Tamron 90mm SP lens

I decided to use the Tamron SP 90mm today for a play, didn't have a lot of time so only got a few pics.

Local funfair random pics

We popped over to our local-ish funfair a few days ago. Didn't take much but heres the best of the bunch.

Aircraft at risk from ice

 It's no surprise to most people that icing can bring down an aircraft. Yet few realize just how little ice is needed.
 On the 9th July 2016 a modern airbus with 156 people on board suffered a serious incident from ice. 
 While flying at 37.000 feet both the aircraft main airspeed indicators failed from ice blockage, this despite no ice warning and the sensors being heated. Without being able to judge the correct speed the aircraft can get into a stall. The pilots in this case descended and the ice melted.
 The cause was identified to be the pitot tube suffering icing. Despite all modern tech an aircraft main speed indicator works the same way as a spitfire. Basically a tube (pitot tube) sticks out the front of the aircraft and goes to what is essentially a barometer another tube goes from this out the side of the aircraft (the static vent) the air pressure difference between the two is what gives the airspeed.
 If either of the two tubes ices up the pressure will be wrong. Both pitot tubes are heated to try to prevent this, not all static vents are heated though. In this case it's thought large floating ice crystals got inside the pitot tube and partially blocked them.
 There have been quite a number of fatal accident caused by just this problem, and at least one caused by tape being put of the static vent while an aircraft was cleaned and not removed.
 So next time you fly on holiday keep in mind less ice than you have in your after dinner gin and tonic can bring the aircraft down.
 Sleep well.....

Slug captured...

 The missing slug was captured after a near fatal shoot-out today.....   Errr..  OK there wasn't actually a shoot-out (on account of slugs not being armed) and it's wasn't near fatal either.  I might have exaggerated a bit, just a tiny bit. You know me...
 The slug was found hiding under the kitchen radiator, some 20 feet from wher he was last seen on the front door.
 Being serious for a minute I am baffled how he got that far so fast, we gave the hall a good search and thats a fair distance on it's own, I find it hard to believe it could have got that far while I was having a cuppa last night.
 The slug was returned to the wild unharmed by me.  I did consider going greyhound racing with it, it's nearly bloody quick enough.

The mysterious case of the dissappearing slug...

 The mysterious case of the disappearing slug..
 No it's not the title of a good old fashioned radio Goon show (for those old enough to remember them) nor is it the title of Enid Blytons latest children's book. No this is a real case.
 You see last night as part of my getting fit I went for a fair walk locally. On arriving home about 10.30pm I noticed a HUGE slug on the inside of my front door. Now I don't know how he got in but I had brought the food bin in earlier, so it's possible he'd been on that.
 Anyway being a sweaty mess I grabbed a cuppa and a sit down before dealing with the slug. After all he was half way up my front door and as you never see slug racing, I figured he'd be safe enough for 20 minutes or so.
 So after my cuppa I go to remove said slug and...  Yes your guessed it, the bastard has vanished.  Seriously, he's totally bloody vanished, I searched the hall, my son joined in and we both thoroughly searched the hall and front door area with good lights. Not trace of slug.
 Ok I know I had a cuppa but it's a freaking slug, how fast can it be?. This bastard should be in the 3.30 at Heydock park or the bloody Grand National.
Long story short another search this morning has still failed to find the git.
 I'll update you if theres any news on the Lord Lucan of slugs.

Milky way part two

 The other night we were out for a wander, somewhat to our supprise it was fairly clear skys, so we set up and had another go at the milky way, my second ever attempt.
The shot of Wormshead is shot at crazy high iso, to get the worm to show up and not get star movement I ended up shooting at 12.800 iso.

Washing machine phenomenon?

 I've mentioned my washing machine before and it's odd logic of not actually taking in enough water to wash the clothes, indeed I'm on my third machine since then and this one is the same, obviously it thinks it's "dry cleaning". 
 Anyway thats not what this is about.  I was sorting my clean washing the other day and putting all my under ware the right way around. When the thought occurred to me that I shouldn't need to be doing it, they were the right way around when they went in.
 Now I don't mean I 'm daft enough to think they should all come out facing the same way, I mean they were all inside out. Which is odd as they were the right way around when they went in.
 As a test I turned the next wash load inside out before putting them in... And this is where it gets odd.
 You see the ones turned inside out came out the same as they went in (inside out) yet if I put them the right way around they come out inside out.
 It appears my washing machine can detect which way around a set of underpants are and invert them in the wash.
It occurs to me that this has possibilities. If a constant supply of correct way around pants could be put into a machine, then somehown extracted when the right way around and replaced back in the machine we may have the making of a new power source. This could take men to the stars one day.... Or it may just be Pants!

Battery grips on cameras...

 Lots of people use a battery grip on their camera, indeed they are really handy. You have the portrait shooting shutter button and the advantage of usually holding 2 camera batteries.
 There is a downside though.  If you use your camera on a tripod with a hefty lens on take care.
 I had to strip down a battery grip for a friend after it packed up. The two things I noticed were A. the amount of circuits and chips inside the thing, and B. the tripod screw that hold the grip to the camera is actually held on to the top of the grip with four TINY grub screws. It wouldn't take much force to rip the grip /camera connection off the grip. Dropping a possibly expensive camera on the floor.

skewen motor club show 2018 (part 3)

The last batch of images.