Gerry's Web http://www.ryhill.net nur Blödsinn im Kopf Mon, 26 Dec 2011 15:50:03 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2 The demise of a street light. http://www.ryhill.net/the-demise-of-a-street-light/ http://www.ryhill.net/the-demise-of-a-street-light/#comments Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:08:02 +0000 grebrynod http://www.ryhill.net/?p=1078 Here’s the fate of one street light near me. For a few moments I thought
the council had installed an oil lamp.

Click on the image for the video

]]> http://www.ryhill.net/the-demise-of-a-street-light/feed/ 0 Cairns more expensive than Cannes! http://www.ryhill.net/cairns-more-expensive-than-cannes/ http://www.ryhill.net/cairns-more-expensive-than-cannes/#comments Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:21:38 +0000 grebrynod http://www.ryhill.net/?p=1049 An exchange of emails with a travel company throws up an interesting reply.
Remember this is $8640 per couple and would probably pay for business class travel from the USA!
More here

—–Original Message—–
From: Gerry Bond [mailto:gerry@ryhill.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2011 1:57 PM
To: Lisa Ralph
Subject: Cairns – land only

Is it a mistake? Are you asking $4320pp to stay in a hotel which can be booked for 138AUD per night (for two)?
(16 Nov – The price is now up a bit at $376 for a double room)
Gerry

Gerry,

Thanks for your question.   The 4,320.00 per person is for the 5 nights stay in Cairns.
This is 3 nights in the hotel and 2 nights at the eclipse site.  Also included are all transfers, meals and two days of sightseeing.
Here is the itinerary:
http://www.spearstravel.com/astronomy/australia12/aus2012cairnsitin.htm

I don’t disagree with you that you could probably book that hotel for that price but not during this eclipse.

The hotels are talking FULL advantage of everybody traveling to Australia for this eclipse.  I have been doing these trips for 20 years and it seems like the markup on the locations keeps getting worse every year.   There isn’t anything I can do about it.  They ask for big money upfront and minimum stays.

I hope you understand?

Thanks again.

]]> http://www.ryhill.net/cairns-more-expensive-than-cannes/feed/ 0 Stargazing Live http://www.ryhill.net/stargazing-live/ http://www.ryhill.net/stargazing-live/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 09:06:12 +0000 grebrynod http://www.ryhill.net/?p=1022 Continue reading →]]> Dear old BBC – again.
Can we drop this ‘stargazing’ epithet?  I can remember a time before I was a ‘stargazer’ and really would not have been inspired by the word.
Here’s a bit of their trawl for help with this programme.

Hold your own Stargazing event and let people know with Things To Do!
Dear Partners,
You may have already heard that Stargazing LIVE is returning for 2012 and how you can be a part of this celebration of astronomy by putting on events in your local area. If not, then please read on find out more about how we can work together to entice a new audience to learn about stargazing and start looking up!
 


Dictionary.com

star·gaz·er

[stahr-gey-zer] Show IPA
noun
1. a person who stargazes, as an astronomer or astrologer.
2. a daydreamer.
3. an impractical idealist.

 

]]> http://www.ryhill.net/stargazing-live/feed/ 0 3 Callisto Eclipses http://www.ryhill.net/3-callisto-eclipses-2/ http://www.ryhill.net/3-callisto-eclipses-2/#comments Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:44:53 +0000 grebrynod http://www.ryhill.net/?p=907 Continue reading →]]> Here’s eclipse chasing on Jupiter. The video is of a callisto shadow transit on Jupiter 23rd July 2009 as see from a balloon floating in Jupiter’s atmsophere (One for Branson to sell).
The first eclipse is in progress at sunrise and the third is in progress at sunset! The sky rotation at midday is due to the sun passing near the zenith. The whole thing – speeded up – lasts about 4 minutes (or a whole day on J) and to stop them sueing, it was made with Starry Night Pro.

]]> http://www.ryhill.net/3-callisto-eclipses-2/feed/ 0 Local Astronomy Course http://www.ryhill.net/local-astronomy-course/ http://www.ryhill.net/local-astronomy-course/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:52:22 +0000 grebrynod http://www.ryhill.net/?p=803 This course is not running again this year. Very sad.

