Tag: telescope

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number one.

Caterpillar we spotted on a walk. Lynne.

This Ewe would come up for a “chat” every time I approached the pen. A real little sweetie! Julia.

A waterfall inside one of the domes at the Eden Project. Sue.

Emmi, getting near the time.

I thought that you may like to see Emmi a little before she is due to Foal. As I said in last night Diary she is very big. Over the past couple of days we have noticed the bulge moving to her rear. The other photograph is of Emmi’s udder, it has also in the past few days started to get larger. Both are signs that she is getting ready to have her Foal. On checking the dates the Foal is due on the 1st of March.

Tonight the Sky is the clearest that it has been for a very long while, so we are hoping to be able to show Saturn as we did last night on the webcams. Going by last night we should be able to see the Planet at about 8.30pm. Showing Saturn real-time live on the webcams, as we did last night was the first time that it has ever been done.

We have had to fit a different type of camera on to the Telescope to that what we would normally use. It brings it a lot closer. Focusing the Telescope took a long time. I must admit that I nearly didn’t bother showing it at all. Once it was focused on Saturn it was worth doing. It was a bit hazy last night, that caused the picture to seem to be going in and out of focus, and I also needed to adjust the the Telescope to keep Saturn in view. At about 11.30pm the sky clouded over and Saturn was lost for the night. I am hoping that there is a part that I will be able to get to help with the fine focusing that the Telescope needs.

At times the rings of Saturn seemed to be attached to the Planet, that is nothing to do with what we are doing, It is how it looks at this time of the year, although we did see little gaps from time to time when there was no haze obstructing the view, then I don’t think that we could have got a better image.

I don’t know what the weather forecast is, but when the sky is clear we will continue showing Saturn. When I fed the Badgers tonight I saw the first crescent of the New Moon. It is not visible for very long, and would have meant a lot of time setting the Telescope for the Moon, to then an hour later to set it back for Saturn. When the Moon is visable for longer I will show the Moon and Saturn on alternative days.

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webcams

There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number eleven.

Rabbit decided to visit the garden last summer, and whilst he/she was eating the daisies, all was fine but I was not too pleased when it decided to sample the flowers. Liz.

Fuchsias in my garden. Lynne.

A Blackbird taken at one of the caravan sites we go to. Elsie.

Signet on the Taunton Canal. Marie.

Mr. Farmer, more pictures for the web site. The first picture: since several of you sent pictures of peacocks, thought I would submit picture of a peacock that visited my garden, except my peacock is a butterfly called White Peacock. Hope it shows up. Karen, Florida (USA)

Trying to put Mars on the webcam last night wasn’t very good. The Telescope went straight to Mars when I selected it, but the lens that I had was not powerful enough to get a good image. By the time that I was going to put the small image on, it clouded over. I went to put the Sun on the webcam this morning, but somehow I had lost the Telescope settings when I turned it off last night, so it would not have tracked it. Setting the Telescope needs to be set at night by selecting three stars. I will do that this evening. I will also try another camera that I have that may magnify Mars better than the camera that I used last night. I did put the Sun on the webcam this morning for a short time whilst I tried it. I was able to see a few flares. The only way that I could have kept it on was to move the Telescope manually. I didn’t have time for that. I will speak to the suppliers of the Telescope tomorrow to see what I can get to be able to show Mars closer.

We looked Emmi over today to see if her udder was starting to get larger. She is only a month away from Foaling so I would expect to see a change in her over the next two weeks. We need to get her over to Lady’s stable block where the camera is, but Willow still being with Lady is causing us a problem. We are going to try to wean Willow again on Tuesday or Wednesday. We have got a sedative from the Veterinary that we will give her for a few days. She is not getting a lot of milk from Lady now and her udder has nearly dried up. It is not going to be easy.

We fed the Badgers later tonight. I had hoped that the Fox would be waiting to feed, that I hoped would have stopped the Rats from coming out. I don’t like to put poison down because of the Owls and Buzzards. I have had to today or they will start to spread out and get to near to the Farm House. We rarely ever see Rats near the Farm Yard, thats the way I want to keep it. I have poisoned up on the lower Badger feeding place. Once we think that area has been cleared we will poison the main area. To stop the Bird getting the poison we have a baited box inside of a cage.

