Chris Curtis Web Site

The wonders of the internet and robotics have enabled me to achieve a lifelong dream. Since I was a child, I have wanted to use a big telescope to look at and make images of the wonders of the universe. Last night, I used the Bradford Robotic Telescope, which is on a mountaintop in the Canary Islands, to capture an image of a galaxy which I processed this evening on my laptop. I am pleased with the results, especially for a first effort, though my head is spinning with new and half-understood knowledge of imaging and image processing and I suspect there is much more to learn and much better images to make.

Still, it is all rather awe-inspiring. I can sit in a rainy England in the afternoon and be amazed by the beauty of billions of stars, trillions of miles away, seen through a large telescope in excellent conditions.

I have upgraded WordPress – the software that runs this site – to version 1.5.2. An incredibly simple operation and the system is working faster than before too.

I miss orienteering in the summer. Here in the South-East of England, the bracken, nettles, brambles and briars grow so high and it can be so hot that running around woodland in August is extremely difficult and with so many people on holiday, very little orienteering takes place. Some good folks worked very hard to offer a “three in one, fun but challenging” event today, with two light green courses and a “map memory” course, as well as orange courses for juniors and others. Houghton was a new area for me. Basically a good area of mixed woodland “recovering well from severe forestry” – there were brashings and tree stumps everywhere, but the hilly terrain and the mixed vegetation made for interesting orienteering.

I decided to do the harder of the two “light green” courses which was offered as “route choice”. It was only when I saw the results that I realised that this meant that you did not have to do the controls in order, like a score event. I saw that there was no course on the master map, just controls, but I thought this was to encourage you to look wider than usual for the routes.

I was pleased with the early part of the course. I ran continously and quite comfortably for the first one and a half km, taking in the first three controls in reasonable time. Thinking I had to go to “control 4″ I did so. Going to control 5 first would have made all the course much easier. Following in order put me into some nasty undergrowth areas, more than once, with less than ideal approaches to controls. Taking the controls in order made me make bad route choices really. Still, no excuses – some others tackled the controls in the same order as me and were much faster. I faded away in the second half of the course and was much slower.

Still, an enjoyable afternoon out and a worthwhile exercise, though I wish I had realised the rules before I ran. My fitness and running were definitely improved too.

Blueyonder – my internet provider – has just announced speed upgrades with no price increase. My home connection will go up to 10mbps by the end of the year, without having to pay any more. My upload speed will also see a worthwhile speed increase. It is particularly good to see digital cable beginning to reach its potential at last. The systems have been throttled down for a long time.

Incidentally, the service I have had from blueyonder has been consistently first class, with virtually no interruptions or problems since it was installed – I have only once had to contact technical support.

Now I have had a couple of weeks away from work and stress and am feeling much less tired, I have begun the hard training regime I have been planning for ages. Basically, one one day I am running to the gym (about a km away) doing a further half hour of 85% aerobic low impact work when I get there, then a full body weights work-out, then stretching, then run back. The next day I do something slower and longer (like a long cycle ride or walking for a couple of hours). I have been doing this for about a week and I feel very good – no aches or pains (except a little in my pectoral edges but this is just having been a bit too enthusiastic the first time!). Today, I ran to and from the gym at reasonable speed and without stopping except to cross roads. I feel fitter than I have felt for many months and I have already lost about a Kg in weight, without trying, though I am watching what I eat – for quality rather than quantity.

The really hard part will be keeping up the time commitment when I get back to work – at the moment I am doing the gym run in the mornings so I have the rest of the day free but this is impossible when I have to work. I must also make sure that increased fitness turns into orienteering success – the plan in a week or so’s time is to add some running in woodland to the schedule.