Astronomy Village

To boldy go…

admin — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:59:48 +0000

My last blog about NASA’s decision to rule out any more trips to the moon and how I would never follow in the footsteps of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and co. got me thinking. Us ordinary folk might never get a chance to set foot on a celestial body other than our own, but that shouldn’t stop us dreaming.

With that in mind, I present to you…

Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of Jen Stark. Her 34-year mission to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and civilizations. To boldly go (with her cat) where no man has gone before.

I want to go into space. Ever since I was a little girl, looking up at the night’s sky from my bedroom window, I’ve dreamed of journeying into the black. To quote the nummy Karl Urban as Dr. Bones McCoy, “Space is dark and dangerous”. But I want to go.

And now, I finally can. The news that Richard Branson’s fleet of commercial spaceships is moving towards trial testing made me giddy all over. Apparently the project, codenamed (not very originally) Virgin Galactic is moving up a gear; test flights are set for next year and the first tourist-laden shuttle is to scream past the upper limits of the atmosphere in 2012.

With a little luck, I could be in space in two years. All I need now is a rocket-sized payload of money.

Naturally, my first instinct was to go out and buy a lottery ticket. Alas, my Saturday night entertainment did not involve running around my living room while clutching a winning ticket. Still, I did manage to win £10 on the internet in a game of free bingo later in the evening and I guess every little counts. Plus, I have £20 in my purse from last week’s excursion to the bingo hall. Maybe I should get a special ’space fund’ jar

Still, I did make a few cost-cutting measures this week and young Felicity didn’t seem to mind the switch from Whiskas to Tesco own-brand cat food. I’m sure that £0.76 saving will eventually add up. I’ll be sailing among the stars before you know it.

No more trips to the moon

admin — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:27:42 +0000

So that’s it for another decade then. In case you haven’t heard, the hot topic in astronomy right now is that NASA won’t be sending another man to the moon. Or woman, for that matter (I’ve never understood why so many astronauts are male!).

After months of speculation, Barack Obama finally came out and set a budget for NASA. What it means is that the world’s biggest space agency will hand over some space launches to commercial companies, spend more on space technology and – yes – cancel plans to revisit the moon.

Now it may not surprise you to learn that I wasn’t exactly high on NASA’s shortlist for landing on the moon. I’m a woman, for starters! But I must say that I’ve always loved staring at our nearest neighbour. There’s something magical about the moon, with its enormous craters and endless valleys. My favourite time of the month is during a full moon when you can see Earth’s only satellite in all its glory.

I’ve got a few friends in Manchester who enjoy a spot of stargazing too. It just so happens that we were talking about this very subject the other day in the Trafford Centre (only once the important business of shopping was over, mind!). They all felt much the same, that it’s been way too long since the last moon landing. Can you believe it’s nearly four decades since we last set foot on another world?

To be honest, our little stargazing gang doesn’t get to meet up as often as I’d like anymore. Everyone seems to be settling down, getting married and having kids, which sadly doesn’t leave much time for all-day shopping splurges!

Nowadays, the best we can usually manage is a natter every now and then in our local bingo club or while playing online bingo. It’s great to catch up with old friends on the chat forums, and we all still live in hope that one of us will win the jackpot sooner or later.

Who knows, maybe next time you hear from me, I’ll be rolling in money! Although what’s probably more likely is that I’ll still be rolling along as normal, gawping at the full moon with my good old Skymax Synscan 127.

Look out for Mars this month

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:34:26 +0000

If you’re a UK reader, you may have noticed that we’ve had some clearer nights recently. Certainly makes a change after all the nights of mist, heavy cloud and snow (I’ve hardly had my telescope out recently). But the clearer night skies of late also coincide with fantastic news for stargazers: Mars is back at opposition this month, making it the perfect time to grab a view of the Red Planet.

It’s taken around 26 months, but our nearest neighbour will be at perfect opposition to the sun on January 29, at which point it will be the brightest object in the evening sky except for Sirius. If you’re hoping to catch a glimpse of Mars, be advised that it will rise in the evening and appear overhead at around midnight, which should be a good time to get a clear view if you can stay up.

Down from the heavens and back to events on terra firma, I’ve been using time which I would normally have spent watching the sky to enjoy some new hobbies (as you’ll know from my last few posts) and also to catch up with some friends.

