What Robberfly is that?

Its holidays, and its great to wander slowly through the forest and just let nature come to you at its own pace. I know some of you are say it should be Which Robberfly is this - give me a break I'm on holidays! ;-)

Shall we play a game?

Starting with the Asilidae family we have a very close match to the Giant Yellow Robberfly. However in all the photos I have seen the Yellow Segment on the abdomen under the wings is a clear and distinct single continuous yellow stip. However you can see here there is a yellow segmented cross stripped highlight.

The second point of difference is the "whiskers" around the proboscus are distinctly yellow as well. The other photos I have seen have grey "whiskers".

Any ideas or comments appreciated. I have sent of a question to CSIRO, awaiting a response. Other hints: Coastal Rainforest habitiat central NSW coast, Port Macquarie.

Readers of the Blog will recall my previous "what the hell" experience with a photo - was capturing the only known footage of Burrunan Dolphins playing in the surf at Lakes Entrance.

Sensational Singapore Photostudy

Open publication - Free publishing - More lights

Taking a brief detour from my usual fare of Astronomy.

Recently I have been exploring the various epub and document publishing "iHouses". There are some very interesting approaches, methods and websites.

Here is my first foray, a photographic study of one of my favorite cities -SINGAPORE!!!!!

There is lots to consider, the tools you use to tell the story, the platform you want to publish on, and what the ultimate purpose is (getting it out there vs revenue). Depending on whether you want to just stick a PDF on your blog with a paypal button, "go Apple" through the iTunes store, or get a company like Bookbaby to go the whole way with ISBN Numbers and distribution channels - there is something for everyone.

This time I'm using the ISSUU Website which seems to have a large user base with a broad range of content.

Let me know what you think.

Astroswanny

Roadtesting the Orion Steadypix adapter for the iPhone

Well it finally arrived, not because they were slow in delivering, but because I finally got around to ordering the quintessential adapter/tool/dongle.....(its not really an app) for the iPhone - The Orion Steadypix camera adapter.



Well folks, you know when you lie awake at night thinking "what could I invent, get made up in China for a couple of dollars and sell 50,000 of before anyone else thought of it". Well the Steadypix is just one of those things.

Regular readers of my blog will remember my ham-fisted attempt to create one myself.


Remember all those cartoons about "as the architect designed it, as the engineer built it.....and how the customer got it.


Well this is what it looks like, when someone who knows what they are doing, designs and builds it (queue free plug for Orion Optics).

Silly me (after trying to collimate my telescope with a laser collimator and the barlow still in....d'oh) I had realized I'd also forgotten to charge up the battery so the dobby was unable to be guided. So not a bad result at all considering there was a little drift of the image to account for.


The moon is so bright through a telescope you need a lunar filter to kill off some of the light. Most entry level telescopes come with this filter included. Also, you soon learn that the full moon is not the best time to look at the moon through a telescope. Targeting limb of the shadow zone gives the best results as the suns rays are hitting the surface at a low angle and illuminate all kinds of detail, from the edges and centers of craters to impact trains, valleys and ridges. Its almost like being in the command module of Apollo 11.

Diligent observers have also witnessed transient events where gases escape from fissures in the surface and are illuminated as they rise through the shadow zone.

More recently some observation programs look for meteors in the "dark of the Moon" when meteor showers are in progress. The science of the moon is very much alive!

All in all a pretty good result - Enjoy.