Back in 2017 we travelled with my partner to the United States for our first total solar eclipse, and it was a great success. I got some nice photos out of it, and the experience was amazing. You can read my blog post about it, although it is only available in Finnish. The 2017 eclipse left me wanting more, and I started looking at next opportunities to see a total eclipse.

As you might have noticed, The Other Computer has changed quite a bit! Most of the code underlying the website was rewritten. Previously the website was implemented with JavaScript and Gatsby, but the Gatsby framework kept changing at a fast pace, deprecating many of the things my website relied on. I got tired of updating things, and fell back to the old reliable, Hugo. Initially I converted all my old styling information to the new website, but got kind of tired of how the site looked, and I switched to the Hello Friend theme by panr.

For the past months I have been obsessing over solar astronomy, and specifically a device called Sol’Ex or Solar Explorer. It is a spectroheliograph, which allows capturing the spectrum of a very thin slice of the sun’s disk. By capturing many images while scanning over the sun’s disk with the device, you can reconstruct an image of the whole sun at any visible wavelength you want. There is a catch, though.

For a while now I have been controlling my astrophotography gear with a passively cooled Intel NUC computer, and powered them with a 110W 12V supply meant for a portable fridge. At first I kept both on the floor of our observatory, which isn’t a great long-term solution. Looking for a cheap enclosure, I bought a metal mailbox and attached it to the telescope mounting pier. At first I thought it will be great, I can run all my cables through the mail slot in the mailbox.

In my youth I was very enthusiastic about computer graphics, visual effects and such things. I was even considering trying to make a career out of it, until I went to study computer science. Around 2005-2006 I spent a lot of time learning how to use this open-source 3D modeling and rendering application called Blender, and some other related tools. Back then free learning resources weren’t as readily available, and proper video cameras were super expensive and hard to get for a teenager.

HaloRay has taken a leap forward again, and version 3.0.0 was released today with plenty of new features, the most important ones being: Realistic sky and sun rendering More ways to adjust ice crystal shapes Saving/loading simulations Crystal shape preview window In addition to these there are tons of small improvements and tweaks. You can go download the newest version on GitHub and take a look at the change log while you are at it.

I have always been extremely fascinated by atmospheric optics like ice crystal halos. Halos form when sunlight, moonlight or artificial light refracts inside small ice crystals in the atmosphere. When these ice crystal populations cover a large enough area in the sky, you can see various light formations like spots, arcs and circles. They are relatively simple to simulate by tracing rays through simple hexagonal ice crystal shapes. Many simulators have been built in the past, but they are all relatively slow and/or clunky.

Helsinki Hacklab got an Original Prusa i3 Mk3 3D printer near the end of 2017. After some experiences with it I decided to buy my own in 2018. I occasionally used it but was bothered by not having a dedicated place to keep it in. Using it was a hassle in a small apartment with a curious cat roaming around. I spotted a Prusa Printers blog article about a cheap enclosure build for the printer, and I was intrigued.

Welcome to The Other Computer! After a long bout of procrastination and going back and forth between different possibilities, I combined my SmugMug astrophoto portfolio and Chasing Ghosts amateur astronomy blog to form this new site, where I will host my photos and post about my various projects, including but not limited to amateur astronomy. All posts from the Chasing Ghosts blog are included here for archival purposes. Unfortunately they are only in Finnish, but all new content will be written in English.

Kirkkonummen Komakallion aktiivikuvaajien kesken oli jo pitkään ollut keskustelua matkasta etelään kuvaamaan kohteita, joita Suomeen ei näy, sekä nauttimaan pimeistä öistä kesäaikaan, kun Suomessa on ympäri vuorokauden valoisaa. Päädyimme lopulta järjestelemään matkaa Kanariansaarten Teneriffalle. Saari oli osalle meistä entuudestaan tuttu, ja tiesimme saaren olevan verrattain halpa matkakohde. Teneriffa on vulkaaninen saari, jonka keskellä on UNESCOn suojelema Teiden kansallispuisto. Puiston keskellä on nimensä mukaisesti Teide, Espanjan korkein vuori. Korkeutta vuorella on 3718 metriä.