Liam Corbett
Born in the UK, I've spent my life living all over the globe - the USA, Singapore, Australia, and now I'm back in the UK. But while my surroundings have changed throughout my life, the one thing that's remained rock steady has been my drive to make new things. As a kid, people would find me doing anything from creating my own functional Lego guns, to taking the electronics out of old R/C planes and making new, wacky things with them. Nowadays, You'll find me working on my 3D printers and modelling my new ideas in Fusion 360. My ultimate goal in life is to have a successful product or invention to my name.
The Expanse 300 CT: See the big things. With a small package.
Stargazers love large telescopes. When it comes to observing the night sky, bigger is better. However, most amateur astronomers need to drive far from home to enjoy the night sky, free from light pollution. This comes with a problem - large, high performance telescopes have trouble fitting into a car. The solution? Design a telescope that can collapse into a small package for transport. And that's what’s been done with the Expanse 300 CT.
Now, there are already large, collapsible telescopes on the market that achieve this goal. So what makes the Expanse 300 CT so special?
This telescope is able to reduce it's height by more than half, yet set up in under a minute - figures many portable telescopes can't come close to touching. Most manufacturers have chosen to compromise in either ease of set-up, or portability in their designs - not only does the Expanse 300 CT not make compromises, it has them beat in both categories.
The E300CT is designed for experienced amateur astronomers. Featured are high performance specs and materials, such as carbon fibre, CNC machined anodised aluminium parts, a 300mm primary mirror, a 2" Crayford focuser, and nine point mirror support paired with a cable sling.
Haven: The birdhouse, reimagined.
The Haven project was born thanks to two simple questions: Why are birdhouses shaped like our own houses? Is that really the best shape for them?
Further research showed that birdhouses aren't very well designed for our feathered friends. So, this project had one goal: Design a birdhouse from scratch, for the comfort and enjoyment of the birds living in it. Ignore the traditions of birdhouse making, using modern materials and design thinking.
The result is Haven - an ergonomic birdhouse, designed for the endangered bluebirds of the USA.
The flagship feature of Haven is a spacious 360° wrap-around platform, giving bluebirds plenty of interior space to walk around and tend to their nest - unlike traditional birdhouses, in which the birds are cramped and barely have enough room to stand on top of their nest. The platform also features ergonomic holes for bluebird feet to grip - holes which double as ventilation for when it’s hot outside, and drainage for when stray rain gets inside during storms.
While Haven was designed specifically for bluebirds, it has the potential to be adapted to suit a wide variety of other cavity nesting birds across the world.
