Saturday 30 November 2013

Hetscheepvaartmuseum

I was in Amsterdam last weekend and had a spare hour to visit Hetscheepvaartmuseum, the Maritime Museum.
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (2)
My two primary aims were to visit the Globe and Navigation sections, but I'm always happy to wander around other exhibits in a museum like this.  It is a beautiful building, both externally and inside.

The globe gallery was awesome.
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (7)
Over 70 globes from large 68cm diameter ones to wee babes, pocket sized 6.75cm diameter.  There was understandably a good selection by the 17th century Johan Blaeu from Amsterdam.  This pocket one was by Joseph Moxon from London.
 13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (18)
Obviously there were not just terrestrial globes but celestial (navispheres) too.  This 23cm diameter one is by a French naval officer.
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (10)
A planetarium.
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (14)
A Telluruium, showing the movement of the earth around the sun.
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (15)
I then visited the Navigational Instruments section.
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (21)
These tobacco boxes have carvings on the lid to held calculate the speed of the ship.
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (23)
Sextants galore.
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (24)
A semi automatic sextant?
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (28)
Chronometer.
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (26)
Plumb line anyone?
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (30)
And a compass.
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (31)
I wandered out to the rigged ship, the Amsterdam, which is a replica of a VOC, Dutch East India Company, vessel which ran aground in the Channel in 1749.
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (3)
I could have stayed here all day.
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (35)
Messy chart cabinet.
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (38)
And a more modern variant, back inside the main museum.
13 11 23 Amsterdam - Maritime Museum (41)
And I even found a geo bag to buy.
13 11 24 Bag
A fun hour or so. A few more photos here.

Sunday 10 November 2013

Drive by Trig

I had set aside the day to bag some trigs but as I wasn't feeling great today, due to a stomach ache,  realised I had to do drive-by-trigs.  Fortunately the area around south Tiverton obliged me.

I started with TP6969 Windmill Down.  A mere hop over a fence and a bag of a lonely and quite exposed trig.
13 11 10 TP6969 Windmill Down (13)
13 11 10 TP6969 Windmill Down (8)
Fab views through the sight holes though!
13 11 10 TP6969 Windmill Down (10)
And from the top.
13 11 10 TP6969 Windmill Down (12)
Then it was off through the embryonic Dart River to the next one.
13 11 10 Dart Ford
TP4573, Lower Way, is up in a Devon hedge.  No problems there then.  Just a bit of a fight up through brambles and a lovely view.  I'm sometimes quite pleased I bag trigs alone as my commentary of "Aha, there you are.  Wow got you.  How are you?" would sound very weird.  Says I typing it out for everyone to read.
13 11 10 TP4573 Lower Way (5)
13 11 10 TP4573 Lower Way (4)
It was quite a fight to unearth the flush bracket on this one.
13 11 10 TP4573 Lower Way (7)
Next off was Crockers Down.  Another drive-by-trig up a random Devon lane with oodles of pheasants and no passing places.  The best way to find a trig.  A pretty suberb plinth for this one.
13 11 10 TP2593 Crockers Down (6)
Shame the top was so eroded.
13 11 10 TP2593 Crockers Down (5)
13 11 10 TP2593 Crockers Down (7)
And finally I headed to TP3396, Gogwell Farm.  A short off-road drive to get to this one, which confused the sat nav.
13 11 10 TP3396 Gogwell Farm (9)
Had to double-check the map before finding this one as I walked past it.  It's in the middle of the photo.
13 11 10 TP3396 Gogwell Farm (8)
See?
13 11 10 TP3396 Gogwell Farm (10)
Another damaged top.
13 11 10 TP3396 Gogwell Farm (12)

Friday 1 November 2013

Public Roll their Sleeves Up

I only read about this earlier but it's been going on for a while. The British Library are using Joe/Jo public to help them georeference their old digitised maps.  More here.  What an absolutely brilliant idea!  If you don't have enough man (woman) power yourself, ask the public.  There are loads of people more than happy and more than capable to help.  This is not safety critical so why not? Brilliant.  Well done whoever was inspired to do that.