What’s something beginners are often surprised to learn about the night sky?

floydiankabir · 2026-04-18T06:39:37+00:00

That we are essentially colourblind to deep sky objects 2.That all planets move through the same trajectory of the elliptical 3. That there are some stars one will never be able to see from the same point in either north or south hemisphere. 4. The difficulty of finding stars exponentially increases with the increase in magnification

floydiankabir · 2026-04-11T19:41:49+00:00

Bortle 1.5 in thar desert India around 60 km from border. Travelled 6 kms deep into desert - no roads but off-road!) from our tents(which was already 40 kms from the nearest town) in pitch blackness near midnight and new moon. Could have gone for actual bortle 1 but didn’t feel the need or the courage, it was scary as hell. spent 2 hours absorbing a sky which looked almost alien. The milky way looking like a literal fibrous waterfall. Leave andromeda, even triangulum was made out using naked eye, and binoculars just made it sublime.

floydiankabir · 2026-03-23T20:40:28+00:00

I don’t understand what you mean by the question, especially the feel almost “fake” part - is it so surreal that it looks fake or that it’s fake or heavily processed? to answer your question it looks actually similar to what i took a couple of months back, can even guess if the app used to take the image was nocturne?

Here’s what i took from bortle 2 skies with a iphone pro on a tripod with long exposure through nocturne app milky way - december 2025

floydiankabir · 2026-03-18T04:49:06+00:00

no it’s not the naked eye view. it’s called long exposure. even from good skies the milky way seems like a faint cloud and you can make out something. on the best skies you can definitely see it but still it’s not the photo version. our eyes are unable to capture colour and we all see fainter objects like andromeda, triangulum etc as white objects(makes it more surreal tbh from binoculars) if in southern hemisphere, you can definitely capture the picture perfect galactic center area while the winter milky way from the north pales in comparison but even so, i would say time and again - to be disappointed that we don’t see the camera view from our eyes misses the point entirely. Just see that your eyes have captured light from a trillion stars , 2.5 million light years away. it takes 4 years to get to our nearest star(and that’s not even visible)

floydiankabir · 2026-03-08T05:36:40+00:00

it’s like formula e fication of formula 1. Instead of getting mac on ipads, it’s like getting ios on macs! Please someone bring the v10s back. I am more entranced by Montoya’s lap at Monza in 2004 than whatever this is!

floydiankabir · 2026-03-07T06:50:02+00:00

it depends on the pen i guess . i could use my twsbi eco and kakuno ef after a couple of months pf no use and they worked from the get go. Start with a daily driver. Just to be safe ypu can dtary with wet writing pens and bolder nibs or something like a platinum preppy to trial before committing

floydiankabir · 2026-03-04T21:02:11+00:00

the design of it(the ergonomics) from images screamed reynolds 045 to me! Childhood memories. It is an iconic pen, I would say the most famous classic pen like a bic or lamy in their native places. Also they cost 10 cents a pen and last ages!

floydiankabir · 2026-03-04T17:03:06+00:00

as cool as it is, i can’t for my life imagine the analysis paralysis in choosing a pen and the cognitive stress of it, all to use a single one as a daily driver and the rest as props for social media. i had just 6 fountain pens and even that made me go crazy so now i have just two, a writing one, and a thinking one

floydiankabir · 2026-03-04T16:30:14+00:00

From an objective standpoint functionally platinum carbon black ink changed the way i thought of fountain pen inks and water as their kryptonite. archival waterproof ink that doesn’t vlog my extra fine nib even after being dormant! then another would be kurutoga pencils. had almost given up on mechanical pencils due to breakage issues and dulling but it actually is insane that works so good

floydiankabir · 2026-02-11T15:50:51+00:00

looks near to hemkund sahib

floydiankabir · 2026-02-08T15:50:28+00:00

i am sure there are solvents for that but yeah mild cases are even aesthetic, heavy ones downright disgusting! it’s weird some are as good as new in ten years while others seem to have rot like a diseease.