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When I got back from France on Thursday I had…

When I got back from France on Thursday I had received a phone call from one of six UK Horse Trainers that I had contacted when I was first making enquiries about training Bliss and Misty for racing. You will probably remember better than me how long ago that was. But whatever, it was over two months ago. The phone call was the return call from then. I have only received one other reply from those six that I initially contacted. All the Trainers that I did contact were well known. I should think that the others will return my phone calls when their stables are not full. After my eye opening experience of the French racing set up, I would think that there could be more following my footsteps. Obviously Race Horse Owners in the UK are being taken for a ride. Excuse the pun. The wages in France are much higher than in the UK, Tax is also extremely high and they still manage to be a lot less in their training fees than UK Trainers. I will be making regular phone calls to the French Trainer about Bliss and Misty, and I will let you know how they are getting on. The Trainer has also said that he would send me photographs of Bliss and Misty. You will see a difference in them after a month or so. I will be visiting them late January.

When I spoke to the Trainer about Bliss and Misty when in Chantilly, he could see like me that Bliss would probably be racing before Misty, possibly about June next year. A few of the French Lads indicated with their hands, the size of Bliss’s hind quarters. That is the engine, she also has a large chest, another good sign. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Misty will be late racing or that either of them will be any good. I have seen both of them grow and Misty is an athletically built Horse.

Also when I returned from France I had an invoice waiting for me to cover the cost of the Sheep that I put into auction two weeks back. I must admit that being Portland’s was against them, but after commission, Tolls and Bio-Sercurity what ever they mean, I finished up owing the Auctioneers

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When I got back from France on Thursday I had…

When I got back from France on Thursday I had received a phone call from one of six UK Horse Trainers that I had contacted when I was first making enquiries about training Bliss and Misty for racing. You will probably remember better than me how long ago that was. But whatever, it was over two months ago. The phone call was the return call from then. I have only received one other reply from those six that I initially contacted. All the Trainers that I did contact were well known. I should think that the others will return my phone calls when their stables are not full. After my eye opening experience of the French racing set up, I would think that there could be more following my footsteps. Obviously Race Horse Owners in the UK are being taken for a ride. Excuse the pun. The wages in France are much higher than in the UK, Tax is also extremely high and they still manage to be a lot less in their training fees than UK Trainers. I will be making regular phone calls to the French Trainer about Bliss and Misty, and I will let you know how they are getting on. The Trainer has also said that he would send me photographs of Bliss and Misty. You will see a difference in them after a month or so. I will be visiting them late January.

When I spoke to the Trainer about Bliss and Misty when in Chantilly, he could see like me that Bliss would probably be racing before Misty, possibly about June next year. A few of the French Lads indicated with their hands, the size of Bliss’s hind quarters. That is the engine, she also has a large chest, another good sign. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Misty will be late racing or that either of them will be any good. I have seen both of them grow and Misty is an athletically built Horse.

Also when I returned from France I had an invoice waiting for me to cover the cost of the Sheep that I put into auction two weeks back. I must admit that being Portland’s was against them, but after commission, Tolls and Bio-Sercurity what ever they mean, I finished up owing the Auctioneers

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webcams

It was too cloudy to put the Solar Telescope camera…

.It was too cloudy to put the Solar Telescope camera on today. Looking at the Sky, they will not be on tonight either. I had set the Telescope up as best as I could last night, but it was not working as it should. I was having to adjust its position constantly. The idea is that when the Telescope is aligned and had a GPS fix, you are able to select an object in the Sky on a hand controller, last night it was the Moon. By pressing a goto button, it goes automatically to the Moon and tracks it. For some reason it is not tracking as it should. The Telescope is in an Observatory, a couple of hundred yards from the Farm House. We have motorised the Observatory and with the help of a computer in the Observatory, the Telescopes computer and a lot of wiring, we are able to talk to both the computers remotely from a computer in the Farm House. This gives us full control all of the functions that the Telescope has in its computer. The Telescope has a library has over 145,000 objects stored, that you are able to makeup guided tours as well as suggested best of the night tours that can be selected. The problem with me taking that option would mean that I would be continuously having to go to the Observatory to change the lens. I will get some one to make some tours, that need only one lens for each tour. Next month Mars is a must to look at. I will find out more and hopefully with the weather being favourable, we may be able to see it on the webcams.

