The Sun has a fine group of spots making its way across the disk just now. Active region (AR) 1302 is a large group, already associated with auroral activity generated by massive emissions of solar plasma. See Spaceweather for images and information.

Today was mixed sun and cloud in Brisbane, but I took advantage of a clear spell and a moderate temperature to shoot a few more images of our closest star. Once again using the Canon 30D at prime focus on the 150mm Zeiss refractor, I made a few dozen exposures; many are needed, to ensure a few reasonably sharp ones. Bad seeing can affect all astronomical images shot through a telescope, but when the observing conditions are: inside a warm dome, on a warm day, then the turbulence can produce appalling image blur. As it happened, today was just below average for the time of year, with fairly stable seeing - possibly the best I've seen so far, from this site. Even so, exposures around 1/1500 second can still be indistinct, so I increased the ISO setting to 400 and used some exposures of 1/6000 second (as it happened, the best exposures were 1/1500 & 1/2000 second).

In the end, I had 3 usable images, from a total of around 40; I have combined them into a GIF animation. I have also compared them to today's white-light image from the SDO satellite, and was pleasantly surprised. The linked image below will take you to the full set of images.

Alan Rickman, as Severus Snape, as voice of GPS: http://tinyurl.com/3cj7w6o (thanks, @jackschofield). Yes, I can imagine it, and it would make for much amusement. Who else would be good in the job? Well, Marvin, the paranoid android certainly comes to mind:

"Roads - don't talk to me about roads. 'Turn left in 100 metres', 'take the 2nd exit at the next roundabout', 'drive for 500 light years without changing direction'. The first 3 hours will be the worst; the second 3 hours will be the worst, too; the third 3 hours you won't enjoy at all, and then you'll go into a bit of a decline..."

Perhaps Norman Wisdom:

"T-turn left here, Mr Grimsdale - no, here. Or is it right? Oh, no, don't laugh at me..."

Eccles:

" 'Ello... You got to make a turn. Bot-tle... have you got de piece of paper? ...de one dat shows us which way to turn. Oi need to look at it. Ah, yes... turn left here ...now dat's funny... Bot-tle... which way up is dis piece of paper supposed to be...?"

Billy Connolly:

"Now, you have to turn left - aye, right here - well, it's some bloody place round here. 'Hey Jimmy! C'mere a wee minute! Gaunae gie's a haun' here?' Y'see, what they don't tell you, about these... these computerized satellite thingies, you know, is that you've got tae know where you're goin' first, so that you know when it's takin' you up some bloody back street it shouldnae, and in three minutes flat, you'll have nae wheels left. No sae smart now, is it?"

Farmer O'Flaherty*:

"Well now, let's see. You could be takin' de next left ... but if you're aaskin' me, oi'd be takin the right tourn about foive moiles back. Dat way, you can stop at Gilligan's for a quick Guiness or two. It's the best pub east of MacGillycuddy's Reeks, so it is. Then, when you've had maybe one or two more, and a good serve of colcannon to help you on your way, then it won't much matter which way you go. I certainly won't be after worryin' about it..."
  * Winner of a Nobel Prize - he was out standing in his field.

The Prime Minister:

"As I have told the House on at least 5 occasions in the past week, the Leader of the Opposition is confused [Order!] about the real issue here. It is not about left and right, and scoring cheap political points, nor is there any prospect of a u-turn during this parliament. [Order!!] The only real option, as the Honourable Member well knows, is to keep going straight ahead, until we emerge at the end of the tunnel - a tunnel which this Government has constructed on time and under budget [hear, hear] in contrast to the situation while the Honourable Member was in office [rhubarb, rhubarb] representing an electorate just 5 kilometres beyond the end of the tunnel, along a section of federally-funded divided road that was subject to gross mismanagement of resources and lengthy delays [baa, moo, hiss] ..."

Who would you have as your voice of reason on the road?

The search is over, and we have been approved for our new home. It might have slightly less space than the one we are in, but it does have aircon, which -- as it looks like we might have a hot summer ahead -- is a definite improvement. I am fortunate to be able to escape to a cool place each workday, but Heather has not been so lucky. The timing of the current tenant's exit looks good, allowing about a week's overlap with our current rental, which is what I usually allow, to make sure it's not a rushed & frantic process. Moving is stressful enough, without having to do it in a tight time frame (April last year wasn't a lot of fun). The move should happen in 3-4 weeks.

Heather has started yet another clearout process, and I guess I will do the same, to see what I can possibly shed before we go. Not sure how successful I'll be though...

