MOONBASE CENTRAL

Thursday, 30 April 2020

WE LAND ON THE MOON COLOURING BOOK

This colouring books is from 1969. I don't have anything like this. I think there are a few of them in the series.

Have you got any?

JET STEADY

Some more Jet Patrol progress.

The skis and side struts are painted orange and the jet body has had a second coat of french blue.

The deo-ball dome has been placed and it's X frame attached across it.

Next step, the ridged silver thingy on its back.

ANNUAL WONDERS

Two of my fave Gerry Anderson annuals as a kid!

Which were your fave annuals, of any sort?

Wednesday, 29 April 2020

MOON ZERO TWO

By pure coincidence I was planning on posting these Moon shots I took in daylight today, too, Bill.
Unfortunately it began to mist over as dusk fell, but at least I got a couple of shots.

Seeing Scoops astrophotography the other day made me want to post some of my own. Its a regular event for me to get the camera out and sit in garden stargazing. I have to say it is tremendously difficult to get a decent shot, especially as I only use vintage analogue lenses for this kind of thing. My favourite lens must be my Maksutov russian catadioptric lens. Originally intended for military use, it is essentially a small telescope with a 500mm lens. The light is bounced around inside the lens, by twin mirrors, like a reflecting telescope to give huge magnification with a length of about 8". Its immensely heavy and built like a tank, but has a fixed apeture of F8.5. It does have beautiful resolving power and gives a shimmering, ghostly image.

This evening, I nipped out with the MTO-500 and another long lens, the Praotor 500. This is a standard telephoto, at 500mm, but the barrel is about 18" long! This was a cheap buy from a car boot sale for £3 ans is again quite powerful, but lacking the sharpness of the russian. The problem with manually focussing, is that the slightest touch of the lens, or even the tripod, sends the image bouncing away in the viewfinder, so finding the sweet spot is a nightmare. In extreme magnification like this, it pays to be set up quickly as you can see the moon wandering away in the viewfinder!

As I said, I regularly pop out on a clear night, especially in Summer to photograph a bright moon and occasionally am rewarded with a good shot, such as this total coincidence, as a passenger jet flew across the lunar disc as I was setting up. Luckily I managed to get three shots before it passed, one of which was useable.

Another great opportunity was the recent lunar eclipse, which turned the lunar disk an eerie pinkish red.

THE NEW THUNDERBIRDS KIDS

Ready for action!

They just need a mission!

Where shall they go?

Blue Milk Cheer

Hi Woodsy. Still holed up in New Jersey and fighting boredom with creativity.

I have seen the subject of Star Wars Blue Milk brought up several times on Moonbase and decided to search for more info.

I learned that the new Disney Star Wars themed parks in California and Florida (sadly closed for health concerns) feature special Star Wars themed menu items, including Blue Milk!

The drink is described as creamy, with an infusion of tropical fruit flavors. That inspired me to search my own pantry for possible ingredients for my own version!

Here is what I scrounged up and I am pleased with the results.

I simply put all ingredients in a blender and added a few drops of blue food coloring. The drink is very good as is, but on my second try, I added some crushed ice and a shot of rum for a tasty adult beverage.

Give this a try!

Brian F

NJ USA

LOOK AND LEARN AGAIN

I used to search the Look and Learn website all the time as it contained thousands of images from the Look and Learn comic I sometimes got as a kid. When I first started the blog the website provided invaluable information about the origins of certain Project SWORD box art images, the Cape Kenedy Set and the Nuclear ferry, both illustrated by Robert McCall.

For old time's sake I had another look today and lo and behold I'm pleased top say both those images are still there. At least some things don't change. This time I did a search for NASA Rocket and you can see what came up here including some fine drawings of the Saturn V and the Vehicle Assembly Building by Wilf Hardy.

https://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/search.php?t=0&q=nasa+rocket&n=9

Do you like this site? Did you get Look and Learn as a kid?