Wesley's Tool-Box

This year's lunar eclipse was a long one, with the added bonus of having Uranus occulted by the Moon during the totality. This doesn't happen very often, and the next one is supposedly more than 200 years away. So I prepared my equipment and observed the progress at a good spot near home.

I did have some difficulties during the 4-hour session, as one camera battery couldn't last that long and dew was building up on the lens after 9 PM. But using a camera with a powerful zoom worked great for capturing the Uranus approaching and then hiding behind the Moon. It was literally a once-in-a-lifetime observation.

Device: Nikon P1000
Settings: 1500mm - f/6.3 (ISO 800 to 1600 / 1/3 to 1/250s)
Filters: None
Time: 2022-11-08 18:07 - 21:40 KST
Location: Naju, Korea

I had the opportunity to be interviewed by the people who make the Monthly National Assembly Library magazine. I talked about all sorts of topics, including what I do these days, the book about electric vehicles that I wrote last year, and the rocket launches. The photos of myself came out quite well, especially the cover photo for the interview as you can see here.

The full interview (in Korean) is available in digital form at the National Assembly Library website here:

- Monthly National Assembly Library

Select "2022년 07ㆍ08월호" from the dropdown list and find the third "인터뷰" (7th item).

- Direct link to the interview pages

I'd like to say big thanks to the interviewers who come all the way to Naju to hear me talk.

I visited Nangdo island in Yeosu about two hours before the second test launch of Nuri, a.k.a. KSLV-II. This place is about 17km away from the launchpad #2 at Naro Space Center in Goheung and is the closest place that you can watch the launch without any obstruction. The weather was extremely cooperative for photo and video shooting, so I was able to get some really nice photos. The following are some of the major shots I was able to get.

On March 27, 2022, after nearly 46 months of driving, my Bolt EV's odometer hit 100,000km. Considering that it isn't used for commuting most of the time, this is a relatively quick achievement. Of the 100,734.6km driven in 46 full months, 48,588.7km was done in the city while the remaining 52,145.9km was on the expressways, so at 48:52 ratio it's got a balanced use. As for the efficiency, the car spent 13,016.1kWh, so that translates to 7.74km/kWh overall. It's well over the official numbers, so that shows how conservative I drive.

During this time, I spent KRW 5,461,940 (about US$4,440) on the car, excluding toll. Interestingly, the insurance and the tax accounted for more than half of the total. This reflects how relatively little I need to pay for the charging and maintenance. In fact, I spent just KRW 874,467 (US$710) for charging, which is less than 1/6 of the total. And other than the tires, the periodic maintenance costs were insignificant.

There's a good reason why I spent so little on charging.

I was interviewed about the wearable computer and the tablet PC that I developed about two decades ago by the crew of YTN Science last month. The result of that made into the most recent episode of the science documentary series "Docu S Prime" which aired yesterday, March 10, 2022. It was quite flattering to see those devices being introduced as "over-technologies" together with the self driving car from 1990s.

Watch Episode
- Official Website
- YouTube