BBC Stargazing Live audio guides

The Bat · Post by **The Bat** » Tue Jan 10, 2012 8:01 pm

Sorry, couldn't resist posting this.
Just found out I feature in the BBC Stargazing Live audio guides that have just come out. My 15 minutes (nearly) of fame!

Anyone else on there from here?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/features/starga ... ides.shtml

Rachel

Brian · Post by **Brian** » Wed Jan 11, 2012 8:23 pm

Dear Rachel, Well Done! Richly deserved I'm sure

They should let you do a whole one yourself

ATB,

The Bat · Post by **The Bat** » Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:54 am

Thanks, Brian!

I was accosted at our Starfest event in November to record this. It was quite hard being put on the spot and having to talk about what would be visible in the sky throughout the year. I more or less know the sky when I am out under it, but being asked, "What can we see in April, May and June?" when it's November and with a microphone in front of you, suddenly all that information flies out of your head!

They did tell me they wanted it to sound down to earth, but I thought they may have edited out all the technical jargon I threw in, like "fuzzy grey blob" and "stick-on planet". Made me laugh.

Rachel

brian livesey · Post by **brian livesey** » Tue Jan 17, 2012 10:01 am

The programme was poorly constructed from the start. I found it frivolous and meandering.
Why the sudden jump to black holes this evening?

PaulB · Post by **PaulB** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 6:58 am

I agree Brian,

The program has huge possibilities. It's just the poor production-directorship, which lets it down.

And poor Dara. Talks faster than Sir PM did in his youth.

It must be very difficult trying to come up with subject's, that will capture the imagination.

And they are trying to do this. So I'll give them credit for that

The other thing, I am not too keen about.
The show is a little tongue n cheek, and it looks, sometimes, to me anyway.

Like Spring-Autumn watch.

I also felt very sorry for the poor astronomers stuck out side at JBO.

They must have all been frozen, and I hope they had plenty of warm drinks from the caffe.

In the end. Stargazing Live is not aimed at US, but for the public at large.

And it's the best thing on telly too

brian livesey · Post by **brian livesey** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 10:33 am

Better even than "Coronation Street"?

Post by **joe** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 5:56 pm

I just watched episode 2 on iPlayer and thought it was actually very good. Amateur astronomers, telescopes, light pollution, dark skies and astro physics made easy - what more do you want? I really don't understand your criticisms. If I was just an interested viewer I'd be hooked.

Cliff · Post by **Cliff** » Wed Jan 18, 2012 9:42 pm

Dear al(L)
Having watched the first two Stargazing Live programmes I decided to watch prog 3 (which I think is last of the series) before broadcasting my opinion.
As an avid armchair astronomer (at least as far as night time star gazing is concerned) since light pollution was an important theme throughout the seies of TV programmes : -
"The Lovell Telescope seemed to be FLOODLIT !
That sums it up for me.
Best wishes from Cliff
PS : - Ironically the small town of Dulverton in the Exmoor area turned out most of its lights hopefully to make it easier to stargaze but it was raining ?

mike a feist · Post by **mike a feist** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 7:42 am

I watched all three of the BBC programmes which were more or less as expected. It is easy enough to criticise but I though they were packed out with spacetravel and astrophysics-blackholes, extra-solar planets rather than "watching the sky". Getting the town centre of Dulverton to turn off all their lights was interesting but switching back to the main presenters standing in front of a window in which the Radio Telescope stood brightly spotlighted in all its glory was incongruously daft. One point that was well shown but unintentionally so was that professional astronomers do not look at the night sky, they look at a computer screen! Overall I found it just far too noisy and at times almost manic. maf

brian livesey · Post by **brian livesey** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 10:42 am

I didn't watch the penultimate programme, thinking that it might be as bad as the first programme.
I watched last night's final programme and thought that it was quite interesting, especially for younger people.
It just had to rain in Dulverston, didn't it?

mike a feist · Post by **mike a feist** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 4:29 pm

NB. Today "The Argus" local newspaper has a nice photograph of "Popular Astronomy" in the hands of someone! linked to the events!!!!! maf
Addendum: just in case you wondered who it was.....it was maf!

Cliff · Post by **Cliff** » Thu Jan 19, 2012 11:05 pm

Dear Rachel
I'm sorry I forgot to congratulate you with regards to you featuring in the Stargazing Live programme. Any hints of critiscism i might have made with respect to Stargazing Live's presentation were not aimed at you. I feel confident you did a good job of promoting Stargazing and Amateur Astronomy.
My concerns relate to the BBC production and professional astronomers involved. Of course it wouldn't be easy to do justice to amateur astronomy - the famous early "footage" of Sky @ Night showing two famous old amateur astronomers trying to observe Saturn demonstrate that only too well.
However, I think the Stargazing Live prog planners (both BBC and astronomers) should have allowed for more versatility. From what I recall the weather forecasts seem to suugest beforehand that the first "Stargazing Live" night looked like being the best of the three. But the set agenda seemed to result in too much of that first night being taken up with indoor stuff. I accept organising the Dulverton "lights out" might not be dead easy to do but as far as I'm concerned personally having the lights out on a cloudy night was a waste of time. Assuming that it was only possible to organise a lights out session on one particular night then I think in the event of it being cloudy (as it was) then it would have been best to cancel that aspect of the programme, even if it might have resulted in the inhabitants of Dulverton feeling disappointed.
Best wishes from Cliff

mike a feist · Post by **mike a feist** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:10 pm

The Partick Moore and George Hole sky at Night programme taken in Patchan on the outskirts of Brighton when the first completely live TV observing was attempted but thwarted by cloud is indeed a classic and far more memorable than the later attempt with the same 24" scope that succeeded but only because I think the later was pre-recorded. Pretty realistic if you ask me!
The concept of whipping up lots of "wow" excitement for an activity can only lead in my opinion to disappointment in the longrun. Someone once wrote to the effect that "war is days of boredom indispersed with short periods of sheer terror" and I believe this has has adapted to describle fishing as "hours of sitting waiting indispersed with short periods of torturing wildlife". I guess amateur astronomy could be described as "hours of waiting about in the cold and dark indispersed with short periods of great excitement". maf

mike a feist · Post by **mike a feist** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 1:35 pm

"What more do you want?" .....Joe asks.
My answer would not more but less.
maf

stella · Post by **stella** » Fri Jan 20, 2012 2:24 pm

For me, Observing would be described as "hours of intense activity in the semi-dark, indispersed with short periods for recuperation".