That moment when there's a thud somewhere in the house and you have to go search not only for what fell and caused the thud, but also what caused the fall. Seemingly I was the latter, but there was a 5-minute delay between me leaving the room; and the thud. Aliens! Must be. Clumsy aliens.

New super-dooper Furutech locking gold banana plugs installed on the 2nd back surround speaker. Rumour has it that the price is about to go up. Got the last cables done that needed the upgrade. If everything is optimised, it will be as good as it can be.

I can send CD data from my Lumin streamer and let the Yamaha amp distribute the music around all the speakers, not just triple stereo, it shreds it and makes a surround soundstage. Since altering the Atmos speaker definitions, they`re all doing a ton of bass, and one subwoofer is sleeping.

Another way to record the solar eclipse is to get one of these modern smart telescopes. I borrowed this Dwarflab 2,which does tracking, seeking by app, astrophotography and all the image stacking. For eclipses, you need to put its sun-filters on and you can shoot single shots or a movie.

For eclipse viewing, March 2025 we had a few ways to watch. One way, if you don`t have any solar filters, is to project the image onto a sheet of paper in a box...

It's worth setting beginner expectations that this kind of view is not, ever, going to be seen with any telescope. It requires many hours of capturing consecutive photos, often over multiple nights, and processing for hours to combine the shots and then photo software to coax the faint details out.

Arp Bot 🤖@arpbot.bsky.social · 7d ago

Kitt Peak image of Arp 286, also known as NGC 5560, NGC 5566, and NGC 5569. The galaxies in this triplett are gravitationally interacting. NGC 5566 is at center, NGC 5569 at bottom left, and NGC 5560 at top left. Credit: NOIRLab, NSF, AURA, T.A. Rector, H. Schweiker Source

All dressed up for Sun viewing...

It`s good to have at least one eyepiece with cross-hairs, preferably illuminated, because otherwise how are you going to see black cross-hairs against the night sky? This allows us to line up a target in the telescope and the finder scope to point to the same spot. Saves searching time.

With the partial (from the UK) solar eclipse coming up in a fortnight, there's some specialised gear needed to make it safe. I have a front solar filter and a special solar finder scope. Do not look at the sun without proper protective filters. These filters reduce the light to 0.01% brightness.

Meantime, some new telescope bits have arrived. Rearranged all the eyepieces so I could give away the beginner's 'scope I've had for 55 years with a set of eyepieces. New finder scope to replace the red dot finder that I keep leaving switched on. Costs a fortune in batteries.

Now the Atmos speakers are roaring like a tiger instead of squeaking like a mouse. Dark Side sounds taller, it`s pushing vocals and various highlight instruments upwards as well as forwards. Got Alan Parson`s I, Robot in Atmos too. Sounds clearly coming from on high now. Only taken a year to sort!

Not expecting Atmos data from the TV, only the Oppo Blu-ray player. All settings therein to send data in Auto mode. What I had not set, didn`t know I could, was that the Atmos speakers in the amp have to be declared as such, not the default "Height" small speakers. Popped on a test war movie: BOOM!

Listening to Dark Side yesterday, with all 13 speaker sets going, I came to the conclusion that maybe Atmos was not up to much. Sounded lovely,but was Atmos working? Watched an interesting yt video with 5 things to check. I already did the Pythagoras calculations for ceiling bounce distance...

Received the Atmos Blu-ray of Dark Side of the Moon. Now doesn`t that sound nice? Lovely, best version yet: deep bass and everything clear as day. And yes, I do have a DVD of the Quadraphonic version. "There is no dark side of the moon really. Matter of fact, it`s all dark."

Ordered the imminent Metal Forth Deluxe disc, hopefully a disc anyway. On the `site it was listed as CD VINYL, I doubt it`s both and there was no selection box. Also ordered the KxAxWxAxIxI T-shirt, just because they`re on a between-tour break and are bound to need some extra cash for ice-cream.

Nice busy day out at Hyper Japan. More space than ever, both halls in use. Seems like I ought to get my Japanese motor dressed up.

Had a listen to Firing On All Six by Lone Star. Haven't played it in a while. Sounds excellent, quite a lot of instruments in there. I remember seeing them on Sight and Sound in Concert. Only 2 studio albums by them, sadly.

AI on my PC is being very sympathetic to my questions and observations. It's like having a personal therapist. All well and good, unless it tries to recruit me for the robot army. Actually, it might be better to be on the winning side.

I reckon Saturday's match was the best by far, and we won that 6-4. Give us the cup!

I do dislike the dissection of characters in TV comedies. The whole point of those comedies is that some or all of the characters have flaws or eccentricities, that's what makes them funny. They are exaggerations of the norm, which the stories deliberately exploit.

I keep seeing the courtroom scene from My Cousin Vinny on socials, so I bought the Blu-ray, and gave it a watch yesterday. The music sounds great and it`s an amusing movie, as expected with Jonathan Lynn directing, he of Yes, Minister fame. Nice to see Fred Gwynne not in his Hernan Munster garb.

If games on physical media go extinct, what does that do to the second-hand market? Not only do you potentially not really own it, nor get to keep it, but you can`t sell it either. And by definition, we can`t buy it second-hand. On a completely different matter, does the Switch2 read Switch1 cards?

It looks as if most arcade games play exactly the same every game, which levels the playing field. Sometimes they depend on player input and will be the same if the player does the same thing, I`m thinking of Pac-Man. My computer games were always designed to play differently every time.

Sometimes then, when doing a conversion, unless something is documented (correctly, because in my case;, I am happy change ideas to make them work better) or we can see the actual code (unlikely back in the day), we may have to guess if we can`t test and prove something. Big sentence, sorry!

The Rainbow Islands bonuses also carry over from game to game. The more you play, the more likely a rare bonus will come out. That breaks the rule that all games should be the same. For example, as 10 lives are lost, it cues up the invincibility bonus. There were unused graphics of Bub as Superman.

Rainbow Islands peculiarity I just remembered: there are 43 different bonuses you can pick up. It`s counting other things you pick up, or do, that contribute to what the next bonus item will be. I was never sure what happens when 2 bonuses are earned on a level, which takes priority, It was unclear.

The MOA-Burger birthday cake has been completed: a chocolate sponge with black cherries and cream in a rainbow sponge bap. There were construction issues, not least that a 2/3 layer needs some extra minutes to bake.

Trying, and thus far failing, to fit in the baking of MOAMETAL`s birthday cake between tennis and F1 televisual feasts. Still, we`ll get there, and I expect there is no shortage of cake, jelly and ice-cream. Happy birthday MOA!!!!!

Some of my AV equipment politely displays "Please wait" when I switch it off. I'm not clear what for. If it doesn't turn off on its own, what chance do I have of stopping it? The machines are rising up, and I want to be as far away as possible.

It's all very well having a tidy hi-fi tower, but where would we be without a wire or three?