Displaying the most recent of 41 posts written by

Russell Shilling

Cut Optimization

This past weekend, I was thinking about cut optimization. This is a method for planning cuts to produce the most pieces of given sizes out of a quantity of material of some length with minimum waste. This was brought about by the planning process involved in building a new garden railway trestle. (I’ll cover the […]

Total Solar Eclipse 2017

Our eclipse photos were taken with a Pentax K-50 using a 200 mm lens. Right after start of occlusion. Totality. If you click on the image, I believe that Mars and Mercury are visible (about 3 o’clock and 8 o’clock, respectively). “Diamond Ring.” Near end of eclipse.

Glamping in Madras

We spent the (long) weekend of August 17-22 in Madras, Oregon so we could see the 2017 eclipse. Madras is in the path of totality, but just out of town there was Solar Town, dead center in the path. We got a “Glamping” (Glamorous Camping) package, which got us a very large tent (including set-up […]

Garden Railway Construction

I got permission from the boss to build a garden railway in our backyard largely because I am going to put it in the previously uncivilized portion of the yard. So, step one is to civilize the wild parts. A couple of years ago, I began an ivy eradication project. There must have been 1,000 […]