Of course the weather in the UK does not allow for the Telescope webcams to be on as much as i would like. Now that it is getting dark earlier, I don’t mind starting the Telescope working. In the Summer, by the time you get the Telescope working, it is time to go to bed. I wont leave it going all night until I sort out the tracking problem. If I can do it I will. I don’t like being defeated. Getting as far as we have has been a challenge. We are the first in the World doing Telescope webcams, so we have had no one to take advice from. I have just nagged Telescope House who I purchased the equipment from.

The injured Badger Cub was feeding tonight, I zoomed in on the injury to make sure that it was the one. I could see the scar. I had thought that it had got an infection in the injury and died, but it looked well alive, although its coat looked a bit dull. I should think that it has got over the worse and will live.

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Sheep can be really stupid I have probably said that…

Sheep can be really stupid, I have probably said that a few time before. We have six Sheep in a stable, four we are going to take to Market and two Portland Ewe Lambs we intended to keep. I would like to see them out, but they have broken out before and I don’t want the job of trying to have to catch them again. When I went to feed them this morning one of the Portland Ewe Lambs had managed to drown its self in their water trough. Some how it had got stuck under the partition that the water trough has in the middle. I cant imagine why it should want to get int the trough in the first place. The trough is very low to the ground, making it very easy for the Sheep to drink from. That’s Sheep for you. I will be taking them to Market next week.

We still have a Ewe running free around the Farm from when we caught them early in the Summer. We managed to catch her two lambs about a month back, but she is really doesn’t want to get caught. She tends to hang about near the Horses, the way she is starting to act i think that she may believe that she is a Horse. When we get the Horses in for their morning and evening feeds she follows them in up to the field gate. When she see me she runs away, just now and then she might make a dash past me, only to find that she my get caught again. The Ewe is so fast you would think that she is a Greyhound in disguise.

Tonight it was my intention to go up to the observatory, to try once again to setup the Telescope. Late this afternoon the sky was reasonably clear, a little cloud that would mask a lot of the stars. making it easier for me to identify those that I needed to align the Telescope. When I went to feed the Badgers there were no stars to be seen at all. The Moon was only visible through a haze. For the past two nights it has been very clear, maybe a little to clear for me to accurately identify, as on clear nights at Denbury we are able to see every thing possible that the naked eye is able to see, and I wasn’t going to miss the Rugby either. That is why the Telescope webcams would be good. When I had the Telescope on last year and earlier this, we showed the Moon. With the powerful main Telescope, we were able to see all of the craters etc, but as it was not aligned correctly I was constantly having to go to the computer in another room to adjust it remotely, that was a pain after working all day, to be up and down all night. I am now able to watch the Telescope webcams in our lounge, on our 40 inch monitor TV that has picture in picture, with a Laptop I am then able to adjust the Telescope if it wanders a little. That wont be so bad. Then the only trouble with the setup that we have made, will be to open the Observatory hatch when we put the Telescope on, and close it when we shut it down. I will be prepared to pay for a new observatory once I get every thing working properly, so that the opening and closing the Observatory can also be done remotely. As soon as we get a clear night I will try to set it up again.

Elaine it is nothing personnel, but I do not publicise other webcams. Other that those that I choose or are very exceptional. The reason is that when ever I have requested others to publicise ours, the response has always been negative.
We try to keep the Horses out for as long as we can. We always rug all of our Horses at night. Most Thoroughbred Horse are fine coated and need to be kept warm. Breeze the Arab feels the cold badly, when it gets very cold she also has a hood. We wont have them out in the wet and cold, then they are stabled.

Sue, I haven’t seen the injured Badger for a few days now and I only counted thirteen last night. There is a good chance that it has not survived.

Alex the Fox are about, you can sometimes see one on the valley camera.

