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Entry tags:

astronomy

End of the Eclipse

Due to clouds, buildings trees and the horizon in the way, etc. etc. I only managed to catch the last few minutes of the eclipse, and since I had to hand hold the camera with the equivalent of a 2000mm lens it wasn't as sharp as I would like. Best of the bunch below the cut. I've also put in the picture of the near-full moon on Thursday for comparison.

( Picspam - end of the eclipse )

Full-sized images are on flickr from this one (the moon on Thursday) onward

https://www.flickr.com/photos/150868539@N02/54764983482/in/dateposted-public/

Entry tags:

astronomy

Tomorrow's Lunar Eclipse

I was reminded last night that there's a total lunar eclipse tomorrow evening - seen from the UK the moon will rise at about 7.30PM already fully eclipsed, totality will continue until 7.52 PM, with a partial eclipse continuing until 8.56 and the penumbral eclipse until 9.55. Weather permitting some of it will be visible from London, but I wouldn't want to bet on it, it doesn't look too bad right now but London is not the best place for accurate meteorology, too much pollution etc. Now very glad I tested the micro 4/3 plus 2x converter plus 500mm mirror lens on Thursday night, I know roughly what to expect to go wrong...

https://www.countryliving.com/uk/wildlife/countryside/a65989948/september-blood-moon-lunar-eclipse/

Another Night, Another Moon

Not quite full moon but a nice clear sky for London, so I dug out my trusty 500mm mirror lens and a 2X converter and put it onto my micro 4/3 camera, so effective magnification was about equivalent to 2000mm on full frame 35mm. At some point I really do need to sort out a tripod that I can use from my bedroom window, which is fairly high up, for this one the camera was resting on a pillow on the window sill and probably not completely motionless. This is uncropped and has not been edited in any way.

Larger versions here

https://www.flickr.com/photos/150868539@N02/54764983482/in/dateposted-public/

Entry tags:

rpg,
sf

Another SF RPG Bundle - Fragged Empire 2E

Another SF bundle, the 2024 revised edition of Fragged Empire, a post-post apocalyptic tabletop roleplaying game from Design Ministries:

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Fragged2E

Briefly, Humanity has gone extinct 15,000 years in the future, and the heirs - eight bio-engineered species - have to pick up the pieces and "rebuild the galaxy".

While this edition is new, a January 2023 bundle offered the first edition and some other games as alternatives to D&D. The current version seems to be a playable system and is well presented - there are a few instances of the "men in heavy armour / women in tight revealing clothing" school of art, but it's not as ridiculous as some other examples I've seen. It's reasonably priced and I think it's worth a look if you like SF RPGs.

Office suite update

It turns out that the current version of OpenOffice is still compatible with my Macbook Pro, and unllike Free Office has a spreadsheet. Seems to work well so far, and hopefully will be more compatible with LibreOffice.

Another Hostile bundle - Hot Zones

Many apologies, this offer launched last night but I was very busy and forgot it was happening

HOSTILE HOT ZONES (new)
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/HostileHotZones

Eventually remembered this - various supplements for military and civilian adventures, with quite a lot of material included if you go for the full package. Not sure it's for me, but there might be stuff of interest if you're into the game and setting.

Entry tags:

Another SF Repeat Bundle - Hostile

This is a repeat of the "deep-space alien horror" SFRPG Hostile from Zozer Games, based on the Cepheus Engine and previously offered in April 2022

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2025Hostile

Last time I said "My impression is a game that works pretty well if your players can live with corporate betrayal, virtually unkillable monsters, and the other tropes of this side of SF. I'm not entirely sure I want to play in that sort of universe at present, but it's well worth a look and pretty cheap." I don't see any reason to change any of that.

Another bundle for this system is coming soon.