Iain McLaren@iainfm@mastodon.scotmastodon.scot

Be still, my beating childhood!

Something a little different I'm working on - a target rifle training system (aka "Splatt"). Commercial systems are available (for several hundred pounds), but this, some ironmongery, and a £15 webcam...

Source at https://github.com/iainfm/splatt

I'm not sure where to begin, tbh.

#WallaceMonument 2 years ago today, in the low cloud

This. Is. FASCINATING: “The vaccine, which contains dead versions of the bacterium Paenibacillus larvae, comes in the form of food. The vaccine is incorporated into royal jelly, a sugar feed given to queen bees. Once they ingest it, the vaccine is then deposited in their ovaries, giving developing larvae immunity as they hatch.” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/07/science/honeybee-vaccine.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

If you’re at the right place at the right time, with the right equipment, this is possible.

Last night, with guidance from https://transit-finder.com/, I positioned myself along the narrow line where the International #SpaceStation would pass between me and the nearly full moon.

I used a Fujifilm X-T4 shooting 4K video through a Celestron 8” SCT to capture the pass. Then, back at the computer this morning, put together these views with PIPP, Registax, and GIMP.

Quite pleased. My best yet.

Little project I'm working on. Hoping to make a DIY target shooting trainer similar to (but for legal reasons completely different to) a commercial product. #Splatt

https://youtu.be/VybUwwdZbew

Source in my github repo: https://github.com/iainfm/splatt

Hen Harrier.

From earlier in the week, when I watched this female hunting over some marshy land near the shore, here on Mull.

Taken with a Canon R7 and this time I used DxO Pure Raw 2 to remove the noise, and I think it's generated a nicer image than Topaz.

Anyway, that's for the PP geeks out there, the rest of you can enjoy the harrier...

High above the night sky in the northern hemisphere right now, you can take a peek at the Pleiades star cluster in the constellation Taurus. To find it, look to the left of Orion’s belt to the patch of blue dust and stars.

Credit: NASA/ESA/AURA/Caltech.

Golden Eagle.

Between heavy showers today on Mull, I managed to enjoy some great views of a buzzard eating a rodent, a kestrel hovering over a hillside, a female hen harrier quartering over some marshes near the shore, and this, majestic golden eagle flying high over the hilltops.

After being irritated by a buzzard, the golden eagle perched on the top of a hill in some sunshine.

I grabbed a few shots as it turned its golden head and caught the light.

Egret at #DumbartonRock

Today in 1983, 40 years ago: The ARPANET officially changes to using TCP/IP, the Internet Protocol, effectively creating the Internet.

RT @luismbat@birbsite

Who would have thought that adding a Sierpinski Triangle Fractal as musical notes would actually sound good!

Morning Mastodon. This photograph was taken just south of Girvan, on a day when the sky was doing its thing. A slightly occluded sun always brings a little drama.