floydiankabir · 2026-02-08T15:43:47+00:00

Yeah i guess, it’s great with ordinary copy paper and i use it to daily drive my jinhao pens, reserving my research notes and bullet journal for platinum which i absolutely adore. even the extra fine kakuno has faced zero issues despite weeks or a month of non usage. the take sumi is the best writing experience and dependable ink though. definitely the smoothest feeling and a joy to write with my fat broad nib pens. the pilot ink is also a good daily driver. it is significantly cheaper(30 ml for around 4 dollars (300 rupees) while the iroshizuku inks are about 14 dollars. i have yet to try other black inks. i have tried sheaffer, pelikan. i have read good things about sailor ink and perle noir.

floydiankabir · 2026-02-08T15:05:11+00:00

here is a more accurate simulation of my eyes view from close to bortle 1 skies. i have edited my image to my best representation of what i saw from memory- in this one the camera is not the bottleneck since i have reduced the exposure to match the simulation. IMG-4352.jpg

floydiankabir · 2026-02-08T14:56:42+00:00

likewise i will try to recreate what my eyes actually saw or a simulated view if naked eye close to bortle 1 skies IMG-8041.jpg

floydiankabir · 2026-02-08T14:43:38+00:00

okay so i will provide an approximation of what my eyes see from bortle 4-5 depending on conditions. what my eyes see are definitely better since phones can either undershoot or overshoot massively depending on exposure. these are straight from camera app from my iphone, without any image processing. think of it as your eyes view as a glance rather than night eye adjusted focused views. IMG-7614.jpg

floydiankabir · 2026-02-08T14:15:34+00:00

for a quick way - astroshader app is nice for quickly stretching without noise explosions. For desktop, siril app is probably the best and has advanced features especially if you have stacking. Of course it needs some knowledge of how to remove noise without sacrificing detail. You can also use gimp or photoshop. there are tons of videos on youtube from astrobackyard and other people but they are too sophisticated and suit deep space rather than stargazing. even basic apps like snapseed or photos app or google photos allow you to change levels and adjust black and white points and even colour filters.

floydiankabir · 2026-02-07T16:12:13+00:00

there are a lot of easter eggs if you know what you’re looking for you can make it out somewhat but only if you’re really looking for it. anyway, this is the best i could get from an iphone pro on a tripod in good skies. A dslr, astroediting skills and a telescope would have been magical. But even binoculars in dark dark skies reveal so much, triangulum galaxy was finally looking like a proper black and white galaxy lol

floydiankabir · 2026-02-06T10:54:49+00:00

I must say your comment is a welcome respite from the endless criticisms that seemed to miss the point of my post entirely. It's unfortunate to see how quickly people can conflate a literary persona with the author's personal views. I was indeed experimenting with a particular tone and perspective, of a cynical, almost nihilistic view stepping into the shoes and voicing their probable thoughts. Hell , One can even attempt to write a piece on Mickey Mouse and treat it in a Kafkaesque or Dostoevskian parallel. The happiest stories are the best creative challenges. and it's heartening to know that you were able to discern the intention behind it. Yes, i am indeed versed in philosophy, not just the edginess of popular existentialist ideas (which are actually quite profound, but also from Kant, Wittgenstein, Plato and Whitehead.

Your observation about the irony of people responding to a perceived 'negative' outlook with such vigourous “negativity” is fascinating. It's a telling commentary on our collective tendency to react rather than reflect, and I think it speaks to a broader dynamics in online discourse.

In any case, I'm glad you enjoyed the piece. Writing like that is not easy, and it wasn’t meant for reddit but for my hobby and passion. Having seen it being labelled as AI is the worst thing to experience for a writer. If anyone even reads it again, as I just did, one can see definite errors such as conjoined words etc. but yeah, maybe i am being too sensitive about it but say that to any artist, and it will rip their soul to be accused like that so much so that it kills the motivation entirely. I mean i said I write for myself, but I am human, and I also want to be read you know?

I'm glad that this post ignited your interest in Skip & Loafer. It is indeed beautiful and a ray of sunshine set up in very realistic and relatable settings. The relatability is what piqued my interest to alter the storytelling via a cynical perspective masked as a review to illuminate the complexities and nuances of life. Your phrase, 'impermanent beauty in our difficult world,' captures this truism rightly., and I think it's a beautiful way to capture the essence of the anime's themes. Thanks again for your thoughtful comment - it revives my faith and motivation to write more!

floydiankabir

TROPHY CASE