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I enjoy reading all the details but I won't lie I doubt I would have the time to invest in such a hobby to the degree you do... I tend to point and click with my phone, look at the results and think " Well that turned out shit" then delete it... I have seriously thought about getting a telescope though but reckon I would have to tell the missus I got it to spy on the neighbours because I don't think she would believe I got it to look at the moon and night sky in more detail..

Taking decent moon pictures with a smartphone is nearly impossible, you usually end up with a tiny bright blob...If it has manual controls then you can play around with them, reducing exposure, etc for better results, but it will still be disappointing and won't show any detail. I have taken some decent moon shots with a DSLR, and even then it can be quite tricky as the moon is so bright it fools the lightmeter into trying to average out the bright celestial body with the dark sky, so you end up with overexposed shots again. A tripod, a telephoto lens (at least 200-300mm) is a must, and then finding the right exposure is key. Simple exposure compensation of at least two steps back might work, but I always got best results with spot metering and focusing on the brightest spot on the moon so the exposure goes down to around 1/125s minimum. I know those detaisl probably do not interest you at all, but I love talking about it

Next up-date please, photos if you can, you might spot @Bluewolf flying around up there with a spade & shovel.

I think that if we can get someone experienced to join the team and shoulder the tougher periods it would bode very well for us in the longer run. I am unsure what Pepe's injury record is but I do know hes the kind of defender who is no-nonsense. Having said all that Klopp has other defenders in the team who will be tried first and as Pep Lindjers suggested before Fabinho is someone that they can slotted into that position should the need arise. All that remains to be seen now is how bad the injury to Thiago is. I am confident if we dont lose him to injury then this storm can be weathered. As much as we like to say that Gomes and Matip aren't reliable there was a time when both of them were actually really really good so I am hoping this opportunity brings that back to the fore again.

So cool @nudge. And as @Bluewolf says, so clear. Almost like you could look at it all day.

The pictures don't do it justice... the actual view is breathtaking.

The Clarity.... amazing

He's still a great CB and Pepe has been much more disciplined since the end of Mourinho era at Real Madrid. A guy like him would be a decent addition for Liverpool considering the circumstances. It's harder to get a long-term fix like Koundé or Upamecano in January because Sevilla and Leipzig have ambitious goals for this season and I kinda suspect Liverpool might be saving its bullets to move for Mbappé next summer. But I guess van Dijk's injury could change FSG's plans.

Two Moon shots I took last month using a friend's scope.

The telescope arrived today... took a while to set it up and allign the finder etc, but I think I'm done now. Will try to do first observations tonight, wanted to properly check the Moon first due to how close it is, but sadly it's not the best phase for it now as just a small part of it is illuminated... Venus, Mars and Saturn should apparently have good to perfect visibility tonight, so I'll just try to check them out first.

I’d buy someone expensive in January now, just in case Virgil’s never the same. Best case scenario, we end up with a very ridiculously nice CB pairing when he’s back. But I think it’s wise to plan for the worst with a bad knee injury. Don’t want to be relying on him but he’s always injured like Sturridge was. But hopefully they big man makes a full recovery and comes back strong.

I can see some sense in that but January is a long ways off and there are a lot of games which will come before then. The problem with bringing someone in, even an experienced CB, is that they will need to be integrated and that takes a bit of time. Add to the fact that our defensive line seems to have players who rotate in and out with injuries so its not an assured solution because the two CBs could potentially be swapping around even if you get one who is more experienced. Mind you, I wouldn't mind Pepe at Liverpool. Bit of nastiness and a drive is never a bad thing.

I can see why you are still single now...

Sigh. It's by far more complicated. Once the pandemic hit, Thailand stopped issuing tourist visas altogether. A while ago, they came up with an idea to create something called "special tourist visa" for citizens of countries they deem to be not affected by the virus, which is essentially a 9 month visa (3 months initially with possibility to extend it for 3 more months twice), and to get it, you were supposed to fulfill certain requirements - negative corona test upon entry, multiple testing when in land, 100000$ health insurance with covid coverage, 14 day quarantine upon arrival, tracing app afterwards. Anyway, to be granted the visa, you also had to provide paid receipts of flight and hotel bookings as well as pay the visa fees. Nothing unusual, except Thai government decided to suspend all already issued "special tourist visas" less than 48 hours before first groups of tourist were supposed to arrive claiming the infrastructure was not yet ready for that, and refused to refund any money for charter flights or hotels or anything else for those who were already flying in. The truth is, there was barely any interest for this "special tourist visa" ; Thailand tourism authorities were hoping to attract a lot of rich Chinese with it, but quite clearly nobody wants to spend their holiday quarantining in expensive hotels and having to report to the immigration authorities every time you move around in the country. So since this experiment failed before it even started, Thailand decided to re-introduce the regular tourist visa (2 months) they offered before covid, but added an extra requirement of 15000€ in a bank account in the last 6 months in order to limit the number of applications, as what they badly want now are some rich tourists to boost their economy while still keeping the overall number of tourists low during the pandemic, not hordes of cheap charlies chugging Chang beer on the beach 24/7. What they don't realise is that not many people will be interested in a month of holiday if they have to go through a bureaucratic nightmare to get a visa and then have to spend half of their holiday locked in a hotel room... Meanwhile, a lot of people with valid visas, families and livelihoods in Thailand - including actual Thai nationals - aren't allowed to enter the country because contrary to rich tourists, they are not considered to be walking ATMs and are therefore useless.

@Devil-Dick Willie https://theconversation.com/issues-that-swung-elections-the-dramatic-and-inglorious-fall-of-joh-bjelke-petersen-115141

QLD is weird. No senate = unparalleled state level power. Which means the libs get 4 outrageously dangerous years for the state, but even qlders who can't so much as read understand their world has gone to shit and boot them out again. If WA splits I'm jumping over, hot weather or no

Someone over here took a private test the other day which came back positive. Caused an entire office to be evacuated and deep cleaned. Then took an actual certified government test and turned out to be a false negative within a matter of hours. Still my cousin was at the shop said he saw two people buying multiple 12 packs of toilet roll. Literally insane, it was one thing the first time but having been through a full lockdown and the shops being open all the way through how can you be so dumb over a small scare months later?