the transit of mercury

in astrological circles the transit of mercury was billed as the astrological event of the decade.  with a clear blue sky we were not disappointed.  with all the research and testing it was an absolute joy when i heard

"Andrew we" ve got it" Tony exclaimed to me at 12:14. #transitofmercury #belper #strutts

— andrew martyn sugars (@andrewsugars) May 9, 2016

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Tony discussing #firstcontact of #transitofmercury in the #garden of the #strutt #community #building #belper #excited #viewers #smiles

A post shared by andrew martyn sugars (@andrewmartynsugars) on May 9, 2016 at 4:23am PDT

 

in that moment, in that serendipitous moment, we joined many who have witnessed the transit of mercury down the timeline of history.

it felt great as there had been an element of would we actually see mercury on the day and there was something very transcendental about the siting, the siting of what appeared to be a full stop on a white circle.  that dot being a planet. the circle, the sun.

 

 

tony had brought along a solar filter as well as the projection set up so we were able to experience the transit in more than one way.  each time i looked at the circle it took me a few moments to tune into the presence of mercury.  each time the process of tuning in was quite literally out of this world.

 

 

 

through the day there was a steady steam of inquisitive viewers of the transit.   one gentleman had found out about the event via the nailed article and had driven from allestree after his attempts at home hand’t been satisfactory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i brewed up some tea and on such a hot day we found red bush tea a surprisingly refreshing tipple.

we watched the transit for three quarters of it’s duration.  it had been my first transit viewing and i’d throughly enjoyed the experience.  a big thanks to janet at strutts and tony for all his research and having the idea to watch the transit of mercury in the first place !

preparing for the transit of mercury

we’re now fully prepared for what is said to be one of the rarest astrological events of the decade. on monday 9th may, mercury will pass between the sun and earth and with appropriate viewing equipment, the transit of the mercury can be observed.

we've been checking our setup for the viewing of the #TransitofMercury monday may 9th. we'll be @ strutts in #belper pic.twitter.com/ZEZGLN7MOO

— andrew martyn sugars (@andrewsugars) May 5, 2016

our set up will be in the garden of strutts in belper.  the garden had been forgotten about for many years and we’ve cleared, cleaned and had help from the volunteers at strutts so that we can have a contemplative space in which to watch the transit.

we started our research into methods of observing the transit with a tester session led by tony. the initial viewing idea used some binoculars.   this is a crude solar projection method. 

 

that day in march was cloudy with the blackthorn in  flower.  we did get glimpses of the projected image of the sun.  clouds past  providing some interesting images and the results gave us the momentum to keep researching for may.  tony has been the driving force behind how to observe mercury and it was rewarding today to see his big smile when we spotted a sun spot during the test.

the transition will take a few hours so we’ll be making cups of tea in the garden.  if you’d like to see mercury set against the sun in the lovely setting of the the garden at strutts (opposite babbington hospital) we’ll be there from 11:45 am.  we’d love to welcome you to the garden to see the transit of mercury with us.

 

 

 

#ourcupoftea on wern-y-wylan beach

we took off for august bank holiday to wales and with us we took the necessary bits and pieces to make dinner on the beach.  the first beach we arrived at was windier than we would have liked and a lot busier than we expected, the bank holiday in wales being drenched in warm sunshine.

there was a plan b, another beach along the coast, the beach of wern-y-wylan.  it’s a tricky drive to get to and no vehicular access so we carried everything we needed to make dinner.

to accompany our meal we’d prepared to have some hot chocolate.  as i got the fire for the the kelly kettle ready i realised we could make a cup of tea challenge attempt with hot chocolate.

 

 

lighting the kettle went like a dream, the onshore breeze and hot ember from the fire soon making a strong flame and the water quickly heated up.  the trickiest part of the operation was spooning in the hot chocolate powder, the onshore breeze scattering it amongst the cups.

 

 

 

 

with water boiled and mixed, we settled down to enjoy the view with #ourcupoftea beach hot chocolate styleee.

