BBC4 Astronomy Night

Due to not having access to BBC4, I was unable to view Saturdays
proceedings. How was it, anyone?

Also, does anyone know if these programmes are to be shown on BBC1/2
at some point?

Thanks,
Squirrel

Since nobody actually replied on the content of the programmes, did
anyone actually watch it ?

Well, i thoroughly enjoyed the Sky @ Night perseid watch, but skipped
the 'life out there' part.

The "invaders from mars" film was really entertaining - not seen that B
movie since i were a lad.

The Hubble Space Telescope program seemed to be a re-work of the ESA
dvd that was given away by New Scientist (?) recently. It was
re-narrated by Chris Lintott and reduced in length, not bad - though i
preferred the original Bob Fosbury narration.

The programme about amateur astronomers was quite well done - Martin
Mobberley featured with his hair-dryer but avoided the topic of
spiders. There was both high tech and visual observing. But a little
too much Terry Pratchet for my taste.

The 'history of sky at night' was quite a good look back over the 50
years. Certainly some entertaining clips.

So, all in all i thought it was a good evenings viewing. Well done to
the BBC for showing it at all. And of course if it was not for BBC 4 it
would never have been made.

Callum

The hubble program was very good, I could look at those pictures all
night. A good bit of science thrown in to explain the pictures as well.

My wife even watched the history of sky at night program with me, and
she normally can't stand sky at night.

Steven

On 2005-08-10 23:23:35 +0100, said:

Since nobody actually replied on the content of the programmes, did
anyone actually watch it ?

Well, i thoroughly enjoyed the Sky @ Night perseid watch, but skipped
the 'life out there' part.

The "invaders from mars" film was really entertaining - not seen that B
movie since i were a lad.

The Hubble Space Telescope program seemed to be a re-work of the ESA
dvd that was given away by New Scientist (?) recently. It was
re-narrated by Chris Lintott and reduced in length, not bad - though i
preferred the original Bob Fosbury narration.

The programme about amateur astronomers was quite well done - Martin
Mobberley featured with his hair-dryer but avoided the topic of
spiders. There was both high tech and visual observing. But a little
too much Terry Pratchet for my taste.

The 'history of sky at night' was quite a good look back over the 50
years. Certainly some entertaining clips.

So, all in all i thought it was a good evenings viewing. Well done to
the BBC for showing it at all. And of course if it was not for BBC 4 it
would never have been made.

Callum

On 10 Aug 2005 15:23:35 -0700, wrote:

Since nobody actually replied on the content of the programmes, did
anyone actually watch it ?

Well, i thoroughly enjoyed the Sky @ Night perseid watch, but skipped
the 'life out there' part.

The "invaders from mars" film was really entertaining - not seen that B
movie since i were a lad.

The Hubble Space Telescope program seemed to be a re-work of the ESA
dvd that was given away by New Scientist (?) recently. It was
re-narrated by Chris Lintott and reduced in length, not bad - though i
preferred the original Bob Fosbury narration.

The programme about amateur astronomers was quite well done - Martin
Mobberley featured with his hair-dryer but avoided the topic of
spiders. There was both high tech and visual observing. But a little
too much Terry Pratchet for my taste.

The 'history of sky at night' was quite a good look back over the 50
years. Certainly some entertaining clips.

So, all in all i thought it was a good evenings viewing. Well done to
the BBC for showing it at all. And of course if it was not for BBC 4 it
would never have been made.

Callum

Thanks for the views, Callum.
I too was wondering whether anyone had seen the programmes. Still,
some interesting comments on the merits or otherwise of the BBC!

Best regards,
Squirrel

wrote in news:1123712615.640922.308920
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Since nobody actually replied on the content of the programmes, did
anyone actually watch it ?

I was on holiday, but am slowly getting through my recordings.

The Hubble Space Telescope program seemed to be a re-work of the ESA
dvd that was given away by New Scientist (?) recently. It was
re-narrated by Chris Lintott and reduced in length, not bad - though i
preferred the original Bob Fosbury narration.

Am I alone in finding this programme rather annoying? Too much
"background" music and messing about with the images for my liking. It
seems as if every still image of a nebula or whatever was mixed with a
zooming star field (like you see out of the front window on the starship
Enterprise) to make it more visually exciting. Skilled rostrum camera
work (Ken Morse) can achieve this excitement with nothing more than
careful panning and zooming over the still image.

I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the programmes.
--
Jim Easterbrook http://astro.jim-easterbrook.me.uk/
N51.36 W0.25