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Our holiday guest both last week and the week before…

Our holiday guest both last week and the week before, came for the fishing as well as for the wildlife watching. Both stayed for most of their holiday on the farm fishing most of the time. They caught some large Carp, our guests last week caught 10 and 12lb fish. Both of them also caught large Eels, although I never saw any of them, they both indicated that they were well over a foot in length. If they were not in our lake, I may well have eaten them, if I had had the chance. Other than myself I don’t know of any other people who do eat Eels. I suppose it is mainly because of the look of them. Believe me if you have never tried Eel, you don’t know what you are missing. Before I came to Denbury and started farming I was squeamish about the sight of different food, but never with Eel. It doesn’t matter how they are served , jellied, stewed with mash and liquor or smoked, I will eat them. Eel would be my favorite food. When ever we have family coming from London I make sure that they fetch me a bowl. I think a bowl would have about seven to eight pound in them, believe me I am well pleased no one at Denbury likes them. I reckon those Eels caught from our lake were pretty lucky.

I find it hard to believe but Eels start their lives as Elvers in the Sargasso Sea, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Somehow the shoestring thick worm type Eel, only inches in length, make their way into our waterways, eventually travelling overland to lakes and other waterways. When mature for breeding they make their way back to where they originated from.

When we first came to Denbury the pond in front of the farm house, that is stream fed was silted up with what the stream water had brought down with it. We got contractors in to clean it out. It took a good few days to finish the job with a large digger and two dumper trucks. When they were doing it, there were so many Eels being taken out we lost count. Over the period that we have been here the pond has silted up again and need clearing out again.

I tried to align the Telescope last night, but after an hour and a half I got annoyed with it, and had to walk away. It all started very well. After setting the time, date and nearest location, the Telescope automatically selects a Star and finds it. The Star selected needs to be centred spot on. Vega was selected and with the help of the machine that I purchased from the USA, I centred it. It then selects another star that you need to align spot on. It chose a star of the Plough, and slewed to it, nothing was centred, I needed to centre it, but the Sky was so clear and with it being upside down from the spotting Telescope, I could not be sure what Star it was. After an hour I had to walk away. The Sky is so clear above Denbury, when there are no clouds about that you see every thing up there, to untrained person as am with Astronomy it make it difficult to see a specific star through a spotting Telescope. I phoned the people who supplied the Telescope, they told me that I can alter the Telescopes selected choice. If there is a good Sky tonight, I will find a star that is easy to see and try again.

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Karen asked about a camera in my favorite field I…

Karen asked about a camera in my favorite field. I purchase a piece of apparatus a few months back with the intention of putting a camera up there. The idea of the piece of equipment was that it allows the main transmission wire, coaxial cable to also carry a 24volt power supply to work the camera up to about a half a mile. The cable is the same type that you use for you television ariel. I did not read the instruction properly, there are different quality of coaxial cable. The type I needed was very expensive, and I wasn’t sure that it would have worked over the distance that the suppliers claim. I was not prepared to send the money that it would have cost on a maybe.

A camera in the area would have been very good viewing of wildlife, it would also be good to make sure that our neighbours on the next farm at the end of the valley were not poaching on my land or in the wood that the council own. I have caught them on both mine and Council land a couple of times. I will tell you about a few experiences that I have had with them very soon. I have had to involve the Police. They are prepared to have their Shotgun and Firearms licences revoked if they can get the evidence of the poaching. The shooting season has started and measures have been taken to have that area monitored.

Robin, I haven’t given up on the Telescope. It is my intention to try to set it up tonight. The webcams wont be working as there is a lot messing about to do setting it up. I had tried to bribe a person from where I purchased the telescope from, with a free holiday to come and do the setting up, but I don’t think that he can arrange it. i will have a go myself tonight as there is a really clear sky. My trouble is that I get bored very quickly when I start having problems with it. As the Observatory is a fair way from the farm house, I cant walk away from the telescope for a few minutes unless I go on a route march.

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I spoke to one of the Lock of the Lowe…

I spoke to one of the Lock of the Lowe’s girls this afternoon, It seems that all of the Ospreys have now left the Lock and are on their migration. When I spoke to Peter the manager a couple of days ago, there was a male who was seemingly building a nest. He thought at first that it may have been another Male, on closer inspection with a telescope he found it to be resident Male. There was no suggestion that the nest was for this year, but it is not unheard of that one Male Osprey will have two nest going. Let see what happens when they return next year.

