Extractor part names

[Erichalfbee]

I did double maths, physics and art for A Level,

What did you do with those A levels, James?
Just curious.
I had a friend who with those same As went on to do astrophysics then became a renowned cat breeder.
Astrophysics can make you a rock star too

 

[enrico]

Calculators..... Pah!!!!! Sine and cosine books, a ruler, a pencil and a piece of paper. Even had an inkwell in my school desk!

 

[Newbeeneil]

Calculators..... Pah!!!!! Sine and cosine books, a ruler, a pencil and a piece of paper. Even had an inkwell in my school desk!

Pah!!!!! We all had inkwells, I bet some on here even had slates!

 

[pargyle]

Pah!!!!! We all had inkwells, I bet some on here even had slates!

Actually, at my infant school we did have slates in the early years and what I really likes was those fat chunky wax crayons for drawing pictures and poster paints that we mixed up from powder. My junior school had inkwells and I started to write in ink with a pen you dipped into the inkwell ... we used to make the ink up from powder as well and the ink monitors had the job of making it up and refilling the inkwells.

The 1950's were not that far away from Charles Dickens days in many respects ! Not quite quill pens but not that far off ...

 

[JamezF]

What did you do with those A levels, James?
Just curious.
I had a friend who with those same As went on to do astrophysics then became a renowned cat breeder.
Astrophysics can make you a rock star too

I did a Computer Science degree, then got involved in the Internet before most people even knew it existed and ended up running computer operations for an internet service provider. By 1999 I'd decided it was just too abusive a lifestyle and started working freelance until about eighteen months ago when I realised I'd just had enough of it all.

Still do a small amount of work for a couple of local companies that I consider worth the effort and really need to find a "proper" job at some point soon, though I think I might be too busy these days.

As it happens I do have a tangential interest in astrophysics and built my own observatory a couple of years back having been saying I'd do so for seven or eight years before that. Not quite finished:

And being used:

James

 

[pargyle]

Impressive ... like the sliding roof ...

 

[JamezF]

Impressive ... like the sliding roof ...

Much easier than making a rotating dome

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

Crikey James. I’m in awe. We are blessed with little light pollution here in west wales and I spend quite a bit of time gazing at the Milky Way. I really should make more of an effort in finding out what I’m looking at.

 

[JamezF]

Crikey James. I’m in awe. We are blessed with little light pollution here in west wales and I spend quite a bit of time gazing at the Milky Way. I really should make more of an effort in finding out what I’m looking at.

There's plenty to be seen just by getting comfortable on a reclining chair with a pair of binoculars. And whilst most of the planets are relatively low in the sky for the next few years, Jupiter and its four major moons and Saturn are always amazing to see. Seeing the shadow of one of Jupiter's moons pass across its atmosphere, or the shadow of Saturn across its rings are things I've always found gobsmacking. Sadly they're the other side of the solar system from us at the moment so we need to wait until the Autumn to get a really good view of them.

Even the Moon looks astonishing when you look at it closely though. One of my favourite things is seeing the "Earthshine" when the part of the Moon that isn't directly illuminated by the Sun is slightly lit by sunlight reflected off the Earth.

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

Yes...there are things you can see with a good pair of binoculars. I always imagine that nebula in Orion making stars.
Stan has a telescope...but it's packed away. I think he needs a nudge
I was lucky enough to see a couple of total solar eclipses and some where I have pictures of a transit of Venus across the sun that I took many years ago

 

[JamezF]

With apologies to the OP for completely derailing the thread, here are a few images of the moon Io passing in front of Jupiter that I captured about ten years ago. To give some sense of scale, Earth is about three and a half times the diameter of Io, which gives you some idea of how huge Jupiter actually is.

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

Wow. Io and shadow ......amazing. Thanks, James for posting and sorry from me too, @Kaz

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I did double maths, physics and art for A Level, but based on your son's age it would have been twelve years earlier. We covered log tables. Even had books of them. And trig tables too. Calculators were acceptable for the maths exams at least and in fact I still have the calculator I used then, but at least at one point we were expected to be able to use books of tables. Could be that we had to use tables for straight maths and were allowed calculators for further maths. I really can't recall.

On the other side of the coin my son did double maths, physics and chemistry for A Level, finishing school last year, and his courses covered all sorts of stuff we never even discussed the existence of. Stuff like quantum physics, field theory or anything to do with cosmology wasn't even talked about back then. If someone had mentioned something like the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram or Fermions and Bosons in our day the teachers would probably have gone into meltdown.

James

I had a Casio scientific calculator which had Polar to Rectangular and vice versa conversion facility. Electrical Engineering exams would have been very difficult to complete in the time allowed without it. Sadly it fell out of use and resided in a drawer for years until recently when I discovered it will no longer charge or turn on..

 

[Newbeeneil]

I had a Casio scientific calculator which had Polar to Rectangular and vice versa conversion facility. Electrical Engineering exams would have been very difficult to complete in the time allowed without it. Sadly it fell out of use and resided in a drawer for years until recently when I discovered it will no longer charge or turn on..

I had a Sinclair scientific which quirky as you had to enter everything's to the power of 10!