OnStep is a full featured telescope controller firmware that was created and maintained by Howard Dutton.

As of late 2021, it runs on several types of boards with a variety of microcontrollers, including the Teensy, ST's STM32F103, STM32F303, STM32F446 and Esspressif's ESP32.

In order to convert a mount to OnStep, one needs to fill out a spreadsheet created by Howard that accounts for various parameters, such as one or two stages of gear reduction, microstepping, an motor shaft RPM.

An often quoted misconception is that vaccination offers less protection than infection induced immunity.

An overlooked aspect here is that not vaccinating is actually an implied choice of taking higher risks, because the infection may cause complications and damage to various organs. Those include blood clots, lung damage, neurological complications (brain fog), anosmia (loss of smell), heart inflammation, and more.

But even if we overlook the obvious, evidence so far points to vaccines being more effective than infection induced immunity.

The province of Ontario, Canada, is heading for a third wave of the Coronavirus pandemic of 2020/2021, and the reason is a yet to be identified variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

As we all know by now, the Coronavirus that caused the 2020/2021 pandemic has not stayed with the same genetic sequence of the original wild type identified in Wuhan China. This is completely expected, because all living beings mutate, and viruses specially so.

This article provides an overview of virus mutations, the current variants from the UK and South Africa, how the immune system works on pathogen proteins, and whether all this has implications on the efficacy of the current vaccines.

Mutations

Mutations are a fact of life for all living beings. Viruses, due to many reasons (generation rate in hours, infecting millions of cells, ...), have a very fast mutation rate. That is just what goes on.

Users on social media have been sharing news that China is using Anal Swabs for detecting Coronavirus infections. While this is true, it seems that this will not be applied to everyone being tested.

These anal swabs are soaked in saline, and inserted into the anus and rotated.

If you see this France24 article, you will notice this part:

SARS-CoV-2, the Coronavirus that causes COVID-19 and is responsible for the 2020 pandemic, is known to enter cells via the ACE2 receptor (see this video on the Renin-Angiotensin system).

In addition to ACE2, there are other receptors that either facilitate entry into cells (making the virus more infectious) or increase its pathogenicity (causing more severe symptoms).

Donald Trump does not care for science. Any science ...

When the California minister for the environment confronted him with some facts about Climate Change, he said "It will start getting cooler ... you just watch". The minister said: "I wish science agreed with you". Trump's response? "I don't think science knows, actually ..."

For those wondering what is QAnon, and why it is so nefarious, here is an overview.

What Is QAnon: A collection of bizarre claims

QAnon is an unfounded conspiracy theory claiming that a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles is running a global child sex-trafficking ring and plotting against Donald Trump.

I have been using the FYSETC S6 V1.2 3D printer board as my telescope controller for a few years.

Advantages

This is a feature rich board that has the following advantages:

• Already soldered and ready to go
• Supports all features of OnStep (limit switch, PEC, ...)
• Supports built-in dew heater functionality

Both version 1.2 and 2.0 work well with OnStep.

Slashdot is a news web site for technology and nerds alike that has been active for over two decades.

The site changed ownership a few times. The current owners employed young moderators who were not around when the site was still privately owned and managed by the same team who created it.

One glaring example of the disconnect between the current moderators, and the site's history is the total ignorance on what the icons and logs attached to stories mean.

Here are a few examples from recent months: