The wonders of toilet paper roll and sticky back plastic

I want to take some super awesome sweet photos of the night sky, using my digital camera.
What to do?
Well, I had an idea. After trying unsucessfully to get the crappy camera attachments on my big telescope to work, I came upon the idea to make my own.
I have previously taken snapshots of the moon, by placing the digital camera lens against the eyepiece of the telescope and hoping for the best.
I realised that for good, focussed, crisp and clear shots, I needed a method of temporarily attaching the digital camera to the eyepiece, in a manner that would allow me to take a nice photo.

What I needed was the old Blue Peter recipe:

Toilet rolls, kitchen paper rolls and some sticky back plastic!!!!

It was on!!!

I used the lens of my camera as a guide and the eye piece diameters and amount of eyepiece that jutted out as a guide for the basic but effective cylindrical design that would hug the eyepiece and lens and hold them together firmly enough for me to step away and also to block out any extra light and get the lens as close to the eyepiece lens as possible.

(Phew- that was some sentence! If Norris MuckSquirter were still alive, he may call it a Guinness World Record)

I have a few lenses, ranging from 20mm focal lengths to 6mm.
They also protrude at different lengths from the telescope eyepiece holder.

I made the barrel camera holder in two different cylindrical sections, as the lens on my digital camera protrudes out as two barrels of different widths. No problem. Using black tape, I made the adapters fit snugly.

Here are the lenses I am going to test (20mm, 10mm and 6mm), along with their corresponding adapters for the digital camera:


Next, I will show two photos, the first showing the eyepiece on the telescope and the second photo with the digital camera attcahed, using the adapters.

First, using the 20mm eyepiece:
Now, with the camera attached:

Using the 10mm eyepiece:
Now, with the camera attached:

Using the 6mm eyepiece:
Now, with the camera attached:


They seem to work. I just needed to test them.

It was time to take photos of bricks!!!!!

I took my scope out on the balcony and tried to centre it on the furthest point I could find. This was the brick wall of the apartment complex, about 500m away.
Here's a photo taken using the digital camera with no zoom:
(the arrow shows the approximate area of the bricks in question)

Next, here are the photos I took using the three eyepieces and their holders:

20mm:

10mm:

6mm:

(The photos were only slightly cropped and not altered digitally with software in any way).

Nice.
I like bricks.

When the weather clears up, I'll take some shots of the moon, the planets and some nebulae/galaxies - if I can.

__________________________

Next, I'm thinking of cutting myself and taking a shot of my blood at 700x magnification...

Got me a new telescope - a big one

Well, it's bigger than yours, anyway.

Apparently, it's not the size of the scope that matters.
It's how you use it that counts.
I've been using mine to spy on the neighbours.
Nice.

Actualy, I used it to look at the cracks between layers of bricks on the neighbours apartment complex, approximately 500m away.
But that isn't very interesting or wild or crazy. Unless you really like bricks.

Okay, so I was doing my usual thang, touring the recycle stores, on the lookout for a cheap telescope.
Then hey presto! I came across this baby (not literally, although perhaps that may have reduced the price? - p.s. that previous sentence is one I never wish to be quoted on. Urgh.):
I decided to check it out. I took this shot after I pulled down the old, damaged box from the top shelf. As you can see, it's a Newtonian/reflecting telescope. 115mm diameter (not huge but not tiny) and 920mm focal length.
Here's a simple diagram explaining the differences between a reflecting and a refracting telescope:
I checked out the box. It seemed most things were there. Tripod stand and equitorial mount (a good mount is as important as the scope itself - well, that's just silly. You can't see crap using only the mount, but you can't see focused, crisp images without a good sturdy mount - sounds like I'm talking about horses - nay!).
It was time to check out the primary mirror, inside, at the bottom.
I could see some marks but what worried me was what appeared to be a big smudge running across the one side of the mirror. At one angle, it seemed rusty in colour?

I had a look at the specs and researched them on the internet. They seemed not bad:
I found a similar model (same model number and same specs online for around 100,000yen. Wowza!). This baby was a lot cheaper. It was old and the mirror may be damaged. There was no real way to test it until I actually used it. I decided to have faith and bought the sucker.

This presented itself with another problem.
How the fudge was I supposed to get this sucker home?
I had my huge backpack, but even that wasn't big enough (not quite, just a cm or two too small - nuts). This box was larger than a medium sized child (talking East European or easily Asian - not necessarily including North American children - who we all know, can grow to enormous sizes).

At least, if I was carrying a medium sized child in a box, I could make the child get out and walk.

I was going to have to carry this thing, plus my bike, plus my already pretty full big backpack on the train and all the way home (I was about 40 minutes train ride from home - including one transfer - and about 15 minutes cycling/carrying).

Tony the Tiger says:

I searched around the rest of the recycle store and found an interesting collapsable shopping bag with two tiny, flimsy plastic wheels on the bottom - aha!
It was 100yen - AHA!!
I was back in business.

I used this tiny little trolley bag, a whole load of plastic cord and more than a little tape and did a Macgyver!

Nice.

Thanks, dude.

With a lot of effort, I somehow got everything home, intact.

I quickly set up the scope and compared it to my super sweet awesome ninja scope (a refracting scope):
Nice.
It looks nice. Looks kinda like I know what I'm doing.
Truth is, I have little clue what I'm doing.
To prove that, today I took out the primary mirror and tried to wash it and dry it with cotton padding. Not amazing results.
Did a similar thing to the lenses on the ninja scope and forgot which way they went back in.
Doh!
Think it seems to work.

______________________

I put it away for 6 years, then I met an old showman

...I tried and it come right natural to me, after 'letting it go' for six years.

"well, if I was you", he said "I'd practice up and see what I could do."

Jimmy hong and a startled Watson

First one is my man, James Hong, from Balls of Fury.
Good movie. funny stuff.


Next up is the best scene from The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' smarter brother.

Hilarious.

That's all for now. I'm still recovering frmothe Belgian beer tasting session.

Nice moon - shame about uranus.

Used my Frankenstein camera to take some shots of the moon, from my balcony, using my ninja scope.
Used a very complicated method of pressing the camera to the lens of the scope and trying to hold still - not easy.
Still, I got some nice shots and some good footage of the moon passing through the telescopes field of view:


Here's a nice little movie of the moon passing through the field of view of the telescope:

I bought the telescope for 750yen in the childrens' section of a local hardoff. Not a bad deal. Optics seem ok.
I used a 12mm eyepiece in most shots. 10 or perhaps 8 in others.
For the movie, I used my camera tripod to position the camera as close as I could to the eyepice of the scope. Worked ok, but it's a little out of focus. Through the actual eyepiece, everything looked crisp and clear. Tried ajusting the focus by using the digital camera as reference and set the focus of the camera at infinity. Still, nice but not world class.
But for 750yen it ain't half bad.

So far, no one has called the police about a strange guy with a telescope and a digital camera, on his balcony at 2am.

....................................
p.s. here's a pic from tonight (21/November):

Tested out my new/old Frankenstein camera:

It's alive...ALIVE!!!!!

Well, it works, anyway.

I managed to screw up Frankenstein camera number one by dropping it from a table at karaoke.
I did THIS to the lens:

Oops.

I tried to fix it.
I took the lens assembly away from the main body of the camera (being extra careful not to sever the power cable, like I did the last time).
I also tried not to electrocute myself, by touching the capacitor for the flash mechanism. 300volts would occasionally shoot thru my fingertips and induce me to make silly girlie shrieks.

I just couldn't fix it. The camera, as it was, was dead.

Luckily, my friend, Glen, broke the screen on his digital camrea (unluckily for him but monetarily wise not so bad as I gave him cartloads of cash for his camera and also many many beers). His camera was the DSC-P150. Virtually identical to mine, but with a larger CCD (7.2 versus 5megapixels). So, it was a grade-up Frankenstein job I was planning.

First thing was to take apart the black P150 and remove the screen.
Easily done, with a tiny screwdriver and nerves of jelly:

You can just about see in the next photo that the LCD was cracked and wouldn't show any data, rendering it useless. To get this baby replaced by Sony engineers would cost around 30,000yen or more and take a couple of weeks. Srew that.
I decided to unscrew it and do the screwing job my screwing self.
It cost me nothing and took less than 4 minutes. Most of the time was spent unscrewing the screwy things - oh yes, screws!

Thank goodnesss I had trashed two 40,000yen cameras, enabling me to Frankenstein this one!

I put everything together and tested her out.
Would there be life?

Will I be 'BACK, IN BLACK', as it were?

It was time to switch her on and see if the LCD would 'shine':

Yes!!!!!!!!!!

"It's alive!!!"

Now, I know what it feels like to BE a god!!!"

Avoid the meadow

I'll wait for you. Should I fall behind...wait for me.

Counting, with The Boss:

....uh...twelfty!!


One of my favourite songs.
This is him, playing with a busker, just before one of his concerts:

I'm really quite a stout hearted guy

Back on the booze.
This time most of the boys I'll be spending my evening with tonight will be bold, black and ball busting flavorsome.
At least that's what I hope (in theory, rather than reality - I don't really want to bust my balls by drinking beer and I'm going on a tangent again, dammit)

Right.

Tonight's big bad black ball busters are:

• From Japan, Kirin's new Ichibanshibori stout.
• From the Northwestern US, Deschutes Brewery's Black Butte (as opposed to black butt - haven't had one of those in my mouth for, oh, I don't know how long...never).
• Another Oregon beer, Bridgeport Stout.
• Yet another Oregon beer, Rogue Beer's Shakespeare Stout (imported via Hokkaido and relabelled as Brown Bear Beer).
• From the very North of North America, Alaskan beer's Alaskan Stout.
• Finally, from Ireland (imported to Japan or brewed under liscence here by Sapporro - not sure which), Guinness Stout.

Let the boozing begin...

_______________________

First up was Kirin Ichibanshibori stout:

Tastes more like a German dunkel than a stout.
Not very creamy. A little watery. Highly roasted aromas and tastes. The malt has been well roasted and malts and caramel flavors dominate this. Also has a sweet caramel tinge. I mentioned caramle again (and just again). I thought to avoide silly repitition, maybe I could name it the 'c word', but then talking about beers using "I thought this beer tasted a lot of 'the c word' and that flavor dominated. Perhaps I should have rinsed my mouth out from my last session to get rid of the taste of 'the c word'. No, that wouldn't work either.
Still, not a bad beer.

Appearance: 6 (out of 10) (nice and dark but head goes fast and seems watery. Again, I think 'dunkle')
Bitterness: 5 (not bitter, jsut roasted bitterness from the malts(?)).
Maltiness: 6-7 (quite malty and sweet. Caramel malty with a hint of nuts (teehee!).
Strength of flavor: 5-6. Not so intense. Goes down easy (anyway, enuff about yo momma).
Aroma: 6 (nice pleasing, unassuming, unthreatening, inviting and other such silly words come to mind)

Overall impression: 6

Not a bad beer at all. One of the better mass produced beers available here in Japan by the big companies. This, Heartland and perhaps the new hoppy premium beer from Kirin are their best.


Right then, who wants to be next?

_____________________________________

Time for some Americano birra!


I am going to put my lips around the inviting rim of a black butte and drink until the butte runs dry.
That was quite a nice butte (that company must work out).
Poured with a nice yeast sediment (I often like to pour the yeast into the glass though most people say you shouldn't do that). Good beer.
Not too heavy but nice. Nice.
Again not overly bitter. Chocolatey. Smooth.
Sweet. Not very creamy.

