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The Corroboree

Tøn

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Everything posted by Tøn

  1. Tøn

    Astronomy

    https://youtu.be/kc_i5dQegmA Here's the progress so far on the timelapse. I'm going to have another crack sometime as the stars jump about due to a misconfigured slow-motion plugin (the original is 32 seconds long, I might have to meet it in the middle and aim for a minute and a half or so,) but overall I'm pretty happy with the result. Definitely worth the effort. I'm going to have another shot on the 19th of August with my 6D, that should yield some incredible results as the 1100D only really manages to capture the night sky as blobs of light without too much definition. I'm hoping to be able to see the Milky Way with this next round if there's another clear night
  2. Tøn

    Astronomy

    Ahh!! I completely forgot that I'd stumbled upon this gem last night, I'll be using this to coordinate future shoots. Even allows for the simulation of lenses etc so I can set a GPS location, set up a virtual shot and check it against a few test shots on the camera to ensure that I'm getting what I want in frame every time. I also checked out the EOS utility's functionality with the 6D, and it allows for full control over the shutter speed, f-stop and iso, as well as a low-resolution live feed.. via wi-fi :D https://stellarium.org/ Absolutely incredible, free and open source- just the way it should be!
  3. Tøn

    Astronomy

    That's an awesome foray into the world of night sky photography right there! I had no idea you could mount a DSLR to a telescope, I'm going to have to look into that!! Last night I camped out taking an ~800 shot timelapse of the night sky. My landlord was doing some fuel load reduction and there was this epic bonfire going, and the night was crystal clear. I checked out a sky map and saw that Jupiter and Saturn were set to chase the moon across the sky. I made some clunky measurements and oriented myself using features of the landscape (one thing I do not own is a compass, which I find embarrassing,) and am currently rendering out the product of a similar struggle with the program Darktable. I tried Rawtherapee as well and have settled on Darktable as it works a little more intuitively for me and I'm consistently impressed with the output. The workflow reduced me to caveman grunts the first 5 times I used it, before I realised that you organise your files and arrange exports in the lighttable part, and process the images in the darktable screen. Figuring out how to apply styles etc required a defeated trip to the documentation, but I've currently got it spitting out an image sequence of tifs which I'll convert to a movie with ffmpeg and finally import into a video editor. I'll post the results when it's done; at this stage it's currently taking about a minute and a half per frame but the resulting image is more or less noise free and has this rather satisfactory cinematic depth and colour treatment; a pretty damn good result for photos taken at 800 ISO on the old Canon 1100D. I was astounded when I saw the moon rise tonight- Jupiter and Saturn now appear to have overtaken it in their race across the sky. I felt positively compelled to set up and take that sequence last night, it was an effort of will as I've been feeling very lethargic as of late. I had also caught wind from a reliable source that the news wasn't good for Victoria and knew that I would get stuck in a loop of fretting and online research if I didn't do something to fight against that urge. I had no idea that I would be capturing something quite incredible in the alignment of those celestial bodies, and it was only as I was in the final stages of preparing to set up that I noticed that my starsign of Libra would be setting on the horizon at the start of the shoot. I was about 15 degrees off my intended shot so it'll be interesting to see if I still managed to capture it. Another constellation I hope I've captured is the rather inappropriately named Corona Australis Will post the results ASAP! Keen to see other peoples' sky shots!
  4. Tøn

    Astronomy

    Alrighty, so I've never used a Lumix camera myself but I managed to find a couple of guides that will hopefully explain the buttons you need to press to enter manual exposure mode. If you've had experience with SLRs and long-exposure photography in the past you'll find it very easy to take some amazing shots in the digital world. I only had a little bit of experience with film SLRs in high school (I think I still have the negative of my one and only long-exposure shot from Year 11 media class, if I ever find it I'll scan it in!) but when I started messing around with my Canon 1000D 6 years ago it took me about half an hour to start taking photos that made peoples' jaws drop. Here's a text guide that has more to do with what each individual shooting mode does on Lumix cameras, https://lumixexperience.panasonic.co.uk/learn/expert-advice/exposure-modes-explained/ and this Youtube tutorial seems pretty in-depth and informative, hopefully it helps you get past the technical barrier of setting a digital camera up for night-time/sky photography: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpXbUUW4qIM I managed to find a few of my old night-time shots on an old SD card, I've got a lot of processing to do (about 100gb of images!!) but as I plow through it I'll upload my favourites. All the best!
  5. Tøn