The little package of bits arrived a few days ago from the lovely people in Hong Kong. I wasted little time in attaching this to that, that to the other, and generally hooking up whatever I could lay hands on. The Tamron and Orestegor lenses can now serve time on the 30D instead of my FD-mount Canons, the old Sigma mirror lens that I nearly sold last year can come back out of its hiding place (and may see light on December's lunar eclipse), and the intervalometer was duly tested... on nothing particularly worthwhile. I waited until today though, to hook the camera up to the Zeiss, helping me to shoot a few sunspots.

The drawback of the APS-C format is that I can't fit the full solar disk in a single exposure. Still, the best of the action was in this part :) If I do want a full disk - as I will at times for both Sun and Moon - I'll need to do a stitch-up; not difficult in itelf, but not ideal in shooting terms.

This was a1/2000 sec exposure, at ISO 100, with a solar filter over the objective. Many exposures were made, but only one was reasonably sharp - the rest were variously affected by wobbly seeing. Here, a spot group is heading for the limb; some bright faculae can also be seen. Below is a detail of the spots. Because of the solar filter, the original image is coloured orange, but for this image I used just the green channel (for best definition) and colourized the image for a more natural tone. It is entirely artificial though.

It became apparent, while testing the interval timer, that the camera battery was past its best. One run last night, shooting time-lapse star trails, petered out after 17 shots. With little hope of a favourable reply, I emailed the retailer to see if the battery was included in the warranty - it was. They will post a replacement, and I can keep the current one, which will be at least be an emergency spare. I suspect though, that for long exposures I might be better off with a mains supply or a larger battery pack. I'll see how I get on with the new battery first.

They say there's no rest for the wicked, but today (Sunday), I'm resting. I worked yesterday, so today and tomorrow are mine... unless anything crops up. We do have to continue the search for another property, as our first application was passed over, so are just about to go and look at the outside of a couple, then see if we can get in to view properly tomorrow or Tuesday.

Heather just baked a batch of muffins; raspberry and ginseng peach. 'Moist' is one word; certainly delicious and still warm. Now, we need a coffee to wash them down, so will repair to somewhere worthwhile after seeing those two houses.

...

Sunday duly came & went, as has Monday, all but a few hours. Just time to fit in another muffin... I suspect we missed the boat regarding those 2 houses, as the call to the agent today has not been returned. There was a couple here on Sunday, looking around with a view to buying; if they are interested (and they seemed to like it), then the pressure will be on to find us a new place sooner rather than later.

Today we went to buy some potting mix (Heather puts plants in it, or something), and had a rather nice and filling lunch afterwards just round the corner: toasted Turkish, with bacon, egg and salad, and a good coffee, of course.

This afternoon I placed an order for a few adaptors for the 30D, so that I can attach it to the Zeiss, and also to be able to use some of my older lenses. I acquired a Tamron 24-48 SP zoom a couple of months ago, along with a Canon AE-1 and a couple of lesser lenses; they belonged to the late husband of a lady I visited to advise about a strange photo of the Moon. When I expressed a measure of delight in seeing them, she offered them to me, happy that they would go to someone who appreciated them; I reluctantly accepted the offer. Anyway, I reckon the 24-48 will be a pretty good lens - judging by the brief film test that I gave it - and should sit nicely on the 30D, perhaps being optically better than the 17-85 that's mated with it just now (it will lack autofocus and fully auto exposure, but I can live with that). I have also ordered a remote release/timer, so that I can shoot some time lapse sequences of star trails etc, or a series of exposures on the same object through the Zeiss, to be stacked later. I haven't bought any photography gear for years, and it's quite diverting. I never was a gearhead though, unlike some others of my acquaintance. I admit to being perhaps inordinately fond of my Benbo tripod (British made, don't y'know), and, of course, the obsolescent Canon FDs, but everything else is more or less just 'stuff'.

One of my reasons (justifications) for buying a DSLR was so that I could get back into astrophotgraphy. Film is all very well, and Ektachrome was almost a legendary emulsion, but CCD/CMOS sensors are far more efficient at gathering faint light. An image that might have required 10 minutes of carefully-guided exposre on film, might now be achieved in 30 seconds with a static camera. Anyway... I have exercised the beast with the main telescope at the Brisbane Planetarium, just to make an initial test of its capabilities. The results, such as they are, can be seen on the Astronomy page.

Our landlord (landlady, actually) has decided to put the house on the market. Our HOME. We've been here just 16 months, and are nothing like ready for a move yet. There is, of course, the possibility that it could be bought by an investor, but I don't fancy taking that chance, not with the shortage of suitable rental properties. So, we went to view 3 houses today, the only 3 that Heather thought at all worthwhile (and within our budget, suitable for pets, etc). The first one had absurdly small rooms, and signs of wear & tear, mould, etc that the agent said unlikely to be fixed, so it was fairly quickly crossed off the list. The second one was in much better order, but it looks like competition for it will be very stiff, and the rent is at the top end of what we want; nice area though. 3rd on the list would benefit from freshening up slightly, not to mention an improved kitchen, but had a mature mulberry - in fruit - overhanging the back fence. House and block slightly larger than our present one, plus aircon, so it would do. Need to find out when it's available, but the place is empty & being cleaned at the moment, so probably fairly soon. We have to give a month's notice on our current lease, which has 6 weeks to run. Fingers crossed for a good outcome.