Appearance: 7 (nice and dark with lovely bubbly head on top )
Bitterness: 6 (not too bitter, chocolate malts keep the malty taste evident).
Maltiness: 7 (quite malty and not too sweet. Chocolate malty but not creamy.
Strength of flavor: 7 Tastes like a respectable real beer. This company is serious about they're beer and it tastes like it. Quality in a black butte. What more can you ask for? (maybe less butte jokes?).
Aroma: 7 (very nice. Relaxes you - no connection to the alcohol (5%)).

Overall impression: 7

I would like to drink this on tap and I may well buy it again. A beer that many people can drink and enjoy this. Not an alienating beer, in the sense that it doesn't only attract a certain style of drinker. Not quite an Arrogant Bastard (Stone brewing), more a nice guy.

____________________

Next I went British and Fuller's London Porter:

Another good beer. Velvety. Smooth. Dark. Rasted malty taste. Good stuff.
Appearance: 8 (dark, nice bottle design. God head which fades fast, however)
Bitterness: 6 (not very bitter, retains the malty taste ).
Maltiness: 7 (malty and not very sweet. Chocolate y and slightly creamy, with tastes of nuts and caramels suggesting themselves.
Strength of flavor: 7 Tastes gooood. however, something is missing. tastes almost like a little brother of a truly great beer. A bit more body or depth of flavor and this baby would be an out and out winner. Still, though, the style of this beer is a London Porter and not a stout. Although, the London porter beers were the forerunners of the stouts. A very good beer.
Aroma: 6 (nice, but nothing really stands out. But that's ok.
This beer is not designed to be particularly aromatic. 5.5% alc).

Verdict: 7.5.

I like this beer. I recommend it, even if it's the only porter you'll drink.
It's good to drink a bit of history.

_________________________________

Next, the Irish wonderbeer, Guinness stout.

Probably the most famous stout, perhaps due to marketing and availability than through merit.
But then we're talking guinness from a can.
The 'real thing' is undoubtedly much better.
I can't compare this with a pint poured slowly in the home country.
This one smells great, looks great but tastewise, dissappoints.
Bland taste. Tinny, almost.

Appearance: 8 (lovely dark ebony color. Nice creamy head which stays the whole time.)
Bitterness: 5 (not a real bitter beer. the creamy taste makes sure of that. although not sweet either.).
Maltiness: 6(very smooth. tooo creamy, really. Tastes almost artificial.)
Strength of flavor: 5 (Needs more. Not enough flavor.Tastes like something is missing or the beers been watered down. Still, not bad but not what I'd hoped for. doesn't do the name justice.)
Aroma: 7 (They got the smell down good. I think htat may be artificially done. The ehad seeems unnatural.
Perhaps the ntirogen helps with that. A very creamy, smooth smell with what I incredulously associate with a hint of rasted almonds (?)).

Overall impression: 5.5

Very easily drinkable.
A nice beer. However, not the worlds best - at least not in this form.
Still,it's great that you can find this, almost anywhere you go in the world. Something to fall back on and something to drink as a session beer (if it wasnt so damn expensive on tap) and not worry about killing yourself. You will fill your stomach with heavy creaminess before that happens. Don't mean to slag off this good beer (it's better on tap), but it just pales in comparison with the others.
Sorry, Guinness.
A real pint in Ireland would be a different matter, I'm sure.

____________________________________________

Next up, an American Bridgeport Stout:

From Oregon (sounding familiar? A veritable paradise of good beer - I gotsta get me there someday.)

This baby is smooth and very very nice.
6%alcohol. It smells it.
Rich, earthy texture and taste. Bitter and nutty.
a very nice brew.

