Anyone see Stardate ?

"Pete Lawrence" wrote:

PL When Adam Hart Davis and the female presenter were sitting
PL there waiting for 1st contact - they missed it from Egypt
PL because the point of contact was off the screen. Did they
PL not read my instructions to Martin Frey posted earlier ;-)
/
PL Nothing to do with the fact that the camera/scope
PL orientation hadn't been figured out properly then?

The "female presenter" was Dr. Lucie Green of MSSL. She couldn't
possibly have known whether the image relayed from Egypt was
inverted or not. If you're looking for a fall guy, look to Dr. Paul Roche -
he was manning the camera in Egypt and should have known better. ;-)

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004 13:57:34 +0100, "Ed" @ wrote:

"Pete Lawrence" wrote:

PL When Adam Hart Davis and the female presenter were sitting
PL there waiting for 1st contact - they missed it from Egypt
PL because the point of contact was off the screen. Did they
PL not read my instructions to Martin Frey posted earlier ;-)
/
PL Nothing to do with the fact that the camera/scope
PL orientation hadn't been figured out properly then?

The "female presenter" was Dr. Lucie Green of MSSL. She couldn't
possibly have known whether the image relayed from Egypt was
inverted or not. If you're looking for a fall guy, look to Dr. Paul Roche -
he was manning the camera in Egypt and should have known better. ;-)

I was blaming her for the lame explanation she pulled out of thin air
(accompanied by some big swallows). She should have just said -
whoops that was a cock up!

--
Pete Lawrence
http://www.pbl33.co.uk
Most recent images http://www.pbl33.fast24.co.uk/recent_images.html

On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 13:52:06 +0100, Martin Frey
wrote:

Pete Lawrence wrote:

When Adam Hart Davis and the female presenter were sitting there
waiting for 1st contact - they missed it from Egypt because the point
of contact was off the screen. Did they not read my instructions to
Martin Frey posted earlier ;-)

Didn't work for Martin Frey either - I'm going to take the PST apart
and see what's going on in there - an ordinary diagonal it isn't.

Did you follow my instructions? They worked for me.

--
Pete Lawrence
http://www.pbl33.co.uk
Most recent images http://www.pbl33.fast24.co.uk/recent_images.html

Martin Frey wrote:
"Dave" wrote:

I believe they were comedians, possibly from yoof TV. It was probably
supposed to be funny, not a slip of the tongue.

Am I alone in thinking that it was a very good programme and very
helpful to the cause of awakening interest in astronomy? Sure it had
faults but these were far outwiehged by the stuff that was handled
really well.

No Martin, I thought it was pretty good too, as did my other half who missed
out on the transit because of a job interview.

DaveL

Pete Lawrence wrote:

Did you follow my instructions? They worked for me.

I did but my head exploded.

All the same it wasn't a bad programme - in fact it was a very good
programme that will do the cause of furthering knowledge of astronomy
nothing but good.
--
Martin Frey
http://www.hadastro.org.uk
N 51 02 E 0 47

On Wed, 09 Jun 2004 15:43:10 +0100, Martin Frey
wrote:

Pete Lawrence wrote:

Did you follow my instructions? They worked for me.

I did but my head exploded.

Oh Martin! I did say - make sure that the filters were on!

All the same it wasn't a bad programme - in fact it was a very good
programme that will do the cause of furthering knowledge of astronomy
nothing but good.

No - it was ok and the sort of program that would get youngsters realy
enthused about astronomy too.

Well done BBC for putting it on - at twenty past eleven at night!

--
Pete Lawrence
http://www.pbl33.co.uk
Most recent images http://www.pbl33.fast24.co.uk/recent_images.html

Pete Lawrence wrote:

No - it was ok and the sort of program that would get youngsters realy
enthused about astronomy too.

Well done BBC for putting it on - at twenty past eleven at night!

It's because the seeing is so much better in the middle of the night -
enni fule no that.

--
Martin Frey
http://www.hadastro.org.uk
N 51 02 E 0 47

In message , Martin Frey
writes
"Ed Astle" wrote:

...a program on BBC2 relating to the transit of Venus.

I've no idea who the blokes were toward the end but they "had learned loads
of stuff today. It was great to see Brian May as an astrologer". I kid you
not.

I thought they did an excellent job - the parallax stuff was
exceptionally well presented. A full hour about a black dot - deserves
a little praise.

As for astologer - well tongues slip: it can happen to anyone under
stress and that's life.

Pre-announcement on future Stardate programmes - well done beeb.

It is difficult to recognise that our small clique of astronomy minded
amateurs is growing fast - but the media are doing their bit very
well. All the redtop papers have a page today on the transit and of
the rest, only the Indy doesn't have it on the front page.

That is very odd, because an editor of the Independent (can't remember
if it's the current one) said something like "astronomy sells papers".
--

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In message , Ed
writes
"Pete Lawrence" wrote:

PL When Adam Hart Davis and the female presenter were sitting
PL there waiting for 1st contact - they missed it from Egypt
PL because the point of contact was off the screen. Did they
PL not read my instructions to Martin Frey posted earlier ;-)
/
PL Nothing to do with the fact that the camera/scope
PL orientation hadn't been figured out properly then?

The "female presenter" was Dr. Lucie Green of MSSL. She couldn't
possibly have known whether the image relayed from Egypt was
inverted or not. If you're looking for a fall guy, look to Dr. Paul Roche -
he was manning the camera in Egypt and should have known better. ;-)

"It's coming in from the opposite direction!" as Don Kurtz of the
University of Central Lancashire apparently said. See Simon Hoggart's
enjoyable article in the Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/space/article/0,14493,1234593,00.html
--
Remove spam and invalid from address to reply.

In message , Martin Frey
wrote
"Dave" wrote:

I believe they were comedians, possibly from yoof TV. It was probably
supposed to be funny, not a slip of the tongue.

Am I alone in thinking that it was a very good programme and very
helpful to the cause of awakening interest in astronomy? Sure it had
faults but these were far outwiehged by the stuff that was handled
really well.

No.

The setup show on Saturday was very good, but I was slightly
disappointed with the two live shows yesterday however the one hour
summery show last night was again quiet good. I watched my recordings of
it and The Sky at Night today.

Unfortunately (due to the French president I suspect) the BBC were
running late and I missed the last few minutes of Patrick Moore.


--
Roger
52:54:41N
01:30:05W
Orion 127mm Maksutov.