Paul Smith's Blog

Took 12 more images of the Moon tonight, put them all together, just a shame I've got some holes! Compare with yesterday's image to see how far it's gone in it's orbit. Click to enlarge.

It couldn't escape for long. Here's Jupiter. No the red spot isn't visible - it's behind the left-hand limb when these were taken. I'd also probably need an IR filter to get enough contrast to take an image. Although it is currently visible - it just popped out from around the side a couple of hours ago. These were taken at prime focus - all images through the barlow lens lacked enough contrast to get any detail out of the images - need IR filter....

My forth attempt at imaging Saturn. Conditions today were pretty rubbish. However I had built a new eyepiece adapter - so I had the right focal length to use my 3x barlow. The adapter itself is nothing special, in fact it's just some rolled up paper. But it works. First up, an image composed of two images of Saturn, both taken with the camera at price focus. Using two different exposures to capture the satellites and planet itself....

Over the next few days I hope to bring the power of my 150mm reflector to bear. This was just taken through the 40mm finder scope - through a window - with a webcam - with the help of Catherine.

On February 22, the Chinese government shut down the China Workers' Website and Discussion Lists, a website that allowed Chinese workers and farmers to discuss their struggles and the problems they face. The developments and changes in China are of extreme significance for workers and youth of the whole world and in this regard, this interview, conducted by Stephen Philion for the Monthly Review Magazine, is extremely interesting and important, and provides an insight into the conditions of the Chinese workers, youth and peasants....

Who produces the wealth and who gains most from its production? In a pamphlet written in the early 20th century, John Wheatley described an imaginary court case, with a coalmaster, a landowner and several others being charged with “having conspired together and robbed an old miner, Dick McGonnagle.” The pamphlet, How the Miners Are Robbed, had considerable impact before the First World War. Its basic class analysis remains valid for workers today as they are still being robbed....

The Belarus saga exposes the hollowness of the west's support for human rights and democracy Neil Clark Monday March 27, 2006 The Guardian When is an election not considered free and fair by the west? Answer: when it delivers victory to a government that rejects neoliberal orthodoxy and refuses to orientate its foreign policy towards Washington or Brussels. There is no other conclusion one can come to after both the US and the EU announced swingeing sanctions on Belarus after the re-election of President Lukashenko....

It's started. The attack on Venezuela, of course this has been going on for sometime - but now it's bringing it to the people. To demonise the Venezuelan adminstration in the eyes of the public - in preparation for a long running campaign to restore the domination of capital. Hands off Venezuela: On Monday March 27, the British Channel 4 screened a documentary on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that can only be described as scandalous....

Two images so far from the eclipse, more shall be processed and uploaded later. Note the sunspots 865 and 866 on the right side of the image (east side of the Sun - they've just rotated around from the side of the sun a couple of days ago). There's a cool animated map of the locations and times of the eclipse across the surface of the Earth, you can find this here....

This is fantastic stuff, we're really making progress here. The government as of February the 1st increased wages for everyone in the public sector by on average 47%. The public sector now makes up about 10% of the economy (more work needs to be done there). Those in the private sector, despite more moaning from the capitalists have seen their wages rise another 15%, Chavez's government has been raising the minimum wage since around 2002, usually by 20%-30% per year....