Target-Earth Blog!
Welcome to the blog section of my website. Here you'll find my mostly useless information on various retro gaming computers and consoles and a few other hobbies…
Some useful shortcuts:
- Video Game database - Current database of my gaming systems and games.
- Tech stuff - Retro gaming and computers, old electronics, network installers for Unix-like systems.
- Model making - Scale model making, sci-fi; Gundam, Macross, Maschinen Krieger…
- Car stuff - Rebuilds, projects and previous cars.
- Personal projects - Days out, DIY jobs, other unsorted stuff…
- Digital Photography - My very amateur attempts at digital photography.
- Book Collection - Cataloguing my book collection.
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Commodore PET 2001 - Restoration
I picked up this old PET-2001 from a clear-out of old electronic waste a colleague was doing at work. It had been stored in the back of a workshop along with old toner cartridges, ancient CRT monitors, 10base network switches, 286 laptops and more, that were all destined for waste disposal.
Although it looked pretty beat up, it seems to be mainly dirt/sticker residue - the case is in pretty good condition apart from a few minor scuffs on the corners.
Night Sky Images - 18/11/2021
I wanted to do a comparison between three of my recently acquired Asahi/Pentax Takumar lenses, this was a full moon, so perfect for some detailed images… also the contrast of the bright moon would definitely show up any image problems inherent with the lenses.
Gear:
- Canon EOS 200D
- Asahi Takumar 200mm/F4, 200mm/F3.5, 300mm/F4
- Tripod
Weather:
- Light to medium cloud (10-30%)
Location:
- Garden
Software
- Rawtherapee - RAW file importing, optical correction & image processing
- ASTAP - Image stacking / general astrophotography toolset
- GIMP - RAW/TIF to JPEG, cropping
From left to right; Super Takumar 200mm/F4, Takumar 200mm/F3.5, and then finally the Super Multi Coated Takumar 300mm/F4:
Night Sky Images - 04/11/2021
Gear:
- Canon EOS 200D
- Tokina AT-X Pro SD 11-16mm f/2.8 (IF) DX
- Tripod
- Star Adventurer 2i tracking mount (with shutter release cable)
Weather:
- Light cloud (~10%)
Location:
- Garden
Software
- Rawtherapee - RAW file importing, optical correction & image processing
- ASTAP - Image stacking / general astrophotography toolset
- GIMP - RAW/TIF to JPEG, cropping
Current Equipment
| Part | Manufacturer Date | Purchase Date | Info | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Canon EOS 200D DSLR | 2017 | 2017 | My first DSLR, although an entry-level model I'm still learning my way around this. |
Night Sky Images - 25/10/2021
Clear for most of the night. After successfully using the tracker a week or two earlier I managed to get hold of a remote shutter release cable to allow the tracker to automatically trigger the camera - my previous testing was several manual shutter release image (I don't have an external intervalometer at this point).
I took two different images of the night sky - roughly pointing in the same direct, just at a different elevation; one at tree-top level, the other almost vertically up.
Gear:
- Canon EOS 200D
- Tokina AT-X Pro SD 11-16mm f/2.8 (IF) DX
- Tripod
- Star Adventurer 2i tracking mount (with shutter release cable)
Weather:
- Clear (zero cloud for most of the night)
Location:
- Garden
Software
- Rawtherapee - RAW file importing, optical correction & image processing
- ASTAP - Image stacking / general astrophotography toolset
- GIMP - RAW/TIF to JPEG, cropping