Of comets and coffee
Jul. 23rd, 2020 08:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plonqWe were supposed to be socked in with clouds all week, but last night I checked the weather as I was getting ready for bed and discovered that it was clear off to the west. Being as far north as we are, we were still in twilight, and we are in the city, so it took a bit of work to find the comet in among the other light. We couldn't see it with the naked eye, but once our eyesight adjusted we could make it out with binoculars.
Even with checking a guide, we were having trouble finding it so I brought out my camera and took a long exposure of the sky at 24mm to see if we could spot anything that looked like a comet.
Obviously, we did.
This picture was taken at 70mm. I briefly debated swapping out for my 300mm lens, but I don't have an ideal set-up for shooting astronomical night shots, and I was happy enough with the results.
We were just glad to have seen it at all - we'd all-but given up.
On the coffee side of this post, I finally ordered a couple of replacement rubber ends for my Aeropress. The current one has worn down enough over the past few years where it's become a little annoying to use. I have a ritual where I compress it in hot water before I set it up for an inverted brew. Even then, it often leaks a bit around the edges. I've not had much luck finding them for sale locally (especially since a lot of places are running with reduced inventory in the current post lock-down environment).
I looked for online replacements, but they were usually priced at a point where - after conversion and shipping - I was probably better off simply buying a replacement Aeropress. The other day I saw that somebody in r/Coffee was experiencing the same conundrum, and one of the comments on his post suggested ordering it directly from Aeropress.
Embarrassingly, that had never occurred to me.
I checked their site and discovered that they were selling replacement parts at a fraction of the price as third party vendors. Their shipping was a little dear, so I ordered two in order to offset that expense.
They don't offer the kind of two-day shipping like Amazon, but my current arrangement is working for all its annoying quirks, so it's not urgent that the replacement arrive immediately.
Even with checking a guide, we were having trouble finding it so I brought out my camera and took a long exposure of the sky at 24mm to see if we could spot anything that looked like a comet.
Obviously, we did.
This picture was taken at 70mm. I briefly debated swapping out for my 300mm lens, but I don't have an ideal set-up for shooting astronomical night shots, and I was happy enough with the results.
We were just glad to have seen it at all - we'd all-but given up.
On the coffee side of this post, I finally ordered a couple of replacement rubber ends for my Aeropress. The current one has worn down enough over the past few years where it's become a little annoying to use. I have a ritual where I compress it in hot water before I set it up for an inverted brew. Even then, it often leaks a bit around the edges. I've not had much luck finding them for sale locally (especially since a lot of places are running with reduced inventory in the current post lock-down environment).
I looked for online replacements, but they were usually priced at a point where - after conversion and shipping - I was probably better off simply buying a replacement Aeropress. The other day I saw that somebody in r/Coffee was experiencing the same conundrum, and one of the comments on his post suggested ordering it directly from Aeropress.
Embarrassingly, that had never occurred to me.
I checked their site and discovered that they were selling replacement parts at a fraction of the price as third party vendors. Their shipping was a little dear, so I ordered two in order to offset that expense.
They don't offer the kind of two-day shipping like Amazon, but my current arrangement is working for all its annoying quirks, so it's not urgent that the replacement arrive immediately.
