Solar Astronomy by Stephen W. Ramsden Atlanta, GA USA

I was recently given the opportunity to review a new product from Brother's P-Touch division. It is the PT-2730 labelling system. Now, my friends and coworkers know that I am a labelling fanatic. My garage looks like a professional storage area for a medical laboratory or something similar. My wife and I accumulate all sorts of gadgets, paperwork, hardware and various assorted "stuff" in our work. She is an attorney, and I am an air traffic controller in Atlanta, GA. I also run the nations largest privately funded solar astronomy outreach program- The Charlie Bates Solar Astronomy Project- along with sixteen other solar oriented websites. We have been using a previous model P-Touch portable labelling device for over 10 years and were happy to try out their new product. If it is anywhere close to the quality of the one I already own then I would highly recommend it.

This is our trusty "old" P-Touch labeller. It was hard to say goodbye......until I opened the NEW one!!	The PT-2730 arrived via UPS ground in a sturdy, well packed box. The box contained the labeller in an internal box and three different types of tape to use with the device. I reviewed all of the available options before requesting the tape types for the review. I had no idea there were so many different types of tape being offered by P-Touch nowadays. You can really get a lot of different products for this labeller, and I couldn't wait to explore the possibilities. Afterall, my labels could all be replaced now. What fun!?!
	My plans for the PT-2730 are to go through my massive solar astronomy van and organize and label all of the cases. I take the van to different remote locations weekly and set up my narrowband solar observing and imaging stations for students to use in better understanding our Sun. I need to be able to readily identify and retrieve the right case that I need in a timely manner. The problem is that all of the cases look very similar. The items must be in these cases because they would be damaged during transport otherwise. This sounds like a great labelling opportunity, and I can't wait to get to it.
My wife, Natalie Anderson, also has big plans for the labeller as it pertains to what seems like an endless array of paperwork and files generated by her legal work. She has already claimed possession of the labeller and says that she may let me use it if I am nice. Maybe I should have gotten two?
	We unpacked the PT-2730, installed the software onto the family MacBook and on the PC that I sometimes use outdoors, and fired it up. It was working perfectly within about 4 minutes on each system. Check back in a couple weeks for the first report on how we used this awesome labelling system to simplify and organize our lives... Stephen W. Ramsden Director www.solarastronomy.org TheLabelMaster@stephenramsden.com
LET THE LABELLING BEGIN!! Its late August here in the Deep South and our daily temperatures a close to 100 degrees farenheit on a routine basis. Late August means one thing to Nerds like me....DragonCon!!!- thr worlds largest sci-fi convention held over labor day weekend each year. I am a regular at DragonCon with my solar telescope array and I also give lectures on fun topics and serious solar physics. I thought that this would be a great time to try out an all new organization system in the solar van. I began by removin everything out of the little Ford Transit and taking stock of the mess. These pictures show what i had to work with...
BLOG NUMBER 2 VIDEO JOURNAL. scroll down for the stills and narration.
	As you can see, I had my work cut out for me. I was amazed at how much stuff I had in the van and sat around for a while trying to figure out the best way to get it back in. A durable and easy to read labelling system was a must and that would be my first step. The P-Touch PT2730 label maker came with a sample roll of white 94mm tape with the normal adhesive backing. I also recieved 3 other rolls of tape to try out including a super strong adhesive. I decided to use each tape to make a label for each case to compre their durability and ease of use. The onboard software gives you so many choices of preformated labels and different fonts, etc... that I had a little trouble deciding which one. I ended up just doing plain horizontal labels with bold letters. Since I had already peeled off my 6 year old labels from my previous P-Touch system I just decided to not get too flashy and go with the standard labels.

I started with the Lunt Solar Systems Hydrogen Alpha wavelength solar scopes that are the stars of my shows. These scopes are encased in heavily dimpled aluminun sided cases. These were going to be a real opportunity for the labelling system to shine or fail. As you can see from the picture (right) the cases were each labelled with the normal tape and the super adhesive tape. I then labelled all remaining cases in the same manner so I could test the two labels on different surfaces. The below video explains the setup...
HERE ARE THE STEPS TO SUCESSFUL LABELLING
First get your cases in place and your label maker fully stocked with aP-Touch label cassette. Then print up your labels and carefully peel and stick them in the manner shown below.

When you are done you will have a nice uniform set of cases easily and clearly labelled for further retrieval...
Now you can even label your non cased items or your oddball boxes..

	AND THE END RESULT IS A BUNCH OF EASY TO READ AND FIND CASES READY TO BE STORED IN THE VAN!
These images show how I went from an empty van to a solar astronomy mobile that you can write home about. Now off to some vents to see how the labels do.



LOOK FOR MY NEXT BLOG ENTRY SOON WHERE WE WILL EXAMINE THE RELATIVE STRENGTH AND DURABILITY OF THE LABELS AFTER THE FIRST 3 UNLOADINGS AND PACKUPS.

TEN MAJOR EVENTS IN THE BOOKS AND THE LABELS ARE STILL STRONG!!!
	The P-Touch standard and extra adhesive labels have really been put to the test over the last month. I transported my solar astronomy charity to 10 events around Georgia and unpacked and packed all of my equipment each time. The telescope cases are slid around constanty and rubbed against one another with no mercy. I dont have time to worry about whether my labels might be damaged. I am happy with their performance so far.
I did notice that wherever I happened to have touch the adhesive side of the label, it seems to have pulled up a little. Surprisingly the rest of the label is secure still. I used the wrong method of removing the backing on the first two labels by touching the backsides with my fingers to get them installed. I later learned to fold the label lengthwise and then expose the perforated backing that allows you to pull off part of it to position the label and then the rest to seal it in place. I would suggest reading the directions when you amke your first few labels...I'm a man so of course, I disregarded any directions or manuals..:)

ILL CHECK BACK IN A FEW WEEKS WITH AN UPDATED STATUS. SO FAR SOOOOO GOOD!

LET THE LABELLING BEGIN!!

TEN MAJOR EVENTS IN THE BOOKS AND THE LABELS ARE STILL STRONG!!!