Testing old film.

Busy day checking some old Ilford HP5 plus, which has been in the freezer for at least 10 years.
Used a ‘two bath’ development formula from The Film developing Cookbook – Anchell/Troop:

The negative was scanned and inverted in P/S then a selenium brown tone added – nearest colour I can get to the Kodak brown I use in the darkroom. Other than that, not much else done with the image. As I have about 20 6×6 rolls, I can now quite confidently use it with just a slight reduction in my normal speed of ISO 320.

 

Leitz formula:-
To make 1 litre.

Bath A.

Metol 5  grams.
Sodium Sulphite anhydrous 100 grams.

Bath B.

Sodium Carbonate anhydrous 15 grams.
Sodium Sulphite anhydrous 6 grams,

Each bath made by adding chemicals into 2/3 of the water in the order written (add pinch of the Sodium Sulphite with Metol because on its own it will not easily dissolve) top up, making 1 litre. Store in brown litre bottles and as long as bath A is not contaminated with B, both should do at least 15 35/6×6 films.
Do not ‘pre-soak’ film before development; other than that, it is 3 to 4 mins @ 20deg.C with constant agitation (adjust for desired density) in A. Drain but don’t rinse, add bath B and again agitate as before, drain, stop, fix & wash……… Print or scan – whichever is your preferred method.

I have some base fog (age of film most likely) which is no real problem, but I may try adding Potassium Bromide (10ml of 10% solution) to bath A.

As you can see the negative has a good range and scanned with the minimum of correction. Which is why I used the two bath method, it is almost fool-proof in that it uses the same time for most films and speeds.

All this can be done with the minimum of equipment: no excuse if anyone wanted to try film and thought they couldn’t because they do not have the necessary darkroom & enlarger.

Rosetta’s lander Philae.

Rosetta’s lander Philae has landed on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

Philae_s_primary_landing_site_mosaicPhilae’s primary landing site mosaic.

On 6 August 2014, the Rosetta mission achieved a significant milestone by becoming the first mission to rendezvous with a comet. During the coming months, Rosetta will orbit the comet, deploy the Philae lander and accompany the comet through perihelion (August 2015) until the nominal end of the mission. During its 10 year journey towards comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, the spacecraft has passed by two asteroids: 2867 Steins (in 2008) and 21 Lutetia (in 2010). The spacecraft entered deep-space hibernation mode in June 2011, and ‘woke up’ on 20 January 2014.

Journey milestones:
1st Earth gravity assist: 4 March 2005
Mars gravity assist: 25 February 2007
2nd Earth gravity assist: 13 November 2007
Asteroid Steins flyby: 5 September 2008
3rd Earth gravity assist: 13 November 2009
Asteroid Lutetia flyby: 10 July 2010
Enter deep space hibernation: 8 June 2011
Exit deep space hibernation: 20 January 2014
Comet rendezvous manoeuvres: May – August 2014
Arrival at comet: 6 August 2014
Philae lander delivery: November 2014
Closest approach to Sun: 13 August 2015

rolis_web_img5The comet seen by Philae from 40 metres above the surface. ESA/Rosetta/Philae/ROLIS/DLR

Touchdown was confirmed at ESA’s Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany at 16:03 GMT/17:03 CET on 12 November. Studying the first data returned from the lander, revealed the astonishing conclusion that the lander did not just touch down on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko once, but three times.

ESA_Rosetta_OSIRIS_FirstTouchdown-1024x702The mosaic comprises a series of images captured by Rosetta’s OSIRIS camera over a 30 minute period spanning the first touchdown. The time of each of image is marked on the corresponding insets and is in GMT. A comparison of the touchdown area shortly before and after first contact with the surface is also provided.

The images were taken with Rosetta’s OSIRIS narrow-angle camera when the spacecraft was 17.5 km from the comet centre, or roughly 15.5 km from the surface. They have a resolution of 28 cm/pixel and the enlarged inserts are 17 x 17 m.

Above images and information obtained from ESA web site.

A fantastic achievement: I wonder what discoveries are going to be made in the coming months ?

This is as important as watching the first moon landings. I still have lots of news clippings & magazine articles, not to mention that famous Earth image. I could never have believed that a mission landing an object on a comet would be achieved in my lifetime. Moore’s Law has a lot to answer for  🙂

5 November 1605.

 From a transcript of the: Examination of Jhon Jhonsone (sic), 5 November 1605.

And confesseth that when the king hadd come to the parliament house this present day, and the upper house hadd bene sitting, he meant to have fored the match and have fledd for his owin safety before the Powder had taken fier, And confesseth that if he had not ben apprehended this last night, he hadd blowen upp the upper house, when the King, Lords, Bishops and others hadd ben there………

nationalarchives.gov.uk

The attempted removal of James I of England VI of Scotland and his whole parliament, by blowing them up on the eve of the state opening of the second session of James’s first English Parliament.

Music I like.

“La nina de las flores” from La Juderia album, Yasmin Levy.

I gave a girl a flower
And I called her the flower girl
Thus, for many years
His head was adorned
And I smelled her scent

And one day the girl disappeared
And I knew I would not see her any more

And in the middle of the road
I saw a flower a little tired
And I knew that was the flower
From my girl
From flower girl.

Been playing this album on my Landrover stereo and all I can say is ……..  Gosh what a voice !

 

Old Door Fittings.

Old door fittingsOld Door Fittings.

Just a small addition – I was going to Masirah on Thursday (work, yes I do sometimes 🙂 )   BUT !!

See the island just above 20 deg Nth – well that is Masirah and maybe I will just wait & see (The gods were with me once but twice is pushing my luck) it may die in he next few days, we shall see.

na201404_5dayImage from Wunderground.com