Lamp Update

Been busy making the bases for the lamps. There are many tools required to accomplish this. I used to do a lot of woodworking about 24 years ago. Most of these tools were put away so I could remodel...four homes (just need a hammer for that). I had to relearn some skills so I wouldn't waste precious wood (white oak). Well, things are moving along and I still have all my fingers! I'm looking forward to doing some glasswork, but I still have some work to do on the bases. Right now, I'm making mortise and tenon joints for the framing of the glass in the lower part of the lamp. This is where the night light will go. More on that later. This lamp will have a lower stained-glass box and an upper lamp shade. I figured if I'm going to make something I might as well make it difficult. I think the part that is kind of a drag is that to make 5 lamps requires the same cuts to be made over and over. Fortunately, I only have to measure once and repeat...many times. The cuts tend to be more uniform and accurate if done all at the same time. I'm not crazy about making things repetitive, but it's the most efficient way to do this. Stay tuned as this project is just getting started.

Final lampshade design

Nothing fancy here...just a lot of routing and wood dust.

White oak ready to be made into lamps.

Bag of lamp parts. I didn't realize how many parts a lamp has.

This is just a few of the tools required to make these lamps come to life.

This tool is for making mortises (square holes).

Unfinished lamp bases...still a lot of work to do.

This tool is for making tenons on the table saw. 

 

Helix Nebula a.k.a. The Eye of God

 I took this image of the Helix Nebula in 2021 here in Tsukahara, Japan. A total of 21 hours of subs in Ha and OIII. I tried something new with color masks to bring out some of the faint details in Ha. Adam Block's fine tutorials was the key to this image along with some help from Russell Croman's BXT, NXT, and SXT. Adam was able to bring out the blue, OIII, in the outer shells. I think I need more imaging time to make that possible. In his description of the nebula, he noted near the center of the Helix is a star that is slowly shedding its outer shell as it dies. This creates enormous winds that blow the pillar shaped gasses away from the core of the nebula. What I find fascinating is that these pillars of gas also create shadows (whch can be seen in this image...barely) that look like dark streaks. You have probably seen this nebula on television shows like Cosmos, Nova, Star Trek, etc. as it is quite stunning.