A plan to catch lightning :)

[Seri]

I never quite grew out of being a Tomboy. I never wanted to be a boy, but realised that I could have it both ways. I could do boy things without having to put up with all the disadvantages of swapping my spare x for a y, like having to shave.

Even as a child I would delight in taking things like Hoovers apart, to see how they worked, but, to my mother’s dismay, after satisfying my curiosity, I was not half as interested in the task of putting them back together again properly.

But nowadays I like making things, and so I was really intrigued to find this French photographer’s site. It was all down to 'Rie, really. Through being so impressed with her lightning photograph, I looked in a book I have on night photography for tips on how to do this, and it mentioned a gadget called a ‘lightning detector’. My subsequent search for this led me to a site full of all sorts of other goodies too, so I wanted to share it in case there are any other electronically literate people here who’d also like to experiment with these home-made toys

The bought version of these things are around £120. His versions just take time and a few euros.

My electronic skills are very elementary, but I do have all the essential tools, meters and components, and I know how to wield a soldering iron, fix very basic problems with stage sound equipment, do wiring around the home, and read a circuit diagram. So I’m just wondering if anyone here could tell me if this guy’s plans look viable?

it seems that the main advantage of using this over bulb is to make the lightning sharper, but I also like the effect of longer exposures. I’m also wondering if it could be used to capture things like a lighthouse beam, but I suppose that depends on how sensitive it is to light.

I'd be very interested to hear all views on this

www.fotokonijnenberg.co.uk/product/1570298/patchmaster-lightning-trigger-for-canon-model-1.html

rienquepourlesyeux.free.fr/indexEN.htm

And here's one of the bought kind

www.fotokonijnenberg.co.uk/productlist/75468/patchmaster.html?

Cheers,

Seri

[mariehass]

Very interesting, Seri.

I think I would get the bought kind. I will check it out here US.

'Rie

[Stevewebb]

It looks entirely plausible to me. If his pictures in the gallery were done with it then I think that bodes well.

I like the look of his IR detector for water drops and the like. I fancy a go at that. Now where did i put my Maplins catalogue

[Seri]

Jul 19, 2012 11:13:40 GMT mariehass said:

Very interesting, Seri.

I think I would get the bought kind. I will check it out here US.

'Rie

Let me know what you find. I'll be fascinated to see the results too

Did you have any luck with the storms due yesterday?

[Seri]

Jul 19, 2012 12:34:36 GMT Stevewebb said:

It looks entirely plausible to me. If his pictures in the gallery were done with it then I think that bodes well.

That's what I'm hoping too

I like the look of his IR detector for water drops and the like. I fancy a go at that. Now where did i put my Maplins catalogue

Looking through those toys is really intriguing. There seem to be so many other uses they can be put to in addition to the stated ones. Plenty for the mind to work on

And my Maplins catalogue is five years out of date, but I love looking through it all the same

[mariehass]

No chance. They came while I was working or in transit. I debated stepping out of my car, but the sheer volume of Cloud to Ground lightning, I was too scared. ;D

'Rie

[Seri]

Sneaking in behind your back, eh?

I'm a lifelong lightning groupie, but even I can get spooked by it sometimes.

Last year Spratlet and I were standing at the door to our garden, looking out at a fine show coming in over the sea, when we both felt our bodies tingle, and then the hair visibly started rising from our heads. We knew what it meant (how nice to be a Van der Graaf generator ;D), but also couldn't be bothered to crouch at that late stage, and the lightning blazed down onto our roof and garden.......and the noise! Magnificent! And then we couldn't stop giggling from the joy of it all.

We adrenalin junkies must get our fixes somehow, and in another life and country, I would have been a storm chaser

[mariehass]

Seri,

I stand in the doorway with the door open watching the lightning. Pete gobbles in the background that I will get struck (something like the sky is falling, the sky is falling). Electrical storms make me giddy....and restless.

'Rie

[Seri]

'Rie, how wonderful! Another being on this earth who understands

Any powerful storm gives me an almost constant frisson and the feeling that time is suspended, and that the lightning is ripping open the sky to show a glimpse of another dimension. To know the science of it all never spoils that other perception of it, I find

My ex was in an almost constant state of gobbling over my preferred activities He would sit opposite me at the table whenever I commenced to eat any dish containing wild fungi. He quite ruined the experience as he sat there, white-faced, staring at my face, his fingers already hovering above the A&E number, and watching for the slightest sign of toxicity

He refused to even partake of the finest chanterelles that I would gather, and, needless to say, he did not share my fascination for storms either. His fear of life constantly clashed with my love of it. He was a good man at heart, but it was not meant to be.

The line between a caring partner and a neurotic one is thin, and in his mind he was only trying to protect me from harm. Had he not tried to constrict my life so much as a result it would have lasted. Had he been like Pete, it would have.

From the age of two, Spratlet would rush outside to run around in the heaviest rainstorms without any raincoat. The neighbours would tut and predict pneumonia, but I never stopped her. Even now, at 21, she still loves to dance in the rain, and to see her laughing and looking up to the sky while the rain washes over her is a sight which takes my breath away. God help the man who ever makes the mistake of trying to stop her

'Rie. I'm in the mood to slightly hijack my own thread in this post and send you a poem by W.H.Auden. I don't know if you know it, but it is on topic in a way. It concerns the sadness of a life unlived. And that is something you and I will never have to regret - not if our love of storms is anything to go by

AS I WALKED OUT ONE EVENING

As I walked out one evening,
Walking down Bristol Street,
The crowds upon the pavement
Were fields of harvest wheat.

And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway:
'Love has no ending.

'I'll love you, dear, I'll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,

'I'll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.

'The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.'

But all the clocks in the city
Began to whirr and chime:
'O let not Time deceive you,
You cannot conquer Time.

'In the burrows of the Nightmare
Where Justice naked is,
Time watches from the shadow
And coughs when you would kiss.

'In headaches and in worry
Vaguely life leaks away,
And Time will have his fancy
To-morrow or to-day.

'Into many a green valley
Drifts the appalling snow;
Time breaks the threaded dances
And the diver's brilliant bow.

'O plunge your hands in water,
Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
And wonder what you've missed.

'The glacier knocks in the cupboard,
The desert sighs in the bed,
And the crack in the tea-cup opens
A lane to the land of the dead.

'Where the beggars raffle the banknotes
And the Giant is enchanting to Jack,
And the Lily-white Boy is a Roarer,
And Jill goes down on her back.

'O look, look in the mirror,
O look in your distress:
Life remains a blessing
Although you cannot bless.

'O stand, stand at the window
As the tears scald and start;
You shall love your crooked neighbour
With your crooked heart.'

It was late, late in the evening,
The lovers they were gone;
The clocks had ceased their chiming,
And the deep river ran on.