Proper rave track from the days before the Criminal Justice Bill, Altern-8 were always seen dressed up in chemical warfare suits and driving around in a tank. But the thing you'll probably remember forever after listening to this track will be the little kid saying.

"Top one, Nice one, Get sorted"

Gorgeous atmospheric house track which is Ironic, since there's no atmosphere in space. And in general, feeling it isn't possible.

But it's a great track.

Tito performing a number from 'My Fair Lady' (which butchered George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion) - none of the lyrics just massive horn sections and latin beats. The last time I played this out I had a load of people asking me which game show it was the theme tune to.....

Going in the opposite direction to the previous entry we have fluffy scandinavian popsters reworking a Black Sabbath rock classic. Not so much butchering it, but filleting it instead.

Ex Guns n' Roses guitarist butchers a classic reggae track in a style that never fails to raise a smile when I play it. Awesome

I figure that it's about time I ressurected the astronomer in me so I've been looking into getting a telescope as part of my Christmas (the PSP was an early christmas present).

Ideally I'm hoping to spend <$500 for a decent instrument and there are many choices open to me, this post is basically something of a document of my research so far.

So, there are basically 3 types of telescopes - Refractors which use lenses, Reflectors which use mirrors  and Cadiatropics which use both. On top of this there are various configurations and mounting techniques which affect the design and a host of accessories.

Refractors are derived from Galileo's original design, a large primary lens gathers the light and focusses it on the eyepiece. Because lenses are used there is a small amount of colour bleeding which is called 'Chromatic Aberration', but modern compound lens systems are effective at minimising this.

Reflectors were originally developed by Isaac Newton and use a large mirror to reflect light back up to a smaller mirror placed in the middle of the tube. This mirror and the mounting is an obstruction which reduces the effective light gathering power when compared with the uninterrupted path of the refractor. The Dobsonian design is a large mirror Newtonian reflector on an Alt-Azimuth mounting, it's named after John Dobson - the founder of the sidewalk astronomers.

Catadioptrics are very modern designs which are compact but with large aperture combining portability with light gathering power. There are many variations - Schmidt-Newtonian, Schmidt-Cassegrain, Maksutov-Cassegrain, Ritchey-Chretien, each named to reflect the origins of their design. Nobody uses the term catadioptric in conversation.

Refractors tend to perform best of all, but above 4" apertures they become very expensive. Reflectors are cheapest, and you can get an 8" dobson scope for a few hundred dollars. Cadiatropics are great if you want a powerful scope in a small package, but they start out expensive and only get more so.

Aperture size is all important, the bigger your primary mirror or lens is the fainter objects you can see and the higher your magnification. So I could just buy that 8" dobson and be done if I wanted the best performing scope right?

The Orion SkyQuest XT8 fits the bill nicely and comes in at $359.00

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00018WIDI/qid=1130453709/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-3048101-3981738?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846

But dobsons have some drawbacks - firstly, they're big and not so portable, I don't think I could fit that 8" model in my car. Secondly, they all use Alt-Az mounts, and most dobsons are unpowered which means that they can't track objects as the Earth rotates which means that you really can't do any astrophotography with this.

So that brings me to mountings, there are 2 basic kinds - Equatorial and Alt-Azimuth. Equatorial mounts are a little more expensive, but, they have the advantage that it's usually possible to motorize them in one axis to track the rotation of the Earth. Now, it is also possble to get motorised alt-az mounts, but these need a computer processor to operate variable speed motors in multiple axes, these mounts tend to cost a lot more, but they have a gee-whizz techno attraction because many of them will have a control box which lets to tell the telescope where to point.

A good example of this is the Celestron StarSeeker, it only has a 5" mirror - which is less than half the light gathering power of the XT8, but, it is a lot more portable.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000AQOH76/ref=pd_ecc_rvi_4/102-3048101-3981738

But really, I know my way around the sky well enough, but it would be nice to have a mount that could track the skies if I wanted to take photos, so something on an equatorial mount may be just the thing I'm looking for. Especially if I could get the motor upgrade at a later date.

There are a few different 5-6" newtonians on Equatorial mounts, pricewise these range from $250-$500. There are also a few short newtonian designs which are more portable but people seem to be warning against those that I've looked at. For comparison, a 6" refractor is around $1000

Orion SpaceProbe 130 EQ - $229.00
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000XMSWK/102-3048101-3981738

Orion Astroview 6 EQ $369
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0000XMSR0/102-3048101-3981738

Celestron C6-N - ~$400
http://www.opticsplanet.net/clstrn-c6-n.html

I've managed to rule out Cadiatropics, too expensive for me, but refractors are still luring me due to their better performance on planets and solar system objects, those are the things that interest me most. It would be really nice if I could snap some photos of asteroids.

Brands: Celestron, Orion, Meade are reliable although some models are better than others, better brands are out of my price range, and I've been warned to avoid anything that is sold at department stores - such as the ever present Galileo brand. I lust after the likes of Takahashi or Vixen's beautifully engineered creations.

And then there's the whole question of accessories - Barlow lenses, filters, camera adapters, drive systems. Perhaps I need to go for a smaller aperture so that I can get that barlow and double my magnification. And for those really big scopes the cost of sun filters becomes astronomical.

Shipping costs are also non-negligible, there are a few online retailers who give free shipping, so that's an incentive to go with certain brands.

I was playing this supremely loungey balearic vocal moment in the office the other day and Kimberley asked me what it was... so for the record (no pun intended) - Abraham is Rachel Cuming producec by Lee Jones of Hefner fame. The track kinda just washes over you like waves, with echoes of the vocal dropping in and out, reinforcing the rythymn with a muted elegance that just makes you feel all groovey and relaxed at the same time.

Another John Peel favourite (you *have* to check out the John Peel tribute album - packed full of truly awesome tracks), this is the title track of their 1982 album when they were perhaps coming down from their prime. But something in this particulare track resonated with DJ's and it became a fixture at the Heavenly Social and other big beat nights. The track also lent its name to Justin Robertson's 'proper band' project - also worthy of your time.

Perfectly formed, Dreamy, Melodic, Easy on the ears, progressive trance/house from Bedrock records, a minor european hit a couple of years ago.

Awesome songwriting and just a little bit more accessible than his previous work, hopefully this will wind him more new fans than it drives away. This has been played an awful lot on 'The Blue Room', quite rightfully so.