Appearance: 6 (the head is light but thats okay.)
Bitterness: 6.5 (a littel more bitter than the others).
Maltiness: 6(malty nutty taste)
Strength of flavor: 7 (Good flavorsome beer. roasted malts, nutty, smoked wood? ever so slightly.)
Aroma: 7 (nice, earthy smell. an evening smell. Good aroma.).

Overall impression: 7.

A recommended drink. Bridgeport is a good company and makes fine beers.

_________________________________

Gong to the far North now, it's Alaskan Oatmeal Stout:

,,I had high hopes for this baby. Unfortunately, it didn't come through.
Some random comments that came to mind: flat head. watery. strange carbonation. too cold? syrupy, caramel malts? roast caramel hazelnuts?
black sugar? liquorice but not sickly sweet. bitter sweet roast malt beer. not bitter. malt and roast tied in. beef in gravy.

Appearance: 5 (no head. looked dead)
Bitterness: 6.5 (a little bitter).
Maltiness: 6 (malty nutty, liquorice caramel taste)
Strength of flavor: 5.5 (bit weak. Watery, gravy like flavor. Also a weird cabonation. both flat and too much carbontation at the same time(?).)
Aroma: 6 (not bad..).

Overall impression: 5.5.
A bit dissapointing, but then it's among some pretty impressive company.
Not as bad as it's peers tonight seem to imply. Still a nice beer.

__________________________________

Agh, scheisse!!!!

I went and opened the wrong bottle. What a stupid thing to say. As long as it's beer you open, there is no wrong bottle.
Well, this time, instead of a stout (Rogue Shakespeare Stout), I accidentally opened a bottle of Rogue Brutal Bitter. For soem strange reason, I heard the Japanese chief of Rogue beer in this country decided to change the labels on all the ebers and even rename them. Genius. I was being sarcastic.
Probably done of rthe same reason that as far as I know, only in Japan do they change the titles of foreign movies that are shown ehre.
I think the Schwarzennegger movie Raw Deal was relabelled Gorilla. The Japanese audience needed a simpler title, in order for them to understand teh movie. WTF? How, the, h*ll does GORILLA simplify the movie? Perhaps they doubted Mr.Schwarzenneggar's acting skills? They've done this on so many movies that it's hard to have a conversation on that topic with Japanese people. You think you have different tastes, then later realsie you both like the same movies. If they changed the title into Japanese, perhaps I could understand that.
But no, they still use a stupid English name. Ridiculous. Well, there's my rant over.

The new name for Brutal bitter in Japan is Namara Nigai Biru. more or less a bitter beer. This is a translation, so its not so bad. But why do they ened to do that? It's all a conspiracy, just to confuse me and make me switch from stouts to highly hopped ales. The swines. They pulled it off. What next? Putting chinese knaji cahracters on teh toilet signs, instead of English or a descriptive picture? Cos that worked on me too. Twice. Very embarrassing. No one believed me. Theoretically, there was a 50/50 chance of me striding into the gents.
Who would have known I was to get it wrong, both times?

Back to the booze (amidst sounda of 'boos')...

Rogue Brutal Bitter:

Nice stuff. Like I said, it's a bottle of beer (and a good one at that), so it can't truly be classified as a 'mistake'. Damn, this baby is bitter!!!! More so than my ex (meeowww!!!! Hissssssss!!).
nice stuff.
bitterness value out of ten: 8.5/10.
Great bitter aftertaste. I think the bitter taste comes from adding hops in the second stage, after the main fermentation.These add to the smell and overall bitterness, although the first stage is responsible for the flavor. Have I got everything mixed up again?
Uh..underwear goes on the INSIDE, right?
...psssst... ...I'm not gonna be the one who tells Superman that.
A semi opaque tan brew. Nicely carbonated.
Almost everything these guys brew is lovely.
Their latest (Rogue Brewer?) one I sampled in a good Shibuya real ale bar and it was glooooorious!!

