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Halley's Comet Will Return in 2061
I plan to photograph the comet as it makes another pass around the Sun, and near the Earth, during that return.
In 1986 I photographed the comet as a high school Physics class project. At the time I thought I did a good job of it. In retrospect I could have done better.
Most of my youthful mistakes are settled, in the past, and can never be corrected. In this one particular case, however, I think I can take another shot and reach a more successful outcome. I can be prepared when Halley's Comet returns: equipped, and practiced in astrophotography, ready to capture the comet on film, better than last time.
So What Do I Do in the Meantime?
A main theme of my next thirty-five years will be persisting through all of them. It becomes a kind of survivalist project though with an unusually specific time frame.
Many modern survivalists focus on specific and impending threats; from being laid off, to being without power and water due to storm damage, to war coming to American shores, even civilization-ending events like a coronal mass ejection frying all electronics, or a Cumbre Vieja tsunami wiping out the East Coast of the United States.
For my project a major requirement is to still have the physical and mental ability to travel to suitable sites and take night sky photographs thirty-five years from now.
It is a small but important distinction from ordinary prepping: I have to plan against internal threats first, and all the usual external threats second. I have to maintain physical and mental health for at least thirty-five more years. I have to generate enough income to support that effort for the duration. Plus, I have to stay occupied: involved in enough activities the whole time to not get bored and be tempted to give up and check out early.
Okay, So What Do I DO in the Meantime?
That's the question I'm working on answering right now. This site is a tool for exploring the question.
Early indications are that I'll need to exercise regularly, eat healthily, and start a business. I'll age out of the workforce eventually. It's not physically demanding, so I could try to stay in my profession as long as physically possible. However, I've reached a point where the job, well, it doesn't add to my desire for longevity. Something else will have to take its place and the sooner, the better.
Digital Scrapyard
This is a digital scrapyard. There's no true start or end to it, but here we are. It was inspired by and adapted from the digital garden concept.
The main purpose of the scrapyard is to provide raw materials and an R&D site to support Bellerophon Observatory and related activities. The observatory's primary mission is a thirty-five year intra-planetary space voyage, concluding with an observation of Halley's Comet on its next return in 2061.
In a voyage of that length, with that sort of goal, many of the related activities will concern the health, safety, and well being of the mission crew, as well as everything else one might do to stay occupied and not get bored over thirty-five years.
Here we dump out and pick through ideas that have been accumulating over the last forty or fifty years: sorting them into categories and grading them. Ripping some apart for salvageable parts, smelting any half-baked schemes, fluxing out the pure good ideas, and throwing out the dross.
Like in any scrapyard, there are a number boats lying around. Some may get restored, some may be scrapped and discarded soon, and some may never be more than drawings. At the edge of the scrapyard is a workshop, GIMA Norfolk, trying to maintain and manufacture, to fend off entropy. There's also some notes on linux commands I find particularly interesting.
In the workshop are machine tools, screen printing equipment, tools, and the physical remains of countless projects, including several reproductions of the U.S. Navy zarf, the remains of many years and several attempts at different kinds of education, and a fair amount of random stuff, much of which needs to be discarded.
This digital scrapyard isn't only focused on matters inside the fence. It is a vantage point from which to watch comets and other celestial objects. The operable boats are used to make waterway videos, shot from a camera mast made to mount a GoPro camera.
Despite our focus on the stars and the future we don't forget the world right around us. We are equally focused on practical matters such as floor joists, crown molding, and kitchen cabinets.