 

]]> http://www.ryhill.net/local-astronomy-course/feed/ 0 Dinton Pastures marches on! http://www.ryhill.net/dinton-pastures-marches-on/ http://www.ryhill.net/dinton-pastures-marches-on/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 15:35:30 +0000 grebrynod http://www.ryhill.net/?p=793 From WBC newsletter delivered to all households to tell us they are doing a good job. No serious business should be without an acronym.

So what MAC, is missing?

 

]]> http://www.ryhill.net/dinton-pastures-marches-on/feed/ 0 Sorry we disappeared in June http://www.ryhill.net/we-disappeared-in-june/ http://www.ryhill.net/we-disappeared-in-june/#comments Fri, 01 Jul 2011 23:23:56 +0000 grebrynod http://www.ryhill.net/?p=735 An offer we couldn’t refuse. A cruise ship to 78N. Many thanks to all especially Simen the Tromso taxi driver and ski-jumper.

Uphill biking is not so popular. There are many types of cruise ship. Just south of the Arctic Circle. Tromso applied for the 2018 Winter Games but the government intervened. Best regards to Simon our driver. This is the landing end of his club ski-jump. Hurtigruten ships are all over the place. Summer football trials are all over the world these days. What's this all about? Not IKEA, Tromso's new cathedral. Muggings forgot his gloves :-( Taken through the windows of the bar. Moments later a definite "green flash" nothing to do with Creme de Menthe. I can understand the Dutch on bikes but this lot? This ship is totally out of scale. The blue haze is ship exhaust. At Geiranger it smelt like Dover . Use Sigma 10-20mm w-a zoom. Well worth getting. Will it ever get dark again? They are grains of salt the wasp is licking. This in middle of N Sea From the white patch on the fin it might be a Minke Whale 01:30 and I felt the warmth of the sun, accompanied by crew washing the decks. Bar 78, most northerly, most expensive, free wi-fi. Locals must carry a gun when beyond the edge of town. Polar bears are not fussy what they eat. A tern nesting by a truck loading bay, The male attacked passers-by. You can see where a glacier came down to the sea not so long ago. Longyearbyen town Looking towards the airport runway at longyearbyen

 

Looking towards the airport runway at longyearbyen

]]> http://www.ryhill.net/we-disappeared-in-june/feed/ 0 Say what you like about the Royals http://www.ryhill.net/say-what-you-like-about-the-royals/ http://www.ryhill.net/say-what-you-like-about-the-royals/#comments Sun, 08 May 2011 23:27:09 +0000 grebrynod http://www.ryhill.net/?p=712 Say what you like about the Royals but they know where the apostrophes should go…..

]]> http://www.ryhill.net/say-what-you-like-about-the-royals/feed/ 0 Telescope for sale http://www.ryhill.net/telescope-for-sale-2/ http://www.ryhill.net/telescope-for-sale-2/#comments Tue, 29 Mar 2011 23:36:00 +0000 grebrynod http://www.ryhill.net/?p=696 This item is moved to the For sale page on the main menu.

]]> http://www.ryhill.net/telescope-for-sale-2/feed/ 0 Distrail – inverse contrail http://www.ryhill.net/distrail-inverse-contrail/ http://www.ryhill.net/distrail-inverse-contrail/#comments Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:56:04 +0000 grebrynod http://www.ryhill.net/?p=589 Continue reading →]]> In the back of today’s New Scientist there is a photo of a ‘distrail’. That is a strip of  cloudy sky rendered clear by a passing aeroplane. Storm Dunlop’s letter gave a three point explanation. Here’s one I took earlier (click to enlarge)….

Taken near Woodley, Berks the flight is at low level turning onto final approach at Heathrow. The disturbance is great because the aeroplane, although light of fuel before landing, is at high angle of attack with some flap down doing a lot of work to get the aeroplane around the corner. Look carefully at the bottom of the photo and you can see the next flight turning behind. It is a good illustration of how it’s possible to fly into a very turbulent air for a few moments around busy airports.

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