    Visitation by birds

    It seems that there's a few white ones hanging out with the majority being these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw-necked_ibis If I can get a bit closer at some point I'll try and get some detail of those beautiful iridescent feathers on the wings. I think I need to calibrate the lens as well so I can draw a sharper bead on them when they're in flight. Many projects up in the air at the moment! While I'm thinking of it, if anybody shoots with a Canon DSLR, have a look into a firmware hack called Magic Lantern- it unlocks and adds several features such as an intervalometer for lower-end cameras without that feature and exposure ramping, so you can automate a series of shots of say, the day turning to night by slowly increasing the shutter speed. In regards to da boids it also adds a 'trap' shot mode, so you set your focal point and the shutter fires automatically when something enters the frame. On top of that, it allows for raw video shooting (which requires a fast SD card and is limited by the data transfer rate of the camera itself,) and FPS override-- so basically, it lets you shoot at up to 8000fps from memory (theoretically, you need the highest of high-end DSLRs for that...) It blows the thing wide open and allows you to turn a low-end Canon into something with a feature set that rivals their higher-end, full-frame models. With great power comes great responsibility though, it's finicky as hell and you CAN brick your camera if you have the misfortune of losing power as it loads the firmware in or out. Much research required, I've been testing it on my 1100D (the 6D I shot the above photo on I'm not so keen on at the moment, I've only had it for a couple of months!) and everything works wonderfully except the video modes, which cause the thing to lock up and require a reset/battery out-and-in every few minutes while you're trying to figure out how to get the thing to work. It's allegedly much more reliable on full-frame models, the 1100D/Rebel XTi support has only been added recently and is stated as being very much in alpha state. My head overflows with these ideas but I'm planning on using data from www.suncalc.org (fun for everybody!!) to plan time-lapses and try to keep the lighting consistent which I look forward to sharing in the future. For those interested in Magic Lantern: https://magiclantern.fm/ There is a very handy online calculator which allows you to figure out the limits of your camera- the raw movie mode is limited by the transfer rate and buffer on the camera, so you can shoot at x FPS for y seconds at z resolution/bit-depth. This little dealy allows you to plan shots out based on the limits of your camera's hardware: https://rawcalculator.netlify.app/calculator_desktop Mentioned above, Suncalc is an online map overlay which allows you to pinpoint where the sun will be, the angle and shadow length thereof at any point in time, anywhere in the world. It's the most useful thing I've ever been introduced to for the planning stage of permaculture designs, and for the photographer/nature lover it allows one to calculate, say, the most epic place to enjoy a sunrise or camp out (when we're allowed to again ) from the comfort of your own home. https://www.suncalc.org Can you tell I've been cooped up inside for too long? I do hope I'm not flooding the place with my posts too much
  6. Tøn

    Gallery Error code: EX1062

    Interesting, glad I'm not alone with this one. I managed to upload one image after getting the old Error 200 a couple of times, figured that it had to do with filesize and a scaled version uploaded fine. Unfortunately I'm having issues uploading a 900kb image to the Mycology gallery, smaller than the other I did manage to get up there, so I'm wondering if there's some trick or workaround that I'm not aware of? I'm trying to post directly to the Mycology gallery if that makes a difference, would making my own gallery within that work perhaps? Also, glad it isn't just me having troubles changing pages etc. A workaround for that is to edit the page address in your browser and change the value after '&page=' at the end to the page number you want to view. I run a lot of script blocking stuff (noscript and uBlock origin as well as duckduckgo's privacy extension (SAB forum gets a B+ from duckduckgo, which is about as high as it goes- I've never seen an A or A+ for what it's worth,)) so I imagine that at least part of this is a me problem, but it does seem that something's not jiving on the backend/databases side of things. Forum software is *cough* fun to administrate and notorious for breaking so I'm aware that it isn't just a case of 'fix it' for the admin who likely have better things to do than take a software engineering course on the side, so developing some workarounds and publishing those would be cool.
  7. Tøn

