[Saturn] [Lunar eclipse] The Shallow Sky (shallowsky.com)

Shallowsky.com: Akkana Peck's website, covering a wide range of topics.

"Shallow Sky" encompasses the solar system: observation of our moon, the planets and their moons, comets, asteroids, and the sun. The term was invented by David North as a pun on the "Deep Sky" term long used by observers of galaxies, nebulae and other distant targets.


Social media: [Jay feather] "Shallow Thoughts" blog [Twitter icon] @akkakk on Twitter [Mastodon icon] @akkana@fosstodon.org Email

Topics on this site:

My books!

[Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional]

Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional, second edition is a comprehensive guide to image editing using the GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) for editing photographs and creating digital art.

[Beginning GIMP: From Novice to Professional]

Jumpstarting the Raspberry Pi Zero W: Control the World Around You with a $10 Computer gets you started using a Raspberry Pi Zero W, or any other Raspberry Pi model, to control a wide assortment of hardware. Includes instructions on how to blink LEDs as well as two more detailed projects: using temperature sensors to control a fan or air conditioner, and controlling a programmable colored light string to reflect the state of Twitter or any website you choose. Also available on O'Reilly Media in both paper and electronic format, or on Amazon as a a Kindle Edition.

If you buy the books via the Amazon links above, I get a small kickback from Amazon. No pressure, though. :-)

Computers

[Linux]
Linux and Open Source
The Linux for Presentations Howto, the Multiple Network Schemes Howto, information on Linux imaging, and more. Plus you can find quick Linux tips in my blog archive.

I enjoy speaking at conferencs and user group meetings, and have given talks on a variety of technical and semi-technical subjects.

Software
Programs I've written, including the pho image viewer and metapho image organizer, the Saver and Pandora GIMP plug-ins, PyTopo tiled map viewer, many little astronomy apps, Crikey for mapping strings to keys, assorted useful scripts, and plenty of other free open source software.

Or you can browse my Github repositories, including pho and metapho, pytopo, useful scripts and gimp-plugins, some of my dotfiles, and more.

I like to teach short courses in programming and technical subjects, such as summer workshops for high school girls in Robots and Sensors using Arduino and Javascript, and an online Python class.

Akkana's Resume
I'm a software developer specializing in Linux and open source, and I sometimes do technical and science writing.

Government and Politics

[Billtracker dog]

I'm active in the League of Women Voters, working (among other things) for better transparency in government.
This tends to involve a lot of web scraping, since governments aren't very forthcoming with their data. Good thing Python is good at scraping!

I wrote the New Mexico Bill Tracker to make it easier to keep an eye on bills as they move through the state legislature;
and Los Alamos Meetings, which scrapes the county page for government meetings in Los Alamos County and provides an RSS feed so you can keep track of upcoming meeting topics without downloading a pile of PDFs every day.

With the help of the LWV New Mexico, I helped author a bill to make GIS data for all New Mexico voting districts public. I also manage the LWV NM and Fair Districts for New Mexico websites, chaired LWV Los Alamos's 2020 Digital Privacy in Government study, and am currently co-chair of the LWV New Mexico Action committee.

Metal art

I enjoy welding junk metal into sculpture. You can see samples at my art website: JunkDNAArt.com.

Astronomy

[Astronomy]

I've been an amateur astronomer since childhood. Some astronomy pages on my website:

Galilean Moons of Jupiter, with predictions of Jupiter's four brightest moons, their shadows, and the Great Red Spot, and Saturn's Satellites, predictions of Saturn's brightest moons.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Moon, A collaborative compendium of information for anyone observing the moon through a telescope.

Astronomy sketches ... my homebuilt 8'' dobsonian ... general astronomy page.

I also wrote the monthly Shallow Sky column for the SJAA Ephemeris for many years.

Miscellanea

[Miscellanea]
"Shallow Thoughts" blog ... Birds of the West ... Bay Area Wildflowers ... Public speaking ... Photography ... Geology ... R/C airplanes ... Kayaking ... Mountain biking ... Motorcycling ... Autocrossing a Fiat X1/9 ... and an old and seldom updated personal page.

Please visit the Shallow Sky Bookstore for book recommendations, and help support this site! Thanks!


[Powered by Linux] [Debian] [ESR glider hacker logo] [Created with GIMP]
Shallowsky.com is produced and served on Linux, using free open source software.