One thing is for sure – all the best Sci-Fi spaceships have very little in common with real life rockets. The nature of real life rocket launch operations is a far cry from Mos Eisley spaceport, with the process being controlled by scientists, mathematicians, engineers and computers. With the Shuttle retiring, pure rockets were all we had left.

Until yesterday however, when Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo was unveiled.

Five years ago SpaceShipOne became the first commercial space ship designed for humans rather than satellites and science. But at that point, space tourism still sounded like the stuff of science fiction, right up there with moon biodomes and orbiting hotels.

Yet today we’ve got a suborbital system based on a platform that, whilst not exactly proven, is at least a real life system that has been demonstrated to work. Commercial launches may only be a couple of years away.

The best bit is SpaceShipTwo is a proper space ship!  She’s flown by two pilots, with joysticks, from a spaceport in the desert, and though I guess it would be asking too much to have a smuggler and a wookie up front, we’re on the right track.

It’s still dark getting home from work, so it’s unlikely I’ll be flying my Esky Belt-CP Radio Controlled Helicopter unless we get a nice weekend. I’ve had it since November and only flown it (well, skated around the floor), 5 times. 

However, a nice clear night last night let me try out one of my other Christmas presents. My parents got me the Celestron Skymaster 15×70 Binoculars for starwatching. I’ve been talking off and on about a telescope for the past year, but always get put off as I probably wouldn’t have the time to take it out, align it and so on. The binoculars are a great solution and last night I was able to see the Pleiades Cluster (M45) and Orion Nebula (M42). The latter especially was great as although it’s almost visible with the unaided eye, the nebula cloud is clearly visible through the binoculars.

But why is the post called “Back to work!” – I hate going back to work after Christmas without a holiday booked, and we had nothing booked for 2009. So, first day back I requested a holiday week at the end of February so we can go skiing, and by the end of the week the holiday should be booked! Anyway, as it stands, today I’ve got 37 work days till that comes around. That’s only 6 full Mon-Fri weeks!

At a point in time 20 years, 30 hours and 40 minutes before when we arrived, Sherwood Crescent was like any other street in Scotland, with families getting ready for Christmas, perhaps just sitting down to dinner. Five minutes later the majority of the Pan-Am Boeing 747 “Clipper Maid of the Seas” would impact 13 Sherwood Crescent killing all 259 on board and 11 on the ground.

Sherwood Crescent is in Lockerbie, Scotland – a name that has become synonymous for both the worst loss of life in an air disaster on British soil, and one of the most complicated legal trials under Scots law.

The images at the time showed the massive destruction caused by the remains of a 747 fuelled for a transatlantic flight. The cockpit section lying in a field near Tundergarth must be one of the defining media images of the 20th century. These images shown on the TV the next day are etched in my mind, and along with Challenger, Piper Alpha and the Herald of Free Enterprise are probably amongst the first real human tragedies I was aware of.

A few months before, for my 10th birthday, we had been plane spotting at Glasgow Airport, and it was the first time I’d seen a 747 up close. They were, and still are, quite rare at Glasgow and the noise and power were quite awesome. At the time it seemed to have all the power in the world, a machine that was clearly greater than the sum of its parts. It seemed invincible.

Yet here were the remains of the cockpit and first class section severed from the fuselage and lying in a field. It is reported that the flight attendant in this section was still alive after the impact, but died before any help arrived.

The images of the cockpit section capture both the ability of mankind to engineer something remarkable, something awe-inspiring like the 747, and also sadly the ability to cause unbelievable harm and destruction to others. One had hoped such a sight would not be seen again…

It’s still very early in the season, but with the colder weather forecast to continue throughout the week I’m getting slightly optimistic about the chances of getting a couple of days skiing when we’re over for Christmas & New Year.

I think I’ll wait till the last minute before waxing the skis though, just incase…

The VAT was a bit of a surprise on a second hand item – something to do with free circulation in the EU.

However, UPS calculated the VAT on £360, rather than $360! The courier wouldn’t give us the package without handing over the cheque either, so that’s me down about £30 thanks to mistakes by UPS and lack of customer care skills by Manx Independent Carriers (Update 20/10/2008: See Below!). I’m still waiting for the cheque from UPS with the refund too – Funny how that works… Anyway, assuming I do get the money back, it’s a bargain.

I also got a battery grip for the EOS-450D after seeing how it improved the handling of the EOS-3. Price matched from Jessops it was within 10% of the cost from Amazon, and that’s within my “get it now” allowance. Now I’m all set for G-BOAC in Manchester and G-BOAE in Barbados next week, but that’s another story.

And finally, last weekend I went on the Yellow Duckmarine in Liverpool! I’m particularly happy about capturing this image on the Blackberry!

