2009 by Greg Parker

The Golden Ratio (and the closely associated Fibonacci series) makes many appearances in the “living world” – here’s my question – not including Mathematics and man-made objects, does the Golden Ratio appear naturally in any inorganic systems?  There is a … Continue reading →

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The Golden Solid Angle – has anyone seen this, anywhere?

Posted on December 4, 2009 by Greg Parker

It will not have been mentioned before in this blog, but I like certain aspects of pure mathematics as much as I like deep-sky imaging.  I think most people will have heard of the Golden-Section, or the Golden-Ratio, and how … Continue reading →

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The Butterfly nebula in Orion

Posted on December 4, 2009 by Greg Parker

Clear last night (although with a nearly full Moon) and managed to get a very seldom imaged iridescent reflection nebula appropriately named “The Butterfly nebula” in Orion. O.K. it’s a picture of the Morpho Rhetenor butterfly wing (structural colour) but … Continue reading →

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mini-WASP array and Brian May’s new book

Posted on November 29, 2009 by Greg Parker

Great day today (no – not the weather!) – put the side panels on the mini-WASP array, and Brian May sent me a copy of his new book “A Village Lost & Found”.  This is a beautiful publication and you … Continue reading →

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Current status of the mini-WASP array November 2009

Posted on November 27, 2009 by Greg Parker

I bolted the mini-WASP telescope frame to the Paramount versa-plate to get a feel what the finished system will look like.  The funny-looking device sticking out the front of the frame is a counterbalance arm for the weight of all … Continue reading →

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