SHROPSHIRE

The chain of seven radio-astronomy dishes across England, including Knockin, make up the existing Merlin network (Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network). Signals from the seven dishes are combined to create a clearer picture of the universe. The seven telescopes which make up the array are sited at Knockin, Defford, Pickmere, Darnhall and Cambridge, together with the Lovell telescope (third largest of its kind in the world) and Jodrell Bank's smaller Mark II telescope. Knockin is a 'robotic' site. The telescope is remotely controlled from Jodrell Bank. It's visited once a week by engineers who carry out routine maintenance work. The telescope was built in 1976, sending back the first data a year later, and was part of the phase one development of Merlin. The Cambridge dish was the last to be added to the network in 1991.

Blue Moon - Chris Isaak Ella Fitzgerald - Blue Moon. Super blue blood moon reminds us that despite chaos on Earth, the heavens are still operating like clockwork.

Walford and North Shropshire College pond, icy and covered in a thin layer of powder snow.

Erithacus rubecula, robin redbreast, taken through glass. Note the snowflakes on his leg.

This thrush had been pecking around the roots of a small box hedge, eventually unearthing a large earthworm. Spending about 10 minutes in roughly the same place, it allowed me to get the camera focused through the window to get some interesting photos, but I missed the worm capture.

The cream coloured building is part of the Market Hall. The building in the foreground is above some very nondescript shops.

The English Bridge in Shrewsbury is a masonry arch viaduct, crossing the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. The present bridge is a 1926 rebuilding and widening (re-using the original masonry) of John Gwynn's design, completed in 1774. It cost £86,000 and was formally opened on 26 October 1927 by Queen Mary, although it had been completed the previous year. Ward's bridge reused the old masonry, each stone carefully numbered, as well as a quantity of new stonework. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Bridge It is one of 9 bridges crossing the river. The Severn had burst its banks that day, and we had to climb over a locked gate to use the upper pathway. The church is Shrewsbury United Reform Church,

Saturday Self Challenge: Long exposure. It would have been good to have a Neutral density filter in front of the lens and place the camera on a tripod! The shutter speed I used was 0.5. I converted the photo into B&W and used the ND filter in SilverEffex to darken the photo a fraction. Using a longer shutter speed, the white van disappeared totally, as did most of the rest of the photo. ;-) The PIPs show a colour version and an inverted image.

Managed to get a bit further than the back garden this week. :-)) This fence encloses part of the field of our local village school.

Managed a walk of about 1.5 miles along the canal there and back before it got too hot. Then had to go for a lie down. ;-)

A cooler and cloudier day made it better for a walk around out local town. The return trip:

A bronze monument of Clive India, M.P. for the borough of Shrewsbury in 1761 and its Mayor in 1762, stands proudly in the town square. It was erected as a memorial to Robert Clive of India in 1860.