Hi all!
I have been madly re-building the ASIGN website on a new server for the last two weeks day and night. I managed to get the last nearly three years worth of web building done in this time, but it is done finally! I am so tired!
Maybe after a week of sleep I can get back into astrophotography again.
With the new-look website, comes a better, more streamlined and interactive menu, along with silverlight galleries and new pages. (You only need to download and install silverlight once (free) and then never again.)
My special thanks goes to Ron from www.aussiepeople.com.au for making all this possible. Bless you mate.
The new pages are all about deep space probes and the exploration of the planets. At the moment there is only a main page, but one by one, I will be investigating and bringing each of the planets of our solar system up, along with their robotic explorers. Not only do I hope to illustrate our travels and missions to many in "laymans terms", but I also hope that by studying these things and writing about them, I learn so much more myself. What a journey!
Just a bit of a warning, the site does have a Christian slant, but for those not into that, it mainly contains good and practical information on many aspects of astrophotography and DIY. Please dont feel evangelised or "forced" to suffer religion. Those pages are kept seperate as much as possible.
http://www.asignobservatory.com/space_exploration.aspx
Please, take a look when you have some time and enjoy!
Baz.
ASIGN upgrade and new space-exploration pages
Wow, the site looks pretty awesome. That's some impressive work within 2 weeks. It'd take me months to build up something like that, considering I don't know anything about silverlight integration, just simple html, php and css. I've been reading up "laymans terms" stuff on wikipedia, but I'll definitely have a good look at your site later on.
Oh yeah, to suggest something, maybe you could collect 3D images from the Mars rover websites and other resources to build a 3D section. I've a pair of 3D (red cyan) glasses lying around. (:
Oh yeah Barry, I've read your Tips and Advice section earlier before and I wanted to offer some advice and improvements to certain sections. For night adaptation, I've personally noticed that once you begin to sink more into astronomy, it gets easier and takes a shorter time to adapt. For example, a 5-minute could become 2-minute. Well, it's different for everyone, but I've shortened my adaptation time by quite a significant figure. And as you know, light pollution is really terrible over here in Singapore, being able to spot a few bright stars just within 2 minutes of staring out is good enough. I've spotted M35, the Pleiades and a few other constellation like Auriga with my naked eyes by just looking out of my windows. I wasn't able to spot any of them when I first started, but it keeps getting better.
And for your green laser section.. As a newbie astronomer with an 8x42 binoculars, I sometimes find it hard to spot certain stars. I mean, through naked eyes, they are there, like cassiopeia, but a newbie usually experience a difficulty in locating it because he/she isn't sure of what he/she has found. And when you look through the binoculars, you spot a lot more stars than your naked eyes, and that can be rather confusing. So personally, I've found a great use for the green laser. You could point your beam at the star you were looking at, then look through your binoculars and follow the beam. I find it extremely useful myself. Oh yeah, and I heard lasers were banned in Australia, and what you guys can legally own is just a laser below 1mW. Of course, it's decent enough if you are a good night adapter. Although, through some thorough reading, it's said that the highest an astronomer can go for in a green laser is up to 20mW. I personally own a 5mW one and will be getting a 20mW novalasers soon.
Alright, that's all I have to offer.
~Zane
Oh yeah, to suggest something, maybe you could collect 3D images from the Mars rover websites and other resources to build a 3D section. I've a pair of 3D (red cyan) glasses lying around. (:
Oh yeah Barry, I've read your Tips and Advice section earlier before and I wanted to offer some advice and improvements to certain sections. For night adaptation, I've personally noticed that once you begin to sink more into astronomy, it gets easier and takes a shorter time to adapt. For example, a 5-minute could become 2-minute. Well, it's different for everyone, but I've shortened my adaptation time by quite a significant figure. And as you know, light pollution is really terrible over here in Singapore, being able to spot a few bright stars just within 2 minutes of staring out is good enough. I've spotted M35, the Pleiades and a few other constellation like Auriga with my naked eyes by just looking out of my windows. I wasn't able to spot any of them when I first started, but it keeps getting better.
And for your green laser section.. As a newbie astronomer with an 8x42 binoculars, I sometimes find it hard to spot certain stars. I mean, through naked eyes, they are there, like cassiopeia, but a newbie usually experience a difficulty in locating it because he/she isn't sure of what he/she has found. And when you look through the binoculars, you spot a lot more stars than your naked eyes, and that can be rather confusing. So personally, I've found a great use for the green laser. You could point your beam at the star you were looking at, then look through your binoculars and follow the beam. I find it extremely useful myself. Oh yeah, and I heard lasers were banned in Australia, and what you guys can legally own is just a laser below 1mW. Of course, it's decent enough if you are a good night adapter. Although, through some thorough reading, it's said that the highest an astronomer can go for in a green laser is up to 20mW. I personally own a 5mW one and will be getting a 20mW novalasers soon.
Alright, that's all I have to offer.
~Zane