Hmmm… It’s 5.25am and I’ve been up since 1am, but I’ve found time to test the UPS and determine that the battery (12V 12Ah SLA) is totally knackered, looking around online they are reasonably cheap @ ~20quid… so mees wont be geddin one of dem den… being a little short of the old spondoolies so to speak. I did connect it to a 13.8V PSU to test it and got some odd results, can’t think why right now. Radio’s next, first off the handie I blew up while repairing the battery pack, not sure what is wrong, I believe I over volted it at about 22V so could be something simple like a regulator or supervision device I’m hoping, just don’t want to have blown up the uP coz that’ll mean binning the whole thing. And of course the Yaesu 2/70, can’t remember how that stopped operating. Oh look, sunlight, will be drinking more coffee and finding more random stuff to keep me occupied before I inevitably pass out.
This is an awe inspiring picture. It was taken by the Planck telescope and it is the first ever full sky map of the cosmic microwave background. The satellite was launched by the European Space Agency in May last year and sent nearly a million miles into space to record the origins of the universe. It began taking data in August 2009, by the end of its mission in 2012, Planck will have made four maps of the universe.
The bright horizontal band through the centre shows the Milky Way with streamers of cold dust extending above and below. But the interesting part to researchers is the scattering of yellow flecks in the red background. These are the oldest photons in the universe and are thought to have been generated about 380,000 years after the Big Bang, when matter was finally cool enough to start forming atoms. It is hoped data from here will help scientists seek out some signature radiating from a period fractions of a second after the Big Bang.
It may also confirm the existence of the “axis of evil” – a weird alignment of hot and cold spots in the emptier regions of space. Planck will also stare into an ominous hole in space that some physicists suggest is evidence that our universe is not the only one… Now hold that thought and look again at that photo…
“From the closest portions of the Milky Way to the furthest reaches of space and time, the new all-sky image offers an extraordinary treasure chest of new data for astronomers.” – Professor Peter Ade, Cardiff University
Hmmm… It’s 5.25am and I’ve been up since 1am, but I’ve found time to test the UPS and determine that the battery (12V 12Ah SLA) is totally knackered, looking around online they are reasonably cheap @ ~20quid… so mees wont be geddin one of dem den… being a little short of the old spondoolies so to speak. I did connect it to a 13.8V PSU to test it and got some odd results, can’t think why right now. Radio’s next, first off the handie I blew up while repairing the battery pack, not sure what is wrong, I believe I over volted it at about 22V so could be something simple like a regulator or supervision device I’m hoping, just don’t want to have blown up the uP coz that’ll mean binning the whole thing. And of course the Yaesu 2/70, can’t remember how that stopped operating. Oh look, sunlight, will be drinking more coffee and finding more random stuff to keep me occupied before I inevitably pass out.
Image: ESA,HFI and LFI consortia