    Visitation by birds

    Got 'em! Well, managed to get most of them in frame anyway. Note the ducky atop the lopped tree right of centre In previous years that paddock has belonged to the ducks, it seems that the ibis (please tell me they're ibis, hahahah!) are making their move now- perhaps this is the avian equivalent of annexing and acquiring further territory?
  8. Tøn

    Isolation chamber

    Absolutely incredible Ferdie, thanks for sharing this! I've had a similar idea in the past but absolutely nothing like this. Love the extent to which you're planning it out, and it seems like a solid idea on paper. I think the mycelium will definitely want to consume the structure but it should last years before it becomes an issue, if it ever does at all. Very much looking for further updates. Are you planning on a heating system for the water? Sourcing massive bags of epsom salts for the floatation aspect? I'm reminded of an outdoor bath setup on a farm I WWOOFED at, basically a rocket stove into a series of pipes under a bathtub which resulted in an obnoxiously gleeful bathing experience, looking out at the mountains in the distance in what must have been 50-60 degree water heated with a handful of twigs sitting next to the tub.
  9. Tøn

    Visitation by birds

    They're there again today- they're taking over! Very fascinating to watch, they're very synchronised in their movements. Pretty typical bird flocking behaviour but because they're so chunky it's quite impressive seeing this massive fleet of curved beaks and flashes of black and white moving as one.... I'll try get a photo if I can get a good shot in!
  10. Tøn

    Astronomy

    Absolutely! Most cameras allow you to set manual shutter times, which is how you get those 'star trail' shots. What kind of camera do you have? I'm happy to look up how to manually set the shutter speed/ISO/aperture (f-stop) and let you know how to do it with your particular camera! It's a lot of fun and also allows you to do 'light painting,' where you run around with a torch and draw patterns which show up as these really beautiful trails on the final image. All you need is a tripod and a camera, but you can also get a little remote control kinda thing that allows you to hold the shutter open for as long as you like. It takes some practice but it's really fun and rewarding.
  11. Tøn

    Visitation by birds

    Woke up to a crew of about 50-70 white ibis in the backyard. Very amusing birds to watch, very very pretty. I've seen a few about before but never in such large quantities- I've lived here for about 3 years. I think we're going to see a noticeable increase in wildlife this spring; seeing how quickly nature's adapting now we're out of the way is pretty awesome.
  12. Tøn

    Astronomy

    I'm going to start doing a spot of night sky photography again in about a months' time when I'll have a largely unpolluted landscape to survey. I'll post some piccy pics and perhaps some timelapses when I get the chance. Think of this what you may, but I'm considering the purchase of a cheap old DSLR (another one, hahah) to press into duty doing semi-regular timelapses in the hopes of catching some... anomalies. I'll be about 40-50km away from an RAAF base so y'know...
  13. Tøn

    Grafting as a coping mechanism GIVEAWAY!

    Fantastic George, I'll send you a PM now. Looking forward to this project, just as we'll be coming into spring as well. Magic
  14. Hooked within 5 seconds. This is fucking awesome. Followed, and I'll grab a copy when I've got a bit of coin behind me, heheh
  15. Such a shame this didn't get more love, they're seriously incredible!! I'd love to see some shots of them backlit, the refraction would be delicious
  16. Tøn

