Chris Howard's Blog, page 2
August 6, 2025
Backyard astro: another narrowband shot of the Tulip Nebula Sh2-101 in Hydrogen-alpha, 60 x 5-minute…
Backyard astro: another narrowband shot of the Tulip Nebula Sh2-101 in Hydrogen-alpha, 60 x 5-minute exposures stacked in PixInsight, rotated so that it’s more like a tulip. SH2-101 is 6,000 lightyears away, just a short hop from us on the Orion arm of the Milky Way galaxy.
More on my blog: https://ChrisHowardWriter.com
August 4, 2025
Possibly my favorite Cardiacs album, On Land and in the Sea, but since no one’s making me choose…
Possibly my favorite Cardiacs album, On Land and in the Sea, but since no one’s making me choose one, I won’t. This is the 2025 Vinyl remaster of the 1989 album in blue vinyl, which does make it extra special. This just arrived in the mail, along with a cool shirt and button! #cardiacs #OnLandAndInTheSea #blueVinyl
August 3, 2025
The Tulip in Hydrogen-alpha: Tulip Nebula Sh2-101 and the surrounding HII region in Cygnus, centered…
The Tulip in Hydrogen-alpha: Tulip Nebula Sh2-101 and the surrounding HII region in Cygnus, centered on the open star cluster NGC 6871. Most of this is around six or seven thousand lightyears away from us, and to give you a sense of the size of this region: that bright tulip shape is over 600 trillion kilometers wide (top to bottom in this rotation).
Gear details: William Optics SpaceCat 51 Apochromatic refractor (250mm fl, f/4.9), ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro cooled monochrome camera, ZWO AM5 Harmonic Drive EQ mount, Antlia 3nm Ha filter, 60x300-second subs, 5 hours total integration time. Location: backyard, coastal New Hampshire, US.
August 1, 2025
The Space Cat was already set up and ready to go, so that’s what I’m imaging with tonight. The…
The Space Cat was already set up and ready to go, so that’s what I’m imaging with tonight. The William Optics Space Cat 51, 250mm Focal length, F/4.9 Petzval Apochromatic Ref. and the ZWO AM5 Strainwave EQ mount on the backyard pier. I have the ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro Monochrome camera with the 3nm narrowband 48mm filter set on tonight, Ha, OIII, SII, but haven’t picked a target yet! #WilliamOptics #SpaceCat #ZWOAM5 #astrophotography #astronomy
Red-tailed Hawk on our backyard fence, just hangin’ out, looking for squirrels. The sun is finally…
Red-tailed Hawk on our backyard fence, just hangin’ out, looking for squirrels. The sun is finally out and I’m going to set up my astro gear in a bit. Nikon D750, 300mm f/5.6.
dduane:
ubercharge:
petermorwood:
literallybyronic:
ubercharge...
I saw and reblogged this one a while back, but it’s always worth repeating, and this time I’m adding a bit of background info comparing common fantasy sword features to the Real Thing (with pictures, of course.)
Leaf-bladed swords are a very popular fantasy style and were real, though unlike modern hand-and-a-half longsword versions, the real things were mostly if not always shortswords.
Here are Celtic bronze swords…
…Ancient Greek Xiphoi…
… and a Roman “Mainz-pattern” gladius…
Saw or downright jagged edges, either full-length or as small sections (often where they serve no discernible purpose) are a frequent part of fantasy blades, especially at the more, er, imaginatively unrestrained end of the market.
Real swords also had saw edges, such as these two 19th century shortswords, but not to make them cool or interesting. They’re weapons if necessary…
…but since they were carried by Pioneer Corps who needed them for cutting branches and other construction-type tasks, their principal use was as brush cutters and saws.
This dussack (cutlass) in the Wallace Collection is also a fighting weapon, like the one beside it…
…but may also have had the secondary function of being a saw.
