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stargazing live last night, any thoughts ?


cosmic dave

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Who watched stargazing live last night ? any thoughts on the program ? I really enjoyed it but i must say prof Cox looked a little uncomfortable in the question and answer show afterwards, not that that took anything away it was very good.

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I was watching but I must admit, intermittently. Te skies were so clear last night that I was popping out every few minutes and pointing the Dob at something!

Got great views of M31,M42,M44,M45 all the usuals. They are really the only ones I can easily see above my light polluted back yard in the middle of the city :(. Still I count myself lucky to see anything, still enjoyable. Can't wait to get to a dark site.

All in all a good program last night. Off to the space centre for their live event tonight. However cloud are already here so no actual stargazing but hey should be good anyway.

Felix

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Havent watched it yet. I was too busy stargazing live outside away from the telly :) cant waste clear nights watching telly. Will watch it tonight

Phil

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Guest wisewoman

I thought it was good and it should do a good job of sending more people outside at night :)

I wonder if there will be many new people on here as a result of it?

I agree about wanting a Moon scratch and sniff card!! Though a Cox scratch and sniff would be better ;-)

Melissa

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The best way to get new folk on here is to keep posting, keep welcoming newcomers and use the "Send" button on the forum index. :)

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I enjoyed it , glad they didn't feel the need to have a celebrity novice like the annoying Jonathon Ross last year.

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I enjoyed it , glad they didn't feel the need to have a celebrity novice like the annoying Jonathon Ross last year.

Here Here

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Coulda done with a little less of the aliens and ufo's stuff - but otherwise I found it most enjoyable - specially the half hour chat at the end :)

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I suppose the UFO stuff does appeal to the non stargazers that are just dipping in before turning over to ITV and it does lighten the tone.

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I suppose the UFO stuff does appeal to the non stargazers that are just dipping in before turning over to ITV and it does lighten the tone.

Didn't like the UFO bit, to me sends out the wrong vibes about astronomy, puts it in the same bracket as astrology.

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Guest wisewoman

Who saw it tonight? (18th). I thought it was good apart from the pitiful picture of Saturn taken by the 1m South African scope - I'm sure they could have come up with something better than that to display its prowess!

Melissa

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Nice to see Damian Peach own up on TV to not taking that Jupiter pic from his back yard. A lot of folks have been "misguided" by that.

And trying to get the crowd to say "ding dong" was so funny when it went flat lol. John Bishop was hilarious with the "photo shopped" pics.

Fun episode - very enjoyable :)

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Who saw it tonight? (18th). I thought it was good apart from the pitiful picture of Saturn taken by the 1m South African scope - I'm sure they could have come up with something better than that to display its prowess!

Melissa

I agree, I was like hang on... If that can look at reallllllly deep space objects why have they taken the worst picture in the world of saturn.

Brant I agree on John Bishop, the end was so funny.

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Guest wisewoman
Nice to see Damian Peach own up on TV to not taking that Jupiter pic from his back yard. A lot of folks have been "misguided" by that.

And trying to get the crowd to say "ding dong" was so funny when it went flat lol. John Bishop was hilarious with the "photo shopped" pics.

Fun episode - very enjoyable

Yes the Ding Dong incident left me cringing - nearly as much as watching Bill Oddie lose it on nature watch !

live TV -you gotta love it :)

Edited by wisewoman
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When you compare what the 1M scope took, and then Damian Peach's, with the detail even on the moons, you have to wonder what they doing, it was a bit pitiful. It was out of focus, and had no detail at all.

Iv'e seen better from newbies.

Over all it was good, but a bit disappointed they didn't get among the scopes for a look round and a chat. It was Stargazing live, or actually it wasn't, we had one shot from a scope out in the field.

They need to pick up on the social aspect of Astronomy, look how the good folks of Dulverton decided to get a society together, and include the school kids. That's the way forward!

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I totally agree Baz IMO a waste of time, they had a society who took the effort to drive down, set up and observe and image and they didn't even bother to walk around the group talking to them, asking questions, looking through their scopes. Instead they spend over 20 minutes talking about aliens.

To get people interesed they have to go back to grass roots and make it sound interesting, not talking about black holes and nutrinos.

We need more talk about observing.

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mmmm The program did what it set out to do I suppose, I had three people stop me and ask what that star was (Venus) on the way out of work last night, so at least its sparked some interest !

(and yes noel I know venus is a planet lol)

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I still think they pitched it about right. They are trying to attract nubies to astronomy, not us, so airtime will be given to the stuff we may consider frivolous and sensationalist as it draws the lay person in.

With the scant amount of astro programming on TV, I think we want what we do have to be all things to all people. The sky at night always maintains a high level of the right content but even then, I sometimes find the repetition of basic stuff for any newbies that might be looking a bit irritating (only a bit though :) ).

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Guest astrosharp

Nice to see Damian Peach own up on TV to not taking that Jupiter pic from his back yard. A lot of folks have been "misguided" by that.

And trying to get the crowd to say "ding dong" was so funny when it went flat lol. John Bishop was hilarious with the "photo shopped" pics.

Fun episode - very enjoyable :)

Hi Kim,

Not sure what you mean by this? misguided? Damian makes it very clear that some of his best upiter images were taken in a backyard in Barbados! He writes articles about it for all to read (See the latest BAA Journal for example).

Also, when the seeing is good in the UK, he gets similar results to those taken in Barbados (where the seeing is often excellent). Here is one taken just a few weeks ago from Selsey:

http://www.damianpeach.com/jup1112/2011_12_27rgb03.jpg

Have a look here for more UK images from tgis apparition (Damian hasn't been to Barbados since late 2010). http://www.damianpeach.com/jup2011_12.htm

The Nov 20th Movie on that page is quite stunning.

Cheers

Ian..

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Hi Ian - all said in jest and no offence intended - but I do have a video he produced where he explains how to snap Jupiter which has footage of his scope in a UK back yard and no mention of exoctic locations. It's no biggie but I did feel a tiny tad misguided when I discovered he actually took it from barbados.

I'm sure he uses both locations and is undoubtedly an expert for whom I have nothing but praise - and if he can get that image out of UK seeing then thats absolutely superb - sincere apologies if anyone took offence at my flipancy :)

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