First port of call was the cinema, where we watched Avatar. It’s great, especially in 3D, and I wholly recommend you go and see it (as you can tell I’m going to apply for Jonathon Ross’s job on The Film Programme when it becomes vacant). My friends and I also went back to the bingo club we visited before Christmas. Apparently bingo Manchester has been a bit quiet of late because of all the snow and bad weather but we were among those who braved a less treacherous night and actually went to a club.

As it goes, it was worth the visit, I won £10. Which is not bad considering the amount of fun we had. Considerably less fun was trying to get home afterwards – getting a taxi during the cold snap was a nightmare.

I also took the opportunity to speak to my friends about my potential move to Hebden Bridge. I’m starting to think that I might be having second thoughts, not just because of the potentially slower broadband but also because I think I’d miss town and my friends if I moved over there. I will have to continue mulling it over, but I don’t think anything will happen before summer at the earliest.

A tale of two hobbies

admin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 11:45:56 +0000

Regular visitors to my blog will know that I have another great passion in my life besides astronomy: online gaming. I’m not talking about World Of Warcraft or anything like that, but online gaming in the sense of bingo, casinos and the occasional flutter at the online bookmakers (although weirdly never on sports, my last wager was on who would win the X Factor – Olly was robbed, and so was I).

As a nice way of following on from my last couple of posts about online gaming I thought I’d do a quick run-through of online bingo and online casinos and pit the two against each other. So, here it is, my definitive (sort of) guide to the best way to gamble on the internet.

Online Bingo

I discovered online bingo at the end of this summer. I’d been to a couple of clubs but found that visiting in the evening was interfering with my stargazing and new found penchant for TV soaps. So I decided to try the online bingo site of the club I’d been going to, as that allowed me to play whenever I wanted. To be honest, online bingo is not too dissimilar to the game I’d been enjoying offline: you still get cards, numbers are still called out. But it’s simple and fun and there seems to be better special offers online. I’m not as excited now about online bingo as I was when I started playing but I think I’ll still have the odd game, I’ve been quite lucky with it and I also like playing the slots games in between sessions. Which leads me neatly on to…

Online Casinos

In terms of variety, online casinos have the edge over online bingo sites. They give you the option to play roulette, blackjack, poker and, my favourite, online slots. I got into online casino gaming after I’d being playing online bingo for a while, when one of my friends told me about the online casino no deposit bonus (basically a small amount of money to get you started). I picked a casino that looked nice and got started on the slots. To be honest I think they are a bit arbitrary; there’s certainly not much skill involved in hitting the button and watching the reels spin. But online slots can be very exciting. And the randomness of their alignment appeals particularly to the astronomy fan in me.

If you’re looking for fun, simplicity and a sense of community (the chat rooms can be great) I’d say give online bingo a go, but if you’re more serious about experiencing a varied selection of games, try online casinos. It’s hard to say which is ‘best’ out of the two, but at the moment I think I probably prefer online slots, so the casinos win.

Good luck!

Ps. In case I don’t get a chance to blog before, Sunday (17 Jan) sees a close Earth approach by Asteroid 136849. Pretty interesting for anyone interested in CEOs, it comes within 0.03 astronomical units. There are also a couple of comets coming nearby that day, notably LINEAR-NEAT, which will be closer to us than the sun for the first time in seven years.

Pps. Still no real progress on the move to Hebden Bridge. As well as looking for a suitable place I’m also doing research into who will be able to provide reasonably fast internet access in the area. I’ll keep you updated on my progress.

Moving with the times

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 13:02:34 +0000

I’ve been reading with some trepidation about something which may be of no concern to some, but could end up playing a major role in one of the biggest decisions I’ve ever made. You see, we’re on the verge of leaving the city and moving further out into the countryside.

I’m at the stage where the hustle and bustle – not to mention the light pollution that so hinders my stargazing activity – of the city has become tiresome. Also, career-wise, I now find that I don’t need to be in the office as often since our company expanded and I took on a general manager. This leaves me much more time for indulging my love of the online casino world.

So we’re thinking about leaving the big smoke and getting a little cottage in a beautiful place called Hebden Bridge. The clear night skies will be perfect for astronomy, with barely any glare from city centre lights and buildings to disturb the view through my telescope. And the quieter pace of life should be perfectly suited to where I’m at right now. I’ve been told that I can use a VPN connection to access the files we have saved at work, which will allow me to work from home (should I feel like it) on documents stored in the office, but the concern I have – which is what I have been reading about – is with rural broadband speeds.

The latest report says that the government is looking at bringing in a 50p duty (tax) on all phone connections in the UK, in order to fund the expansion of broadband networks. They say that without this, only 70% of the country will get new high speed connections – leaving rural areas out in the cold and my dreams of using a VPN to stay in touch with my office in tatters.

