Hello there! My name is Samuli.

I am a software professional, amateur astronomer, technology enthusiast, and art nerd from Finland. The Other Computer is a place on the web for my random musings, hobby projects, blog posts and photographs.

Recent photos

Recent blog posts

Revamped website

As you might have noticed, The Other Computer has changed quite a bit! Most of the code underlying the website was rewritten. Previously the website was implemented with JavaScript and Gatsby, but the Gatsby framework kept changing at a fast pace, deprecating many of the things my website relied on. I got tired of updating things, and fell back to the old reliable, Hugo. Initially I converted all my old styling information to the new website, but got kind of tired of how the site looked, and I switched to the Hello Friend theme by panr.

Sol’Ex - DIY solar imaging

For the past months I have been obsessing over solar astronomy, and specifically a device called Sol’Ex or Solar Explorer. It is a spectroheliograph, which allows capturing the spectrum of a very thin slice of the sun’s disk. By capturing many images while scanning over the sun’s disk with the device, you can reconstruct an image of the whole sun at any visible wavelength you want. There is a catch, though.

Astrophotography rack case

For a while now I have been controlling my astrophotography gear with a passively cooled Intel NUC computer, and powered them with a 110W 12V supply meant for a portable fridge. At first I kept both on the floor of our observatory, which isn’t a great long-term solution. Looking for a cheap enclosure, I bought a metal mailbox and attached it to the telescope mounting pier. At first I thought it will be great, I can run all my cables through the mail slot in the mailbox.