The Dove chicks do leave the nest when they are bigger. They tend to walk about on the ledges by the side and behind the nest. There where two, but one disappeared very shortly after they hatched. There are at least eight Dove nest going at the moment. I say eight but that count was without trying to look for them.

The Buzzard has been in the valley, but has not been landing as much as it has been. Part of the trouble is that the Ewe and its two Lambs that we have been unable to catch, have been in the valley eating the new grass that is coming up after we made the hay. We are trying to keep them out of the field, but the new grass is to tempting. We are going to try to catch them over the weekend, but what ever, the young Buzzard will get use to them.

Like Marie and Angela, I thought that the lake looked very beautiful last night, The best that I have seen it. A little eerie with the Bats flying about catching their dinner. There was a full moon last night that made it such a picture. All I hope, is that it was the Fishes eyes that we could see shining, and not any other creature that might want to eat the Fish. I believe that the Moon is full tonight. I will put the lake camera on again tonight, although the Moon will be later than last night, showing its self.

I did say that I would get the telescope working for this Moon Phase. I did try, only a few nights ago I set it all up, but when I tried to get it tracking the Moon it suddenly stopped. If it hadn’t been so heavy, big and bolted down I would have thrown it in the air. I the end I couldn’t work out what was up with it, I turned it off loosing all the setting that I had made. When I got back to the farm house I realised what had happened. The Telescope has a maximum of two or three turns clockwise, or east to west. Of course when it get to the end it stops. I sorted that problem out yesterday, meaning to reset the Telescope last night. To be honest by the time that I had finished, it was getting late, by the time I could align the telescope with the stars it would have been at least 9.30pm. Finishing would have taken another half an hour. I really did want to sit down with a glass of wine, so it got left. With the night drawing in I will be able to set it up earlier by the next Moon Phase. If I get a chance I will set it up earlier and use the Solar Telescope in the day.

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I didn t say a lot about Woody in last…

I didn’t say a lot about Woody in last night Diary as we could only say what we all ready know about her condition. The Veterinary saw her, but not to treat her. I would say that he was a little surprised that I am prepared to keep her going for the time we have. If I had known that the weather was going to be as bad as it was I would have brought an end to her life before now.

The Veterinary when he scanned Lady, gave us a print of the scan. It is not a promise but I will try to get my webmaster to put it on the website next week. I don’t know how it will turn out, with a bit of luck it maybe OK.

The reason that I don’t leave the Kingfisher branch all day, is that I would think that it would be pretty boring to watch a branch all day in anticipation that the Kingfisher may show its self. I have another camera positioned on the branch, but I am having problems with getting the focus sharp, there may be a problem with the camera, unfortunately I have not had time to change it over.

I also want to put another camera at the back of the Badger Sett, and another lamp down the valley, so that we may be able to see more wildlife down there, of a night time. Again unfortunately there are only so many hours in a day. I have not seen the Buzzards down the valley for a couple of days. I have direct views of all of the cameras, so although you cant see them, I am able to when I am near to the monitor.

We have got the Telescope computer working and the remote control back from the observatory to the farm house. All we want now is some decent weather, and I will set it up. I cant do the alignment until it is dark. Once it is aligned I will be able to get it going. I have a CCTV monitor as my TV, it has a picture in picture facility. With the remote and my wireless computer it will be easy keep an eye on it. The last time we had the telescope going regularly, it was a pain keep on going to make sure that it was tracking properly. I wont mind doing it now with the setup I have. The Moon in in a good position at the moment, hopefully if the weather forecast is correct, it maybe working next week. Once setup we can also get the Solar telescope on the sun going.

The Holiday Cottages have CCTV monitors, so that our guests can see the farms webcams on a larger screens, mainly for watching the Badgers if they don’t fancy using the hide every night. When the sun was out a week or so ago we put the solar telescope on for them. It couldn’t be for to long as I could not control it, but they really enjoyed watching the flares. We have just purchased a couple more Telescopes for our holiday guest, who come in the Autumn and Winter months. With the days being shorter after they have seen the Badgers they will be able to watch the Sky. With all the equipment we have, and the really clear skies that we get at Denbury, it will be a great experience for those people who have never had the opportunity to use a telescope, and for the true Amateur Astronomers who want good unpolluted light conditions.