Stargazing Live on BBC2 8pm

[asterix]

Always meant to ask, Alien8, which planet do you hail from? Is the weather nice?

 

[accountantpete]

Watched until Ross came on then turned off in disgust.

My total lifetime contribution to the Beeb's coffers has been £12.50 for a Black & White licence back in the 70's - any more of this crap and I'm going to ask for a refund.

 

[Paulus]

I quite enjoyed the program but was a little disappointed that yet again the Beeb feels the need to have a celebrity on the show. He did have a telescope at least, but didn't know how to use it, so he contributed nothing to the show. Perhaps they could of had a newbie, but keen amateur on so they could give him/her some guidelines on how to progress.

 

[Inertia]

I thought it was good, I like Cox and though he seems popular, I think its with good reason, he makes the subject easy to understand. Having Ross on it was a bit pointless but it was only a few minutes so I can put up with him for that long. Dara was an unusual choice but I like him so I couldnt be that annoyed by it

 

[downfader]

I thought it was good, I like Cox and though he seems popular, I think its with good reason, he makes the subject easy to understand. Having Ross on it was a bit pointless but it was only a few minutes so I can put up with him for that long. Dara was an unusual choice but I like him so I couldnt be that annoyed by it

Read the wiki I linked to.. Dara aint that bad a choice at all, in fact he's overqualified.

 

[ASC1951]

Watched until Ross came on then turned off in disgust.

My total lifetime contribution to the Beeb's coffers has been £12.50 for a Black & White licence back in the 70's

I'm confused. If you haven't had a licence for 30 years, how did you manage to watch Wossy?

 

[accountantpete]

I'm confused. If you haven't had a licence for 30 years, how did you manage to watch Wossy?

With nose pressed to the window of the TV shop and lip-reading

 

[Arch]

Watched until Ross came on then turned off in disgust.

My total lifetime contribution to the Beeb's coffers has been £12.50 for a Black & White licence back in the 70's - any more of this crap and I'm going to ask for a refund.

So you turned off a perfectly good programme in a fit of pique over a slot that lasted a couple of minutes?

How mature...

 

[downfader]

Space!!!! Its brilliant innit!!

And its massive too!!!

Wow!!!




(Smeggers - aka Brian Cox's stunt double)

F***ing hell its massive!!
warning contains swearing, obviously

So you turned off a perfectly good programme in a fit of pique over a slot that lasted a couple of minutes?

How mature...

Well said. There was so much more to the show than that.

 

[accountantpete]

So you turned off a perfectly good programme in a fit of pique over a slot that lasted a couple of minutes?

How mature...

I'm well mature thank you Arch

It's just that gimmicks designed to boost viewing figures at the expense of public service broadcasting seem endemic at the Beeb at the moment.

 

[biggs682]

very enjoyable last night and just getting ready to watch tonights in 23 mins

 

[Arch]

Yeah, well, I dunno - I think I'll have to reserve judgement until all three programmes have aired.

But it's hard to understand the point of JR apart from to dumb-down the programme - and of course Brian Cox is the media's darling physicist at the moment.

Having seen the second one, I think I understand.

Yeah, you could have a bright keen amateur. But they'd obviously be keen to learn, and ordinary Joe would think "Well, they must be clever, or more interested than me". Everyone else is already keen and bright. Ross appears to be such a dope (I wonder how true it is), that anyone can identify with him, and if they wish, feel superior, and think "I can do that!" In fact Ross seemed slightly less dopey today, I thought. There must be loads of people who have all the gear and no idea (just as in cycling), and maybe showing him will prod some of them into getting the idea.

As a matter of fact I didn't like Brian Cox when I first saw him - it was a couple of Horizon programmes, and what I didn't like really,I see now, was the director's style - it was all him looking off camera as if talking to someone over my shoulder. Having persevered with shows he presents, I've seen some really interesting stuff.

Turning off just because of Ross is throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

 

[beanzontoast]

Anyone else spot the meteor behind the guy with the telescope? I was amazed the presenters didn't interrupt him immediately to say something about it until they went back to studio later in the programme. Lots of viewers saw it, recognised it for what it was and emailed in.

Given the generally cloudy conditons they had last night, that was a really lucky 'live' event for them to capture in the few seconds they were doing the bit to camera out in the dark.

 

[661-Pete]

Anyone else spot the meteor behind the guy with the telescope? I was amazed the presenters didn't interrupt him immediately to say something about it until they went back to studio later in the programme. Lots of viewers saw it, recognised it for what it was and emailed in.

Given the generally cloudy conditons they had last night, that was a really lucky 'live' event for them to capture in the few seconds they were doing the bit to camera out in the dark.

If that really happened on camera, amazingly lucky 'catch'! Meteors are quite common and quite easy to observe, but notoriously hard to photograph. I often wonder how much trouble Steven Spielberg went to, to capture his famous 'trademark' meteors in some of his movies. Of the two celebrated apparitions in Jaws, which seem to be in daylight, one was faked and one was the real thing, according to the blurb. If that's true, I wonder how long Spielberg left the cameras running, to catch it. And was it really in 'daylight'?

 

[GordonB]

The Sky at Night uses quite a few amateur astronomers' photos nowadays I believe. Some amateurs have equipment running to many thousands of pounds in value and with photo technology having become more accessible to everyone nowadays, they can get some amazing results.

Just a few hundred yards down the road from me is the Coddenham Observatory run by archetypal amateur Tom Boles, who has discovered more supernovae than anyone else in the world. Worth looking at his website.

Gordon