/ A minimal, responsive, and powerful Jekyll theme for presenting professional writing. 2022-07-27T20:37:42-05:00 A_Cable_Dog / Jekyll © 2022 A_Cable_Dog /assets/img/favicons/favicon.ico /assets/img/favicons/favicon-96x96.png 2022-05-15T00:00:00-05:00 2022-07-27T18:04:34-05:00 /posts/2022-Total-Lunar-Eclipse/ A_Cable_Dog

Tonight we observed the full lunar eclipse. Unlike previous lunar eclipses we’ve seen, the reduction of light being reflected from the moon and orange coloration of tonights event was very noticeable. Even though the photo from my phone is terrible, the view with the unaided eye was great. During a full lunar eclipse, the moon passes through the darkest part of the Earth’s shadow – the um...

2021-10-22T00:00:00-05:00 2022-07-27T20:33:39-05:00 /posts/Stacked-UHF-Antennas/ A_Cable_Dog

Today I relocated the antennas we use to receive the local TV stations. The days of having a dual band VHF/UHF TV antenna are long gone now that nearly all the TV stations have switched to UHF. Because of interference from the nearby train crossing I need an antenna that has high gain towards the front and low gain from the sides and back. Stacking two small UHF only antennas was a cheap and...

2021-10-20T00:00:00-05:00 2022-07-27T18:04:34-05:00 /posts/synology-home-automation-platform/ A_Cable_Dog

This is the first of several articles in which I’ll show how to setup a Docker based home automation platform using a Synology NAS. Running your home automation components using Docker containers is a lightweight alternative to bare metal or virtual machine implementations. Because of this they can be ran on many devices that are limited in CPU and memory resources such as NASs used by the av...

2021-08-08T00:00:00-05:00 2022-07-27T08:19:27-05:00 /posts/Generator-Doghouse-Build/ A_Cable_Dog

Just completed my “doghouse” build to help protect backup generator from the elements. Building the foundation for the little shed was challenging due to how much the ground slopes, but worth it. Not only is it a safe place to store the generator, but once the fuel is removed and generator moved away from the walls it also a nice flat place to run it from as well. The build consisted of a Cr...

2020-12-21T00:00:00-06:00 2022-07-27T18:04:34-05:00 /posts/2020-great-conjunction-of-Jupiter-and-Saturn/ A_Cable_Dog

Tonight I observed the great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the Kansas City night sky. Looking South-West after sunset the two planets were only .1 degree apart and looked like an elongated star to the unaided eye. Even though Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions happen every 20 years, tonights was the closest since 1623 and the closest observable since 1226! 2020’s extra-close Jupiter-Saturn co...