A couple of internet captions say it’s for “cutting ropes” which makes sense - heavy ropes and hawsers on board a ship were so soaked with tar that they were often more like lengths of wood, and a Hollywood-style slice from the Hero’s rapier (!!) wouldn’t be anything like enough to sever them. However swords like this are extremely rare, which suggests they didn’t work as well as intended for any purpose.
I photographed these in Basel, Switzerland, about 20 years ago. Look at the one on the bottom (I prefer the basket-hilt schiavona in the middle).
A lot of “flamberge” (wavy-edge) swords actually started out with conventional blades which then had the edges ground to shape - the dussack, that Basel broadsword and this Zweihander were all made that way.
The giveaway is the centreline: if it’s straight, the entire blade probably started out straight.
Increased use of water power for bellows, hammers and of course grinders made shaping blades easier than when it had to be done by hand. This flamberge Zweihander, however, was forged that way.
Again, the clue is the centre-line.
Incidentally thoseParierhaken (parrying hooks - a secondary crossguard) are among the only real-life examples of another common fantasy feature - hooks and spikes sticking out from the blade.
Here are some rapiers and a couple of daggers showing the same difference between forged to shape and ground to shape. The top and bottom rapiers in the first picture started as straights, and only the middle rapier came from the forge with a flamberge blade.
There’s no doubt about this one either.
The reason - though that was a part of it - wasn’t just to look cool and show off what the owner could afford (any and all extra or unusual work added to the price) but may actually have had a function: a parry would have been juddery and unsettling for someone not used to it, and any advantage is worth having.
However, like the saw-edged dussack, flamberge blades are unusual - which suggests the advantage wasn’t that much of an advantage after all.
Here’s a Circassian kindjal, forged wiggly…
…and an Italian parrying dagger forged straight then ground wiggly…
There were also parrying daggers with another fantasy-blade feature, deep notches and serrations which in fantasy versions often resemble fangs or thorns.
These more practical historical versions are usually called “sword-breakers” but I prefer “sword-catcher”, since a steel blade isn’t that easy to break. Taking the opponent’s blade out of play for just long enough to nail him works fine.
NB - the curvature on the top one in this next image is AFAIK because of the book-page it was copied from, not the blade itself.
The missing tooth on that second dagger, and the crack halfway down this next one’s blade, shows what happens when design features cause weak spots.
So there you go: a quick overview of fantasy sword features in real life.
Here’s a real-life weapon that looks like it belongs in a fantasy story or film - and this doesn’t even have an odd-shaped blade…
Just a very flexible one…
If you want more odd blades, Moghul India is a good place to start…
i could not ask for a better addition to my meme post than blade education thank you so much
Always gonna reblog. :)
July 30, 2025
Looks like we might have some clear night skies Saturday and Sunday, and I’ll be out with the…
Looks like we might have some clear night skies Saturday and Sunday, and I’ll be out with the Apertura Carbonstar 150 (600mm focal length, F/4) and the #ZWO ASI2600MM-Pro monochrome camera. #astrophotography #nightsky
July 28, 2025
Join my mailing list! Sign up for writing and art updates, audiobook previews, book news, book…
Join my mailing list! Sign up for writing and art updates, audiobook previews, book news, book review copies, giveaways, comics, ttrpgs, and other cool stuff. Find out more about book 2 in the Root Sorcerer Chronicles and related stories. Join here: https://ChrisHowardWriter.com #newsletter #booklovers 🔭📚
July 26, 2025
My two red mangrove trees continue to grow well in my 16g Waterbox mixed reef aquarium–zoanthids, a…
My two red mangrove trees continue to grow well in my 16g Waterbox mixed reef aquarium–zoanthids, a couple acros, moniporas and a two different leptoseris SPS. #reef #reeftank #mangroves
July 15, 2025
Read Thornfall now! I posted 15 sample chapters of Thornfall. Click on the Thornfall cover:…
Read Thornfall now! I posted 15 sample chapters of Thornfall. Click on the Thornfall cover: https://chrishowardwriter.com
#booklaunch #cozyfantasy #gaslamp #optimisticfantasy 📚🎉