With the VPN I could save files on the server at work, which is more secure than sending them over email. I can also quickly review things my colleagues have put together, again, more safely and quickly than over email. But all of this works best with a high speed broadband connection. If I move to the countryside and end up with an email connection slower than the orbital period of Hale-Bopp, I’m not sure how I’ll be able to cope. I also use the web for playing online casino games, keeping up with astronomy news and, of course, blogging.

The government has opened up a consultation on the new broadband tax, which should run for around 12 weeks. Only then will we know the fate of rural broadband users, or potential rural broadband users like myself.

Searching for new stars

admin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:27:09 +0000

As a follow-up to my last post about the relationship between the stars and luck, I thought I’d do another one exploring the theme of searching. As star-gazers, we spend a lot of our time searching. Astronomers believe that there are 100 thousand million stars in the Milky Way alone, with millions more galaxies beyond that. The telescope-loving among us spend amounts of time almost as vast as the night sky itself looking for new stars, or scouring field after field in search of constellations worthy of admiration.

But how does this penchant for searching link back to luck? Well, the answer lies in my new favourite pastime: online casino gaming. I got into online gambling after getting bored of going to the bingo. First I played that game online and then progressed onto more challenging, and engaging, games such as blackjack, poker and roulette. There are hundreds of online casinos on the internet but unlike looking for new stars, searching among them is a bit easier than staring long and hard into the black night sky.

I managed to find a site to suit my taste by using an online casino guide. There are many of them out there and they tend to list popular online casinos along with what games they offer, what jackpots can be won and also any special offers that are currently running. If only searching the galaxies for new stars was as easy: we’d no doubt have special visors to look at the sky, onto which icons and information would be projected about the contents of each star field, what points of interest there were within and whether there was any monetary gain to be had in spotting a certain star.

Alas, finding a star is much more difficult than finding an online casino. But the two are still related, at least as far as I’m concerned. I’m a firm believer in wishing on the stars and when I’m up in my loft at night with my trusty Skymax Synscan 127, I often hope for a bit of luck on the roulette table. It may not have paid off for me in the National Lottery yet, but that’s not to say the heavens won’t be on my side when it comes to spinning the online slots.

Is bingo club luck all in the stars?

admin — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:31:28 +0000

It was during a recent trip to Egypt, as I sat gazing up at the clear night sky, that I remembered the close link between astronomy and astrology. The constellation of Orion stared back at me, far brighter than I have ever seen it in the sky of my hometown of Manchester. With Gemini and Taurus bordering The Hunter, my mind turned to star signs, luck and the phrase, ‘It’s all in the stars’.

This got me thinking, can the stars have any bearing on the luck we have down on earth? And is there any point wishing on them to bring us fortune? I’m a bit of a gambler in my spare time; I enjoy playing the lottery (I use the same numbers every week, just in case) and will sometimes place bets on horses whose names catch my eye.

Recently, though, I have got into bingo in a big way. As a Gemini myself, I’ve got a positive star sign which is said to be ruled by the planet Mercury. So I’m always up for trying new things and tend to be optimistic when it comes to my chances of winning prizes. There are loads of bingo clubs out there, from big operators like Mecca and Gala, through to smaller independent ones. I first went with some friends of mine who thought it would be a good laugh to go down and see if we could win some money on the lucky balls.

Ever since my first visit, I’ve loved it. Now I go quite regularly. My favourite club is run by Manchester bingo firm Buckingham, but that’s probably just because I’m lazy and it’s the closest one to my house (I go to the one in Didsbury, which is nice, but I’ve also been to a couple of their venues in Liverpool as I’ve got friends in Bootle).

As for whether the stars are bringing me luck, well, that is to be seen. I did win a tenner on my first night at the bingo, but that remains eclipsed – if you pardon the astronomy pun – by my record of scooping £84 on the National Lottery back in 2003. I’ll keep wishing on the stars and hoping my luck comes in at the bingo – one day I might even find myself shouting ‘HOUSE!’ on a big jackpot game. Fingers crossed.

Select the right telecommunications equipment for your office

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 10:19:42 +0000

You do not need to be able to read the stars in order to understand the importance of choosing the appropriate telecommunications tools. It is vital for a business to have the correct communications equipment and there are countless products and brands on offer; sourcing the most suitable model can be an intimidating responsibility and depending on your industry sector, there could be hundreds of handset models for your needs.