    Happy COVID Party 2020

    I've had a similar experience. Intense lethargy for a few months followed by the spark of inspiration to use this period of turmoil to get my plan for success into gear, independently of societal expectation or dictate. Thinking long and hard about how I can stay safe and attain a greater level of self-sufficiency, going through all that angst and guilt of having nothing to do as such, or nowhere to go, then realising that we are more or less all experiencing that. Online communication has been very welcome as it's allowed me to keep a constant dialog up with friends as this weirdness has unfolded. The hermit's life for me it is. I posted here ages ago about peoples' monastic aspirations from memory, and got a couple of replies.. Well, the Lord hath willed it so, and it has struck me with some ferocity that I've wished so hard for so long that the world would leave me alone, and well... Here I am! Lots of philosophy, lots of reading, lots of time startled by the sudden apparent stillness followed by the narrowing in of the senses on the natural order continuing unabated and unobscured by the usual racket of traffic and human activity. I've decided to check in with you lot a bit more as well, as it's so relevant to my interests and I think the forum could see a resurgence come Spring as so many people have been housebound for so long that ripping into the garden with a vengeance and sharing the journey might seem like a grand idea. I've definitely under-utilised the forum so I aim on being a bit more active and constructive as the year goes on. Definitely got some crazy ideas to share and many things to learn. Might also help me achieve some of those goals as admittedly, the spirit is willing yet the flesh weak... or has been as of late. It helps knowing that people are keen to see what's going on (I've been upgrading my music studio in a pretty epic way and my friends have carried me through times of weakness with their incessant demands for updates, I could see a similar scenario here for a lot of people if the level of overall activity starts to kick off.)
  17. Tøn

    Grafting as a coping mechanism GIVEAWAY!

    Hi George, I'm definitely interested as grafting is a skill I've had minimal experience with and would like to develop. Any chance I could get you to hold onto a pack until late August when I move place? My current abode doesn't have a good place in direct sunlight for cactii but I've elected to find somewhere that has the space and northerly aspect to allow for some better growing conditions. I'd hate to kill the things before I get the chance to move. Basically, if they're still available in about a month, I'm still active and have organised a home for them, I'd be happy to document the process and share with the class. In return also, I will pass some of my own successes on to other members in the future in the way you're proposing here. Thanks!
  18. Tøn

    Predict the future

    Shhhh I'm concerned that you may well be right there. @Halcyon Daze is very likely spot on also, hahah! I've taken to reading the bible on and off in order to reach a subjective opinion on it, also to explore the idea that the message, obfuscated through numerous revisions and translations, is essentially that of advaita vedanta- unity and non-seperation from divinity. Revelations is the Lovecraft novella of the book and a fantastic piece of poetry, though in the context of world events recently it is starting to read a little more like a narrative than a piece of mystical literature. I have to wonder if They(TM) are using the thing as a manual for kicks, having a bit of a larf by steering things in the direction laid out in the book. That period in early January as the epidemic turned pandemic and the US was poised to obliterate Iran as the air lay thick with the smoke of millions of hectares of out of control bushfires was just surreal. No words to describe it. 8-ball sez 'Outlook not so good' on a larger scale... Whether or not this is the ultimate Happening, we're pretty well screwed on many fronts. My prediction and the action I've taken over the last fortnight has been that there is a window closing, particularly in Victoria, before we're very likely going to be effectively housebound indefinitely OR coerced back into action in order to prop up an economy that's about to fail like nothing else in history, thus kicking the whole shitshow into a state of self-oscillation/resonance and it's Spanish Flu MkII my friends... My choice has been to find a place surrounded by farmland about 5km out of a small town, seek permission to get handy in the garden, endeavour to keep myself afloat with a work-from-home small business and work at establishing the right frame of mind to be strengthened by an indefinite period of large swathes of time spent in abject solitude. I'm posting this as there's the chance that someone who is on the fence about a similar decision might read it and be moved to take action before this shit really gets started; as absurd as it feels, I'm quite convinced that Kali-ma's only just warming up and the next few years are going to be quite difficult in a lot of regards. Stay safe everybody, hope all are well.
  19. I recall waiting for quite some time to be approved for the forum... At least a couple of weeks, or perhaps there was a period where registrations weren't being processed. Either way, it was a fair wait but my patience paid off. I've been inactive as horticulture hasn't been on my mind at my current place of residence, but I will be sharing my experience of starting a new permaculture project on a low budget after I move at the end of August. Despite that I haven't been around much, this is a top-notch forum and I'm glad to have snagged a place here. I'd like to see a bit more activity as well so I'm going to make good of the space provided by sharing my notes and engaging with the community as the process of dreaming and enactment continues.
  20. Tøn