In other news... I went to an exhibition opening last night, featuring photographs and photogravure prints, 2 of which I'd have liked to bring home. There were also digital reproductions of salt prints - the technology that William Henry Fox Talbot used in the 1840s, for printing his Calotype negatives. I commented that it would be appropriate to make such prints from negatives taken with my Victorian camera, and the artist agreed enthusiastically. I went back to her studio this afternoon, armed with said camera, and we have agreed to get together for a photo outing, probably early next year, and then repair to the studio to get printing. The resulting body of work will (we hope) end up as a joint exhibition, with the camera on display as well. I've missed having access to a darkroom since leaving the Observatory in 1995, so this will be great fun, especially using an old (although new to me) printing process.

I knew, in buying a DSLR, that I was setting myself up for a love-hate experience that might be biased more towards the hate side of things for a while. Having grown up with manual, mechanical cameras of various vintages, it took me a long time to get used to modern developments. I grant you that matrix metering impressed me pretty quickly, while testing a Canon 620 many years ago, but I never did love the rest of the modern, LCD-screened shooting match. I loved my 1978 EF, with its heavy brass body and curious breech-lock lens mount. I still do.

When digital came along, I looked at it with suspicion, if I looked at all. Which I saw an obviously-digital image in print, I'd mutter uncomplimentary things under my breath. There was a certain quality - or rather, lack of it - that branded the newcomer technology second best. Of course, it didn't take long for digital R&D to catch up to the abilities of film, and start to sound the death knell for film imaging. Gradually, manufacturers abandoned film camera production, or just disappeared entirely. (I was surprised to learn of Bronica's disappearance during a long hiatus from taking photographs.)

However, curiosity got the better of me, and I acquired a small digicam, all 2 megapxels of it. Eventually a 5 MP replacement came along, which allowed much better imaging. I was becoming hooked on the immediacy of the digital process, and used film less and less, although there were other reasons too. But, having been accustomed to SLR photography, with the ability to control all aspects of the shooting process, there were a few things I missed, such as selective focusing and full manual control. Hence the 30D.

So, how have I fared in the 3 days since then? Well, I have taken some time to become at least partially familiar with all of the buttons, custom functions, etc. I have snapped a few shots to get the feel of the beast, testing its performance against what I understand. On Day 2, I returned to the dealer, troubled by the camera's failure to let me set the aperture manually: sometimes it would, other times not; as it was bought 2nd hand, I suspected a fault. When the salesman didn't immediately have the answer, I was somewhat dismayed. However, after a minute or so, he remembered the reason - something I'd not picked up from my initial perusal of the manual. Good; smile returned.

Day 3 brought another problem, which bothered me for an hour or so, until I remembered I'd set a custom function deep in the bowels of the menu, and forgot to check exactly how it worked. Once I'd reset that function, no problem. Later on, I noticed a setting on the top LCD, which shouldn't have been set like that, and indeed, elsewhere seemed to be fine. Could I find how to reset it? No I couldn't. The button that would logically have given me the required access showed a normal setting, and adjusting it achieved nothing, at least, not the desired result. In the end, I had to go into the main menu and return all settings to default, to get rid of the errant setting. By now, the once bright and shiny joy had started to tarnish, and I was beginning to feel quite tired. I have yet to take any proper photographs with this camera, although I have learned more about how many hot pixels a camera can have, on long exposures.

Some years ago, I discovered CameraQuest. On that site was a page about a reissued Nikon rangefinder camera, the SP 2005. I fell in love with that camera on sight, and am still moved by it. I knew that I could pick it up, have it loaded within a minute, and start shooting almost right away. There might be 2 or 3 settings I'd need to look up in the manual, but that would be it. Shutter speed, aperture, focus, shoot. I wouldn't be scratching my head for hours, or having to join a forum to get help.

I like the look of the Fuji X100, just because it presents as a traditional-looking camera, with shutter & aperture controls as you might expect (even a 'T' setting). It has clean lines and a classic, uncluttered finish. The rear of it looks like a modern digital, but viewed from the top it looks like a normal camera. I feel I could be very comfortable with it.

Maybe I'm getting old, or perhaps I'm just a grumpy curmudgeon. I hope that I become comfortable with the new toy, but I don't imagine for a minute that I will still be holding it fondly, 30-odd years from now, whereas I intend to be buried with one of my EFs.