Indoor Skydiving
Published on 16 Oct 2008 at 7:41 am by Mike.
2 Comments.
Filed under Random.
I’m in Las Vegas for a conference, so last night I headed over to Flyaway Indoor Skydiving. It was really fun, and you should check it out if you’re in Vegas. You watch a training video, go over safety and hand signals, get your equipment, and then go into the wind tunnel.
One thing I didn’t picture when I read about it was how HOT it would be in there. As one of the guys working there said “It’s like being under the hood of a car.”
Here’s a video of my session (no audio).
Lego Jason Giambi
Published on 16 Jun 2008 at 8:49 am by Mike.
1 Comment.
Filed under Lego.
 Ever since I made Lego David Wright, people have been saying “Make some Yankees!”.
Your wish is granted. Here is Lego Giambi, complete with slump-breaking moustache and thong. |
First Light: Celestron NexStar 8 SE
Published on 15 Jun 2008 at 9:08 pm by Mike.
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Filed under Astronomy.
The clouds finally lifted, and last week I got the check out my new NexStar. After setting up the red dot finder, I was ready to go.
Having already entered my latitude and longitude info into the scope’s computer during one of the cloudy nights, alignment was very easy. From my backyard I could see the moon, Saturn, and Mars in the sky, so I decided to try using the Solar System Align. I got the moon centered in the scope, hit the button, and the scope immediately began to track.
I still love my dobsonian, but it’s so great to let the scope do the tracking instead of having to nudge the scope every few seconds. I think it’s really going to help with photography.
Next I hit the button for the scope to slew to Saturn, and there it was, right in the center. Then I told it to go to Mars, and the result was the same. Very satisfying. Although I do hope to learn the constellations better, the GoTo functionality is going to be great for short sessions where you want to see something quick.
So far so good. I hope to post some moon or Saturn pictures in the next couple weeks.
Curse of the New Scope
Published on 9 Jun 2008 at 8:56 am by Mike.
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Filed under Astronomy.
I’ve got a brandy-new scope, a Celestron NexStar 8 SE… so of course it has been raining or overcast every night since I bought it last week.
The good news is that I got the scope-to-Starry Night interface working, so once the scope is aligned I can use Starry Night to slew it. I’m really excited about the tracking features on this scope - should make both observing and photography much easier.
More detail when the clouds clear…
Lego David Wright
Published on 12 May 2008 at 8:14 am by Mike.
3 Comments.
Filed under Lego.
Here’s David Wright, complete with orange t-shirt and sticking-out tongue. This is the first time I’ve used decals.
Up to now I’ve painted everything by hand, but the pinstripes, logo, numbers, etc were just too detailed so I decided to give decalling a try. I used MicroMark clear inkjet decal paper.
You just print the decal right onto the paper and give it a clear coating (MicroMark sells some special decal stuff but I just used Krylon clear matte spray). After that you apply it like a regular water-slide decal. After the decals dried I painted over them with gloss varnish to match the lego sheen. It was easier than I thought, and I’m pretty happy with the results.
Now that I’ve done Wright, I have a uniform template I can use to make other Mets really easily. All I have to do is change three text layers (front number, back number, and name) and I’m ready to go.
Really the only problem I have with it is it raises the Minifig Race Issue. If I were to make Reyes, if I used a regular yellow head, it would look weird and I don’t think he’d be identifiable as Reyes. But if I use a darker skin color for Reyes, then yellow becomes “white” and now Wright looks weird.
I went through this same mental dilemma when I was thinking about making Firefly minifigs and I never resolved it (or went forward with the Firefly stuff).
I’m not sure what other customizers do. One guy who makes Halo minifigs uses yellow for everyone, but the Sarge just doesn’t look right to me.
Maybe if I continue I’ll go back and redo Wright with pink skin, but as a standalone piece I like the way he came out.
Lucky Shot
Published on 9 Mar 2008 at 7:13 am by Mike.
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Filed under Astronomy.
Took this from our balcony in Phoenix last week. You can see the moon, Jupiter (top left), Venus and Mercury (bottom right), and Earth. That’s a personal best for most heavenly bodies in one shot!
Click the image for full-size version at flickr.
Eclipse Pics
Published on 27 Feb 2008 at 7:38 pm by Mike.
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Filed under Astronomy.
Here’s a couple pictures I took during last week’s total lunar eclipse.
I’m not a real photographer so I sort of didn’t know what I was doing with my camera settings. There’s no filters on any of these, just varying exposure times.
Here it is starting:
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Here’s one very near totality. You can also see Saturn (bottom left) and Regulus (above the moon).
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I kept running in and out of the house. I was too cold to keep taking pictures all the way through. Here’s the last one I did before zooming out for the moon & saturn pic above.
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Lego Brett Favre
Published on 16 Jan 2008 at 8:35 am by Mike.
6 Comments.
Filed under Lego.
I put this together for someone at work who’s a huge Favre fan.
To be honest, I’m not very happy with the helmet, specifically the face mask. I had tried slicing the chin piece in half on another helmet, to make it look like the bars of the face mask but it didn’t really come out right. Maybe on the next one I will cut the chin piece off entirely and make it out of wire.
I did a lot of googlage before starting this project, and I haven’t been able to find another customizer who’s made a minifig football helmet, which is pretty surprising. Maybe one of the knockoffs like MegaBlok or Best-Lock makes one.
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Mars Pic
Published on 22 Dec 2007 at 6:41 pm by Mike.
1 Comment.
Filed under Astronomy.
Mars is on its closest approach for the next 9 years, so I checked it out a few nights ago. They aren’t kidding when they call it the most disappointing object in amateur astronomy. I hoped that computer enhancement would help out a bit, but not much.
As always, gear was an Orion XT8i scope and NexImage camera. This is not natural color, it was shot through a red filter. You can make out some of Syrtis Major and maaaybe some south polar ice cap but that’s about it. Oh well. Still, I can cross Mars off my list.
New Workshop
Published on 14 Dec 2007 at 10:03 pm by Mike.
2 Comments.
Filed under True Stories, Art, Wood.
So, I was complaining about how I was out of room on my workbench and had no real room to expand. Kathy’s response: why not rearrange this stuff like this, do this, and take over the whole other side of the basement instead? Woo hoo!
The last project I did before rearranging was a limberjack, an Appalachian dancing puppet. (You may recognize him from Mister Show if nothing else.)
I’ve been interested in wooden automata for a while, and the book Making Mad Toys & Mechanical Marvels in Wood 
The first project in the book is a limberjack, so I thought I’d give it a shot. It turned out to be an excellent introduction to the whole process, from transferring the pattern, planning the cutting, and assembling.
Using the scroll saw, it took a loooong time to cut the pieces from such thick wood, even though it was just soft basswood. Although he’s a bit rough, I really like how he came out. I was especially proud of the joints. As soon as he was finished, I put on some good bluegrass and let him dance!
After that project, it took several months of weekends to get everything moved around the way I wanted, but it’s finally done. Instead of one workbench jammed in between the beer fridge and the electrical panel, I’ve got 2 workbenches and a sit-down worktable. That gives me enough room to get a couple power tools in and star doing a little more complicated work. Kathy got me a bandsaw for my birthday, and my dad is giving me his old table saw. We also had some additional outlets put in, and some overhead lighting so I can finally see what I’m doing.
It’s really exciting, and hopefully I can do justice to all this new potential. I want to start off with some simple wooden toys, and continue looking into automata. Now that I can use the bandsaw to rough stuff out, I hope to be able to get more done, quicker. I also want to learn more (well, anything) about electronics and do some simple projects, and, and, and…