    Some Simple Tryptamines

    I know this is a very old thread, but it inspired me to grab a copy from the SA shop and for those on the fence about it... It is definitely worth the price of admission and contains a wealth of information, from the naughty through to the plain fascinating, and manages to communicate some pretty dense chemical/botanical theory in a way that I could follow, even with no real background in the topic. Thanks for your efforts in putting this together!
  21. Thanks for posting these, I'm just starting to move to a new place and start employing all of my horticultural knowledge in a meaningful way. These references will definitely come in handy for plant selection. Cheers! hope all is well over there in WA! It's alright, we can't get out so you'll be fine
  22. Tøn

    Visitation by birds

    Good to see a number of people with a similar relationship with the birds in their area. I have the strongest relationship with kookaburras. I will trust a kookaburra to tell me which direction to head in when travelling before I trust the advice of a human. The strangest and most profound experience I could share happened a few years ago, when I'd decided to try living in the 'burbs and being in a live-in relationship out. Didn't turn out too well. Without turning a story out of that, there was this mutual incompatibility in that I have always felt compelled to move to the country and she was completely terrified of the natural world beyond short walks in the forest. It took months to sort out what I needed to do in my mind, and the day I received confirmation of what I needed to do (bug out as it was the end of our lease and go wwoofing whilst awaiting further instructions,) I was standing in the backyard with her while hanging up washing. Four kookaburras proceeded to swoop me, flying around me, landing on the ground and hopping closer then flying away, landing on a branch above my head and screeching with laughter. They were getting so close I wanted to shield myself with my arms, but I elected to take it as an opportunity to test my faith, as such. One thing that unnerves me about the old kookaburra is the size of their beaks. If they did so choose they could likely make off with any appendage attached to our bodies, and I found myself standing there, trying to keep my centre and breathe as these birds did their aerial stuntshow around me. Me alone. They completely ignored my ex. The experience lasted, I would say, 5-7 minutes. Four kookaburras at full volume fucking losing it over how funny and pathetic my plight was. 'Wrong way buddy, you knew this was a bad move. You belong with us.' When they were done they disappeared just as quickly as they arrived. Even now I have this constant daily silent dialog with the 'burras in my backyard. I try to observe how their scouted territory shifts about the landscape, and reliably await the once-yearly ritual of their taking up residence directly outside my living room and waiting for me to hang up my washing so they can shit on it. Once a year. I consider it a form of tax from the indigenous spirit of the area. I am allowed to integrate and feel that my presence on the land has been allowed, but as a reminder of my insolence the kookaburras continue to keep me in line. EDIT: Oh yeah, the COVID corvids! In the first week of the first round of stage 3 restrictions in Vic, I went to the local reservoir for a walk and witnessed this group of around 15-20 crows all doing this bizarre formation flying exercise that I haven't seen before. Taking turns doing these paired/grouped, synchronised flights out over the water and definitely having a meeting about something. As others have noted, I was painfully aware of the fact that they were checking me out and understanding a lot more about me than I ever could about them. The birds are definitely stoked we're not around as much at the moment, and that initial period in which they realised they're in charge again was particularly awe-inspiring.
  23. I wanna be a drug-sniffing dog So I can snort coke all day long Bite my master when it suits me Get off on diminished capacity I wanna be a customs man Snoop through your stuff 'cause I can Sneaky peaky pry through your private lives Stroke your panties, jackin' off at lunch Weh oh, Weh oh ho Sure beats Alpo It's the life It's the stink It's the attitude I wanna be a San Francisco cop So I can speed and run red lights And sure as Rodney was a King We got ways to make you sing It's the life It's the stink It's the attitude We can seize everything Houses, cars, and life savings Keep the loot for ourselves Fake drug charge works every time I wanna join the christian coalition So I can molest my children None suspect me 'cause I've been saved 'Til my stepdaughter drowns her kids in a lake Weh oh, Weh oh ho Spare rod, spoil the child It's the life It's the stink Choose your masks
  24. Tøn

    what i've been up to, in my abscence...

    That's incredible! I wish it would catch on over here. Most definitely, when I'm out and about doing community stuff, noone gives a shit who I have been in the past, they just see this capable and intelligent person who wants to be involved and has a lot of unique skills. At the job I just left, I was constantly subject to subterfuge from people who are incredibly defensive about climbing the ranks in a company that EVERYONE hates working for, even the management. I was set up to fail in so many ways, and if I didn't know better I would have believed it- that would have become my reality.
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