Photos and Projects

  Some deer we saw this week near Poplar Creek. 1/1000, f8, ISO 450 1/1000, f8, ISO 400 1/1000, f8, ISO 400 1/320, f8, ISO 125

  The unique scale Debussy invented to give him his unique sound.  First introduced to the music world in his work, "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun".  The following Leonard Bernstein videos goes into great detail on what this scale was and the unique freedom it gave Debussy when writing his music.   Leonard Bernstein on Debussy, Part 1 Leonard Bernstein on Debussy, Part 2

  Below is the recording setup we have started with.  The Tascam DR-05X handheld recorder set to 16 bit, 44.1k WAV format (typical CD quality).  The line-out going from the Teac TN-300 turntable is going straight into the Tascam and the blue output from the Tascam is going back to the speaker so we can hear what we are recording.  Manual recording level is set to 5 to avoid saturation and the external battery bank allows for many hours of rechargeable recording time.  We already had all of these components so we started here and with a good quality LP the quality of this recording setup is very good.  Post processing we are using Audacity to balance the channels and normalize the output and if necessary use WaveCorrector to remove pops and cracks.  Teac TN-300, Tascam DR-05X, Battery Bank Christmas Day, Various Artists LP   

  Babe Ruth (6'2", 215 lbs):  2004 Topps Legend Series Back of card: "Babe Ruth, who did more than any other player to establish baseball as an American institution, is still considered by most the greatest slugger in history.  His 0.690 slugging percentage - buoyed by 714 HRs - remains a career record, achieved in an era when the league-wide mark was 0.404.  He retired in 1935 with a 0.345 AVG and 12 HR crowns." Babe Ruth:  First Class HOF (1936) From the 2004 Topps Legend Series.  Three of the five first Hall of Fame Class:  Ty Cobb (6'1", 175 lbs), Honus Wagner (5'11", 200 lbs) and Walter Johnson (6'1", 200 lbs).  Babe Ruth and Christy Mathewson are on their way. Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson

  Matt discovered a NorthStar Horizon unit on display at the British Science Museum with its original wooden top (August 19th, 2024).  The unit gets very hot so often the top is removed during use.  In our case, the top was lost over the years somewhere in the physics department or the professor's house.  We will need to find or make an adequate replacement and perhaps add a fan to keep the unit cool.  What a great coincidence to see one of these on display in a major science museum! The professor purchased a NorthStar computer kit with his own money and had students back in the day help him assemble it.  He used the computer to teach machine code in his 400 level Digital Electronics classes. Main unit without terminal Museum Description

  While walking through the frisbee gold course across the street in the morning, we happened to see a family of Great Horned Owls, first time I had ever seen in the wild.  The parents were off a ways watching, the two young ones were very high up in the largest tree on the course.  Got several good photos below all shot with similar settings at ISO 100 and 400mm.  We did run the images through Topaz Sharpen AI using a Standard setting of 14% to sharpen them up a bit as these were all hand held photos pretty far away. Years ago at Indiana Dunes I remember reading about the Great Horned Owl in one of their exhibits.  It said that their night vision was so good that they could hunt inside the Lucas Oil Stadium with only a single candle lit in the stadium.  Unbelievable night vision! 1/500, f8, ISO 100, 400 mm 1/200, f7.1, ISO 100, 400 mm 1/320, f6.3, ISO 100, 400 mm 1/320, f6.3, ISO 100, 400 mm