And still I persist in wondering whether folly must always be our nemesis. Edgar Pangborn, “My Brother Leopold” (1973) Edgar Pangborn had a great name—not enough people mention that, I feel. He’s the latest author to feature in my intermittent project of rereading classic-but-not-now-famous science-fiction stories from my formative years—the sort of stories that some … Continue reading Edgar Pangborn: The “Darkening World” Cycle
Monthly Archives: October 2019
Relativistic Ringworlds
No matter how many times he considered it, Jophiel shivered with awe. It was obviously an artefact, a made thing two light years in diameter. A ring around a supermassive black hole. Stephen Baxter, Xeelee: Redemption (2018) I’ve written about rotating space habitats in the past, and I’ve written about relativistic starships, so I guess … Continue reading Relativistic Ringworlds
Pegasus Hobbies 1/350 Von Braun Lunar Lander
This is Pegasus Hobbies’ version of Wernher von Braun’s original conception of how we’d land on the moon—in a stonking great 4000-ton spacecraft with 30 engines and a crew capacity of 25. (Actually, three stonking great ships were planned—one carrying cargo and the others carrying crew.) The landing would be preceded by a lunar fly-by … Continue reading Pegasus Hobbies 1/350 Von Braun Lunar Lander
Ordnance Survey OpenData In QGIS 3: Part 4
At the end of my previous post on this topic, I left you with this map of the area around the mountain of Blaven (Gaelic Bla Bheinn) on the Isle of Skye: That concluded a three-part tutorial on using Ordnance Survey OpenData products in QGIS mapping software. (To go to the start of the series, … Continue reading Ordnance Survey OpenData In QGIS 3: Part 4
Rebekah Higgitt (Ed.): Maskelyne
A review of “Maskelyne”, a collection of essays on the life and work of Nevil Maskelyne, British Astronomer Royal from 1765 to 1811.