iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Drugs cupboard topped up, expensive ones in fridge. How much would this be in the US?

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Lost this plant to frost last winter then late spring it sprouted again.just made it t flowering before the frosts

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Sadly this rather lovely new crookes tube of mine won't work with a school eht but here it is with an induction coil 🧪

Crookes rose tube. A cold cathode tube with a phosphor painted metal rose inside. Here run on an induction coil

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

When I was still sailing a reminder from my phone

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I seem to be on a roll, in discussion on a de la rive tube too.

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Always wanted one of these picked this up on ebay for a good price.🧪

crookes tube with a phosphor coated rose inside. Pink flower and green leaves.

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

The Thomas Speakman in the hall has a fault, so we had a swap round. Now the Thomas Baker of Blandford is next to the Belloni of Shaftesbury barometer. Around a century between them.

Longcase clock by Thomas Baker of Blandford circa 1700 and a stick barometer by Belloni of Blandford around 1830

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

We do get the occasional hornet later in the year on the ivy. This is a hornet hover fly we see most days on the mint. 🧪🪰🪲🪳

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

Calibrated and ready to use. That was quicker than I thought prism was completely loose.🧪

Adam Hilger wavelength spectrometer. Dial reads wavelength. Calibrated with low pressure sodium lamp

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Saw this little guy mating with an apparently identical moth apart from being twice the size. Is this sort of sexual dimorphism common in moths? Butterflies always seem the same size and pattern. 🧪🦋🪲🪳

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

Not quite rule of thirds but not a bad compositon. One of my better pics

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Been having a play with different light sources and have managed to show faraday rotation with a 1.5v mes bulb. Harvard use an mes bulb but they have a piece of optical dense flint glass whereas my glass is nowhere near as good. They use much higher voltage in solenoid too.🧪

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Finally got a reasonable result with faraday rotation using school equipment so it is repeatable in other schools. 🧪

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Still no rain emergency water station for insects, hopefully rat proof.🧪🪲🐞🦋

Glazed planter with glazed saucer on top filled with moss soil and stones

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Our terracotta warrior has a red admiral on his shoulder. Flowering mint and buddleia are the perfect food for loads of insects 🧪🦋🪰🐛

Red admiral on terracotta warrior ( warrior had head loss when we found him so now has a beetle juice head)

Not sure what this is poss beautiful yellow underwing?

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Penultimate day in the school year finds me clearing the window sills ready for a deep clean. Many treasures on this north facing window but this is always a favourite. John ambrose Fleming, inventor of the thermionic valve and his rule.🧪

Case cartouche showing it was presented to Fleming by his colleagues at Cheltenham college in 1877

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Yay, got my motor working at the first attempt. I wonder how year 10 will get on?🧪frame rate makes it look erratic)

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

Generous gift from another school having a clearout. The 3 centre zero mA take us to a full class set for use with coils and magnets for induction. Whites display meters minus cards as I have loads of those. The easy read meters + shunts & multipliers will take us to two full class sets now. 🧪

Image shows 14 easy read meters with 16 10A shunts and 16 20V multipliers, 3 centre zero mA ammeters, and 2 Whites D'Arsonval display meters.

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

We get mint moths on our mint. Yesterday my husband found a Leopard moth wandering across the car park. He moved it somewhere safe. Amazing bright blue dots of structural colour.

Leopard moth. White with black markings apart from a few bright blue spots down the wing edge.

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

I rarely buy clocks these days but the ones that interest me were scientific instruments of their day. This I had an interest in. I already have a John May longcase and I very nearly bought a lantern by him years ago. This one is more complete and much cheaper.🧪 .

Front close up of a John May lantern clock

Back view. The brass rivets show where the alarm train is mounted.

The movement this is a centre verge movement

overall view the wings are probably later

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Apparently 12 years since i developed this conservation of momentum demo using the alcohol gun to replace the air rifle.

pop bottle with spark ignition. Cork with velcro

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Very pleased with this lucky phone camera shot. 🧪🪰

Marmalade hoverfly hovers near a rough hawkbit flower

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

We found this guy two days ago on a buddlia. Looked skinny and underfed. Moved them to a figwort now massive growth spurt and eating and pooping loads. We don't have any mullein but we used to get them on the figwort, not seen any for a couple of years

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 28/05/2026

Our pergola with Paul's himalayan musk and also treasure trove from David Austin. Flowers don't last long in this heat but look how it climbs the silver birch! Also a dog rose.

Rose Paul's himalayan musk and two tree ferns

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

What uk moth is this? Put it out just before the thunderstorm, stands more chance out there than with the spiders in here.🧪🦋

Black and white uk moth with yellow ochre thorax and stripes on abdomen

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

WWE have seen ladybirds mating before but never seen this wobbling is that a standard feature of ladybird sex?🧪

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 17/05/2026

Apparently 4 years since i made these for ferndown over ten since i made them for highcliffe. I have one set on the bench for repair but they used them recently and got good results. We also do it with photo diode valves to get the stopping pd and work function value 🧪

Planck's constant by threshold kit, an easy one to make and cheap

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

2 mp (manpower) ferry in South Africa. They were so slick at doing this. They flick the chain around the cable like they flick chain around the drill rods on oil rigs.

A car ferry across a river in South Africa. Two guys walk along the deck pulling against chains wrapped around the cable that goes across the river

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 25/04/2026

10 years since I made my first ionisation chamber it seems. From there I went on to have a paper published in phys ed!🧪

Picture of my prototype ionisation chamber made from two screw top aluminium cans with a darlington pair amp so that you can use a multimeter.

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 21/04/2026

Love this shrub though doesn't stay like this for long

Arching branches covered in tiny blooms surrounded by white

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Not got my filter yet but I bought an infrared torch

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Adam hilger constant deviation wavelength spectrometer, I need to set up the prism correctly. This one is a later model than my others.🧪

Image shows the wavelength dial and the prism

Image shows the spectrometer tubes at right angle and the wavelength dial that rotated the prism

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 04/04/2026

Saw a post about filling up if you find a garage recently and I said it was like Namibia. This came up from 2009. Long range tank, 2 spares, plank for jack in soft sand, water tank for us, satellite phone, though cellular cover across the whole of Namibia is astounding and so much better than UK

oops got a flat tyre in Namibia on our Hilux. Prob minimum 50 miles from nearest habitation. Could be 100 to nearest tyre shop.

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 28/03/2026

Not exactly a wow demo but you should be able to see i am on the right track. Faraday rotation, you can just see the light dim. I need to get the ends of my rod polished to reduce scattering and perhaps a neutral filter to reduce the laser. 🧪

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

Coil core and glass holder made now just need to make a winder to make the solenoid. Then supports for coil and polarisers. Laser will sit on a lab jack. Faraday rotation is under way.🧪

Lead glass cylinder now in former for solenoid

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

My new toy. Not quite up to my safety standards so going to modify it slightly. Also looks much better in blackout.🧪

Vials of different gases excited by high voltage high frequency.

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

My uranium glazed gravy boat in its school safe enclosure 🧪

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Here are a couple of recordings from this morning

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

Meet Elton, the latest in a long line of blackbirds to own our front garden. Mister, his predecessor must have died months ago. Elton has Mrs his partner and the most creative song of any bird we have known

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Nick Mitchener 🏳️‍🌈 🔭⚛️ @crossjack.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

I very rarely buy antiques in shops but this is very attractive and we have the perfect spot for it.

Late 17thC chest of drawers with geometric front.

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