Oil supertanker hijacked? By pirates? In 2008?

Seriously.

This ginormous thing - the size of an aircraft carrier -

Click the image to see the story.

has been hijacked by Somali pirates. This supertanker belongs to Saudi Arabia, carries 2 million barrels of oil headed to the US, and is currently held by pirates.

WTF? C'mon, people, why are rinky-dink pirates getting away with this sort of thing? Where are the high-seas police and military? And why aren't shipping companies mounting long-range guns and hiring merchant marines to man them? All they'd have to do is blow away any approaching vessels after firing warning shots. It'll be like the good ol' days of high-seas piracy, when every merchant vessel mounted big guns to keep away the riff-raff when the navy couldn't take care of it.

Jack Sparrow is seeming less a romantic figure every day.

In seemingly unrelated news, the Australian Navy is taking eight weeks off for Christmas. Seriously. They can't keep their ships staffed, and oil is expensive, y'know.

WTF?!

On a brighter note, Shiba-Inu Puppy Cam!

Best,
Chris

Oil supertanker hijacked? By pirates? In 2008?

Seriously.

This ginormous thing - the size of an aircraft carrier -

Click the image to see the story.

has been hijacked by Somali pirates. This supertanker belongs to Saudi Arabia, carries 2 million barrels of oil headed to the US, and is currently held by pirates.

WTF? C'mon, people, why are rinky-dink pirates getting away with this sort of thing? Where are the high-seas police and military? And why aren't shipping companies mounting long-range guns and hiring merchant marines to man them? All they'd have to do is blow away any approaching vessels after firing warning shots. It'll be like the good ol' days of high-seas piracy, when every merchant vessel mounted big guns to keep away the riff-raff when the navy couldn't take care of it.

Jack Sparrow is seeming less a romantic figure every day.

In seemingly unrelated news, the Australian Navy is taking eight weeks off for Christmas. Seriously. They can't keep their ships staffed, and oil is expensive, y'know.

WTF?!

On a brighter note, Shiba-Inu Puppy Cam!

Best,
Chris

First light (imaged) through my Meade 12" with my new DSI-III astro-imager

Can you guess what this is?


No, it's not an astro image.

( clicky for answer )

The Deep Sky Imager is a royal PITA to focus, so it's best to set up the focus during the day on motionless subjects using an eyepiece and locking ring (making them "parfocal") and then finding the camera's focus. My first attempt with the Moon led to frustration, as the camera's focus is about 15mm different than the eyepiece that the manufacturer recommends using to focus an object.

In case you haven't seen it yet, here's the telescope:


And here's the astro-camera (a replacement for the broken one the retailer sent last winter):


Now I'll be able to image astro-things much more simply... hopefully starting tonight! Then you'll get fresh amateur astro-images on a regular basis. Hoo-boy, amateur photos! I bet you're thinking ;-)

Best,
Chris

First light (imaged) through my Meade 12" with my new DSI-III astro-imager

Can you guess what this is?


No, it's not an astro image.

( clicky for answer )

The Deep Sky Imager is a royal PITA to focus, so it's best to set up the focus during the day on motionless subjects using an eyepiece and locking ring (making them "parfocal") and then finding the camera's focus. My first attempt with the Moon led to frustration, as the camera's focus is about 15mm different than the eyepiece that the manufacturer recommends using to focus an object.

In case you haven't seen it yet, here's the telescope:


And here's the astro-camera (a replacement for the broken one the retailer sent last winter):


Now I'll be able to image astro-things much more simply... hopefully starting tonight! Then you'll get fresh amateur astro-images on a regular basis. Hoo-boy, amateur photos! I bet you're thinking ;-)

Best,
Chris