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Chess for Android v4.5

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It has been a while since the last update, since I have been a bit busy at work, but I finally had some time for two new features in Chess for Android, version 4.5 now available through the playstore or as direct download : Spoken chess text (option to announce all moves) Retrieve position function (direct link with Gerhard Roth's OCR app ) To enable the new chess speech feature, simply press the menu button, select "Options", and then enable the "Spoken Moves" option (see check-mark below). After that, Chess for Android announces the chess moves made on the board, as well as the final outcome of the game. For now, only the english language is supported. A follow-up posting will go into more detail on the OCR feature.

Chess for Android on a Smartwatch

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A few days back I got a very kind email from Branko with some pictures of Chess for Android running on a Galaxy Gear smartwatch. I never tested a much smaller screen, and was glad the scalable drawing methods displayed the board rather well. Thanks Branko for these pictures and your nice email!

Eyepiece Projection Continued

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Because the 26mm eyepiece does not fit in the Meade basic camera adapter, and the 9.7mm eyepiece has too much light loss in my modest Meade ETX-90EC, I purchased a 15mm eyepiece. This eyepiece fits comfortably in the adapter. Less magnification than the 9.7mm eyepiece, of course, but therefore also less light loss. Below already a quick result (taken at dawn) together with two pictures from the September 7 posting (taken during the day) for comparison. The slight curvature in the picture is a bit worrisome, still have to look more into that. Can't wait though to try some real astrophotography with the new eyepiece. prime focus (rear port) 9.7mm eyepiece projection (adapter) 15mm eyepiece projection (adapter)

Prime focus vs. eyepiece projection

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Since the moon is back at a normal hour, I could do some more experiments with astrophotography. Below a comparison between prime focus and 9.7mm eyepiece projection photograph of the moon using an Meade ETX-90EC. Disappointing result for the latter, since a digital zoom on the prime focus photo is much more clear.

Astrophotography

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If you are following me on Facebook or Google+, you probably noticed that lately I have been less busy with chess programming . Instead I have been spending  free time at my Meade ETX-90EC telescope getting familiar with astrophotography . Here are some of my first pictures using prime focus configuration (single shot manual exposure, using mirror lockup and remote control to minimize vibrations).  I really like the clarity of the moon picture and was happy seeing the ring of Saturn so clearly. I also tried eyepiece projection configuration , but found this extremely challenging. Due to the inherent light loss at higher magnifications, it is very hard to find and focus the object (hints from experienced astrophotographers welcome!). Today I have been experimenting with the different configurations during daytime. Below you see some sample pictures of my neighbors house number sign, taken with the camera's 300mm telelens for reference and three ETX configurations (n