Yellow Duckmarine

Update 20/10/2008

Why did I say “lack of customer care skills by Manx Independent Carriers”? Well, this morning I had a call from one of the directors of M.I.C. to ask this question, after he had found this post on the internet. The fact he called was a big plus to Manx Independent, as I don’t publish my email addess or mobile number on the site. I was actually quite pleased he’d taken the time to track me down and discuss this issue with me.

The root of the issue was the fact I was presented with a choice that, in essense was: pay up or you don’t get your parcel. For the record, I fully accept the fault originated at UPS and M.I.C. were only operating under UPS instructions. When I ordered the package, I estimated costs based on with and without VAT, but the actual cash on delivery value required was so high I was absolutely convinced there was a mistake. The problem was the driver did not have time to call UPS (or to wait for me to call UPS). In real terms the £30 difference was insignificant compared to the 40 mile round trip to pick up the parcel from the depot later, so I paid the money.

However, I was left thinking that if I was in the UK, and a UPS driver turned up at the door with exactly the same issue, he may have been able to contact UPS directly and resolve the issue there and then.

The M.I.C. director did say he would look at providing the drivers with a contact number for UPS, and hopefully this would have prevented this particular issue straight away. When I called UPS, I was speaking to their operator for about 90 seconds before the problem (VAT calculated on £360, rather than $360) was identified. Rather than simply have me write a cheque for the correct amount and keep everybody happy (well, almost. VAT on secondhand goods still seems a bit unfair!), I’ve got to wait another few weeks for UK customs and excise to return the funds to UPS, then another few weeks for them to send a cheque to me. I’m fairly sure the brokerage fee from UPS won’t cover the admin costs for this one anyway,

So what of Manx Independent Carriers. Well, they took the time to A) check on their reputation on the internet. B) track down how to contact me. C) give me a call to discuss the matter. and finally D) investigate a solution to prevent this from happening again. That actually seems like pretty good customer service after all!

This is a test post using the Blackberry Curve. The camera image is emailed to Flickr, which then posts the message and image directly to my site. If this works it should be much better than the previous solution that hacked wordpress to accept Nokia Lifeblog uploads.

Brody had a small lump on his chest that had grown 100% in size within one week, and last week we found out it was a tumor, and the vet said it had to come out. This past Tuesday, he went in for his operation to remove it. Because Catherine and I are totally paranoid, he’s been back to the vet twice as he was scratching at the wound, but no damage was done and he’s continuing to recover. Today we finally got the lab results back. It was a benign tumor and he’s been given the all clear. All we need now is to get his stitches out next Friday. Tonight we finally got to relax.

Anyway, the Blackberry is great, and is ideal for what I wanted giving simple, easy to use email facilities, unlimited data for a reasonable fee and it’s not another hopeless Windows Mobile device. And it’s got an appointment “Brody Stitches Out”, which is the best bit.

International Space Station Visual Pass

That’s right folks, I’ve been playing at Astrophotography with my new Canon EOS 450D, and the past few days the International Space Station has been particularly bright. The image was recorded over a 20 second exposure, not ideal as the star trails are obvious, but for a first attempt I’m quite satisfied. Once I’ve worked out how to do multi-image align and stacking I’ll have a go at that.

The site Heavens Above is a good resource to find out when the ISS will be visible, as well as the fascinating Iridium satellite flares, which are apparently visible in daylight.

It’s odd standing there looking at the ISS cross the sky knowing that it’s travelling at over 17000 miles per hour, and is less than 500 miles away.

More of my beginners astro-images are in the Gallery but for some really great pictures look at Astropix.com

I’m still thinking about buying a telescope! At least it’s not so cold at the moment. If I can make it till October, that will be 10 months of thinking, and that’s usually a good sign that I won’t get bored too soon. It’ll be cold out again by then though…

However, at least this time we’ll have our own skis – well, hopefully. Catherine’s skis were delivered last month, but as the shipping cost for mine was an unbelievable £50 (!) they were delivered to my parents house instead. Catherine’s only cost £10 to ship. Anyway, if they fit in the roofbox, I’ll have my own skis too.

In preparation for the big snow falls (snigger) I decided to get some new tyres on the Freelander. The original front tyres lasted an astonishing 47000 miles, and the rear pair are looking good for 50k. No surprises that I ordered the same type again. (Michelin Synchrone Extra Load 215/65R16). I’ve left the new ones on the front for the ski trip, but they’ll be going on the back afterwards – the Freelander drives the front wheels slightly faster than the rear, and the circumference difference of having new tyres on the front and old on the back increases the speed differential the viscous coupling has to deal with, and may cause early failure.

Anyway, we’re heading up to Aviemore on Sunday, then probably down to Fort William on Wednesday. If the weather plays the game, we should hopefully get a chance to visit Glencoe too, never skiied there before.