 

with the tide still out we packed up, leaving no trace of our visit and returned our stuff to the car.

we spent the last hour exploring the beach down to the sea.

cup of tea challenge extension

we’ve decided to extend the cup of tea challenge to the end of september.

#ourcupoftea by david and lynne

a big big thank you to david and lynne for sending us a link to their cup of tea challenge video made at the weekend.  they’ve made rather an ingenious heater using things from the garden.  here’s their video and david tells us their storey …

shooting stars and a cup of tea.

August is the best time of the year to see a shooting star and we’re now setting ourselves up for  the Perseids Meteor Shower .   Star watching is always best with a mug of tea by your side, in your favourite mug with your favourite biscuit.  the cup of tea challenge  invites you to consider making a cup of tea away from your conventional method of heating the water so if you usually go star watching with a kelly kettle or similar, the cup of tea challenge will be a doddle for you.

This year the Perseids peak on the evenings of 10  – 13th of August.  The Perseids tend to strengthen in number as the evening goes on, typically producing most meteors just before dawn. The Perseids are always reported as “a celestial firework display often producing 50 – 100 meteors per hour”.

In reality observers need a bit of patience (this is where a mug of tea comes in handy) and should expect to see 2 or 3 visible meteors an hour.

If you have never seen a meteor (or shooting star) before the Perseids meteor shower is your best chance. Go out and look to the sky around about midnight, look towards the constellation Cassiopeia ( the W shape in the sky) and you will be looking in the right direction (north east) and, with patience, you’re almost guaranteed to see a shooting star.

if you take the cup of tea challenge, please share something about the experience with us using the hashtag  #ourcupoftea.

the blue moon and our cup of tea

our friday evening walk ended with a cup of tea with a highlight of discovering the blue moon.  thanks to some fellow evening walkers i discovered the blue moon happens every two and a half years.  why it’s called blue i don’t know.   as we walked across the fields the moon appeared to be more pinky red than blue.  the blue moon is so described as it refers to the phenomena of two full moons in one callender month.

 

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#bluehorse #bluemoon

A post shared by andrew martyn sugars (@andrewmartynsugars) on Jul 31, 2015 at 1:43pm PDT

 

back in the garden we lit a small fire and set to heating up two cups of water in a small camp fire kettle.  our tea of choice late at night is red bush and we accompanied our beverage with some rather fine home made banana cake.

#ourcupoftea under the #bluemoon pic.twitter.com/JPHcb9IjeS

— andrew martyn sugars (@andrewsugars) July 31, 2015

 

as we sipped our cup of tea and enjoyed our cake, we mused about our evening under a cloud cloaked blue moon.

cup of tea challenge submission

the cup of tea challenge has received rather a beautiful submission from jo kirk.  it’s made from a recycled pack of tea and jo says of it

“The tea is conceptual, thereby saving energy.”

 

gramophone recital

later in the day at belper goes green after successfully launching the cup of tea challenge we settled down for a gramophone recital.  our interest in the gramophone was sparked from one of those random moments in a development meeting when we ventured into a discussion about clockwork motors.  around the table there were various items still owned that used a clockwork motor … the gramophone was the one that sparked the most excitement.

at belper goes green it was interesting to listen to music reproduced purely by mechanical means (that clockwork motor and an acoustic sound horn). The sound quality was surprisingly good and the volume sufficiently loud to project to a small audience. It was noted that although the machine used was from the 1920’s that  gramophones like this remained in use well into the 1950’s as portable devices for taking on picnics (The gramophone featured has a carrying handle and a internal compartment for storing 78rpm records when in transit).

the sides being played are:

Dragnet: Ray Anthony and his Orchestra

Tex Ritter: Boogie Woogie Cowboy.

the gramophone featured is a HMV 101 portable from the late 1920s.

for the technically minded we thought you might like to see the innards of the soundboard (the turntable having been removed) :