Hope I get the next one right.
This beer is so flavorsome (7.5 to 8/10) that it's kinda jolted my senses a little bit. Hope I can re-adjust back to the stouts smoothly.

_______________________________

The final beer for tonight:
Rogue Brewing's Shakespeare Stout
Really good beer and possibly my favorite.
Dark, nutty, roasted malts, caramel, depth of flavor.
Very good.

Verdict 8to8.5/10.

Now I'm off to bed and sleepy land.
Got a busy day planned later on today.
Aah, 4am.Fantastic.

The night of the long (American) unknives:

By unknives, I mean 'beers'.

I went to my local beerwonderland small hometown Japanese beer store and picked up 12 lovely brews and one nice old time glass.
Most of the beers I bought were North American. West coast.
Good stuff.
I'm looking at a head-to-head tasting session, here.Sweet.

First up is one of my favourite beers.
Every time I go home, I pass through Heathrow or at least another London ariport.
I stop off at London for a day or two and stay with friends (Kev,James, Heulwen, etc- hey!). I almost always try to grab a bottle of this in the off liscence (beer shop). Great stuff.
From a world renowned brewery. Fullers.
One of London's finest, indeed the world. Fuller's London Pride:

A truly great London ale.

Malty. (7/10 on a 1to10 scale of maltiness)
Fruity. (6/10 on a similar scale for fruitiness - ladies, I measure a 10 - hang on, that doesn't soudn right. I mean I'm fruity in a good way and not in a "Im moreinterested in other men than ladies" sort of way. damn, screwed it up again)
Sweet but not too sweet (6/10). Slight tinge of nuts (but don't got there).
Great inviting aroma (8/10). Very warm comfy, homely smell.
Gentle taste and enveloping like the embrace of a welcoming family.

7/10.

A good beer.

Okay, taste buds wettened - what's next?

Gentlemen, start your engines...

Now, mention American microbrews, or quality beer producers, and you willl probably hear 'Oregon' at least once. This state has probably the most beer companies (and good ones at that) than any place on earth (besides Beeropolis, the imaginary beer city in my mind - where every hour is happy hour and livers and kidneys never die).
I've managed to find a few West Coast US microbrew, super, awesome, sweet uber beers to taste test tonight.
First up is... (drum roll)...

Inversion's IPA:

More a maple, nutty, soft caramel color than the usual hazelnut brown. The bottle says it tastes citrusy, with a generous portion of Northwest hops.
The second stage hopping is totally evident. Very, very bitter taste (8/10 for bitterness level). Perhaps citrus, but the bitterness ties in with that and dominates. Also a floral bouquet/taste. but highly hopped (7-8/10).
Not a bad beer. contender for a real British IPA, rather than a weak fruity 'American IPA' pretender(?). Wow.
Deserves respect.
Not everyone will like or appreciate this beer.

6.5/10.

Not exactly my cup of tea. If you like hoppy, bitter brews, give this a try.



Next is a lovely brew.

Stone Brewing's Pale Ale.

A gorgeous brew from North County, san Diego.
Absolutley lovely. My other experiences of Stone beers have eben happy ones. Although all the beers have eben generously hopped, this one is different.
A great balance of hops (6), malts(7), bitterness (6.5) and smoothness (7) (in that nothing especially dominates). A veritabel session beer. something to be quaffed but not neccessarily in haste. No, this is to be savored, not quenched.
It will not qeunch your thirst, only leave you gagging for more of the same. Best beer for me so far, tonight. Good balance.
Good stuff.

8/10.
Stone Brewing's usual far that I've tried are very highly hopped and totally flavorsome, dude!
But this one has a delicate balance which is refreshing, yet maintains a ghost of hoppiness n the aftertaste. Good stuff.

Here's the glass I picked up yesterday evening
(it's now Sat afternoon -I fell asleep)

Great glass.

Since waking up, I've had 2 nice dark beers. This leads me to the next blog entry...

Did you know that I'm quite a stout hearted guy?