Thus far, comet Ison has been a bust. Not really, but it hasn’t exactly lived up to its super status hype. This Thanksgiving it completed its near collision trip around the sun. According to NASA it or at least remnants of this comet may have survived its perilous brush with our sun. We will get to see if we get a better look at it as it heads back out into space. With little moon we should get a better glimpse of the remnants over the next week or so.
Just look low on the east-south east horizon over the next few weeks and we may get to see this comet. I won’t have the opportunity to capture it using my large telescope so I’ll have to try to get it with just a digital camera and a telephoto lens. If you try to do this I’d suggest using a tripod, a film speed of 400 ASA or greater, the widest aperture you have, infinite focus and no longer than a 6 second exposure. This is a good starting point to try to experiment. Longer exposures will have more streaking so it is the one variable you might not want to make too long.
The technology world has been relatively quiet. There don’t seem to be any must haves out there this holiday season. Most things at the moment seem to be incremental improvements to well established devices. We’ll have to see what the new year brings. Markets are continuing to improve, so hopefully companies will reinvest and we’ll see some new innovation in the upcoming year.
Congress will need to provide a degree of stability, to keep the economy going with a degree of certainty. The best thing that I have to report is that solid state (LED) lighting continues to improve. I have a great room now completely using LED lighting. They are available in a variety of temperatures (hues of white) and various brightnesses (lumens). Additionally most are dimable. Unlike fluorescent lightling, they instantly come on and have a wider dimming range. I am pretty satisfied with them and I would use them in other projects. The real test is how well they meet their 50,000 hour life expectancy. Hopefully, I’ll let you know in 25 years just how well they performed. Thats the kind life I hope to get from these lights. At this juncture, I’d recommend them for any new construction or any rehab. I’ve yet to test replacement high hat bulb use. The replacement 60 watt bulbs seem to work well but be sure that the temperature (color) of bulb is what you want.