Choosing the right equipment for your office

Whatever its intended use, a handset needs to be reliable and durable. There are dozens of different models on the market and many come highly recommended. Reviews for the BT Paragon 550 have been particularly strong and it is a very popular model for businesses.

As with handset models, there are a number of conferencing units on offer. Some of these models come designed for specific conference rooms or situations, so when you are shopping around for a conferencing unit, make sure you choose one that is appropriate for its intended environment.

Other equipment you may consider

Answering machines are an important telecommunications tool and every machine will offer something different. The ATL Delta 40 is one of the most sought-after answering machines for companies, particularly because of its long-recording capacity.

Many businesses do not take enough care when sourcing the appropriate telecommunications tools. The importance of having the best model for the job cannot be overstated and if an organisation has the correct materials for the job, it will be more cost-effective and more productive.

The Rainbow Riches mobile casino game has arrived

admin — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 08:03:36 +0000

Rainbow Riches – Pots of Gold is the mobile slots version of the popular land-based slots machine game. Rainbow Riches – Pots of Gold features 20 paylines and five reels. It also includes the famous leprechaun cartoon from the bricks-and-mortar casino slot machine.

Rainbow Riches – Pots of Gold mobile casino game

This mobile slots game is sure to become very popular and mobile casino gamers can download the Rainbow Riches mobile casino game from Kerching UK casino. This mobile slots game has similar features to the bricks-and-mortar Rainbow Riches casino title. Rainbow Riches – Pots of Gold also contains three exciting bonus rounds. These games are:

Rainbow Riches – Pots of Gold Wishing Well mobile casino bonus
Mobile casino Rainbow Riches – Pots of Gold Pots of Luck
Rainbow Riches – Road to Riches mobile casino game

Rainbow Riches – Pots of Gold Wishing Well mobile casino bonus

Mobile slots gamers have the chance to win an instant cash prize with the Rainbow Riches mobile casino ‘Pick Me’ bonus. Mobile casino gamers play this feature if they obtain three or more Wishing Well images during play. Each Wishing Well on the screen conceals a different cash value and mobile casino players select one of these symbols to get their award.

Rainbow Riches – Pots of Gold Pots of Luck mobile casino bonus

The Pots of Luck round is activated if mobile slots gamers receive three or more Rainbow Riches Pot images on the centre reels during a spin. This feature gives mobile slots gamers the opportunity to win one of three progressive jackpots. A number of pots rotate around the dancing Rainbow Riches leprechaun. A mobile casino gamer wins the jackpot at the front of the screen after the Rainbow Riches leprechaun stops jigging.

Rainbow Riches – Pots of Gold Road to Riches mobile casino bonus

This classic Rainbow Riches feature gives mobile casino players the opportunity to win huge cash prizes. Three or more leprechaun symbols activates this bonus round. Mobile casino gamers are awarded a series of moves up the Road to Riches.and players are awarded cash prizes for each step they take up this road. Mobile slots gamers can win up to £5,000 in this game.

Da Vinci Diamonds online slots – A new world awaits

admin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 13:48:50 +0000

Da Vinci Diamonds is an online slots game which embodies the Renaissance era. It is a Kerching Casino title which combines this age of discovery with the excitement of an online slots machine. Da Vinci was a man who studied the stars and the planets and the Renaissance period was a time of discovery. It was a period in human history when man looked up to the sky and pondered the mysteries of space.

Da Vinci Diamonds captures the essence of the Renaissance period. It is an online slots game which takes online casino players back into a different world. Here are some of the features of this online slots title.

A maximum of 300 free spins can be won in this online slots game
Online slots players can receive multiple winning paylines with the Tumbling Reels feature
Da Vinci Diamonds online slots has 20 paylines of authentic Renaissance artwork

Da Vinci Diamonds slots – Tumbling Reels

Da Vinci Diamonds features the magical Tumbling Reels system. Da Vinci Diamonds online slots players have the chance to win repeatedly on a single spin. All paylines disappear in this online slots game and multiple symbols fall from the top of the screen to replace them. Online casino gamers can win several times in one spin with Da Vinci Diamonds online slots.

Da Vinci Diamonds free spins bonus

Da Vinci Diamonds has a thrilling free spins bonus feature. Online slots gamers have the opportunity to win generous cash awards if they obtain three bonus symbols on a winning payline. Players are given six free spins in Da Vinci Diamonds and a maximum of 300 free spins can be won. The Tumbling Reels system also ensures that online casino gamers can win many times with just one free spin.