I’m posting this at 13:32 GMT on 16th July 2019—exactly fifty years after the launch of Apollo 11. It’s the last part of a loose trilogy of posts about Apollo—the first two being M*A*S*H And The Moon Landings and The Strange Shadows Of Apollo. This one’s about the rather complicated sequence of events required to get … Continue reading How Apollo Got To The Moon
Colin Kapp: The Unorthodox Engineers
“In my youth I thought I was the world’s worst crackpot screwball. The I met up with you and found that, in comparison, I was merely a sane, sensible, hard-working engineer. I never got over the disappointment of that realization. […]” Colin Kapp, “The Railways Up On Cannis” (1959) If you were a teenage science-fiction … Continue reading Colin Kapp: The Unorthodox Engineers
CCCP 2019: Loch Eil
This year, the Crow Craigies Climbing Party stationed itself on the north shore of Loch Eil, a little west of Fort William. Poor weather was dominating England, dumping weeks worth of rain in a single day, and occluded fronts were pivoting continuously across central Scotland. But although our weather certainly wasn’t great in comparison to … Continue reading CCCP 2019: Loch Eil
The Strange Shadows Of Apollo
In a previous post, I explained how all the manned moon landings were made with the sun low in the sky behind the Lunar Module, so that long shadows accentuated terrain features, making it easier to locate a safe place to land. But this meant that the LM landed facing into its own shadow, so … Continue reading The Strange Shadows Of Apollo
Revell 1/96 Saturn V: S-IC Stage – Part 1
Having completed the S-II Aft Interstage for my previous post on this build log, I’ve now progressed to the Big Beast of the S-IC. This stage is composed of Revell’s usual combination of moulded cylinders for the skirts and intertank, and printed styrene sheets to be rolled into cylinders for the tank sections. The stage … Continue reading Revell 1/96 Saturn V: S-IC Stage – Part 1
Mull
At the end of my report on Islay, I promised you more Hebrides. This time, we headed off to Mull. We stayed in a house on Calgary Bay, in the northwest of the island—here’s the view from our front window: The tiny village of Calgary (Calgaraidh in Gaelic) is the namesake of Calgary in Alberta, … Continue reading Mull
Glen Shee: Carn a’ Gheoidh From The South
Carn Mor (NO 110750, 876m) Carn a’ Gheoidh (NO 106766, 975m) Carn Bhinnein (NO 091762, 917m) 16.7 kilometres 840m of ascent I’ve crossed Carn a’ Gheoidh in long traverses from west to east and from east to west, but never approached it from the south. The hill sends out a couple of ridges in that … Continue reading Glen Shee: Carn a’ Gheoidh From The South
Lane Greene: Talk On The Wild Side
It is perfectly possible to reconcile strong opinions on individual points of grammar and usage—including dislike of a particular usage, or fear that a change to the language might introduce confusion—with a belief that the language on the whole is built to adapt, to minimise confusion. What do you think of that cover? I’d read … Continue reading Lane Greene: Talk On The Wild Side
Revell 1/96 Saturn V: S-II Aft Interstage
Having completed the S-II stage, I’ve worked my way down the stack as far as the S-II aft interstage—a ring structure interposed between the first and second stages to provide clearance between the S-II’s rocket engines above and the dome of the S-IC’s liquid oxygen tank below. We can see it being dropped astern in … Continue reading Revell 1/96 Saturn V: S-II Aft Interstage
Islay
Another year, another Hebridean island. This time we spent a week on Islay. (For non-Scottish readers, it’s probably worth mentioning that the second syllable of the island’s name is pronounced “la”, rather than “lay”. Nothing betrays the whisky dilettante more quickly than a profession of enthusiasm for Is-LAY malts.) We stayed in another one of … Continue reading Islay