The sky at night

John mac

The 700th program is on on Sunday night, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00z9n1z

an extended program is on on Tuesday evening on bbc4

clln

Thanks a million John Mac for the tip off about this.
i have just watched the 40 minute version and enjoyed it very much.
i will give no spoilers away for those who may watch the one hour version on BBC4 on Tuesday 8th of March at 7.30 PM.
but i hope people will record or watch the show.

Patrick is the Father of Astronomy/Space Broadcasting,
He was old when God was a child!:)

I read his Bio once and my two favourite stories from it were;

he saved all his pocket money as a kid and paid the local shopkeeper week by week to get his first Scope.

other one is he swallowed a bluebottle fly while doing a live brodcast of a total eclipse of the Sun,he knew the TV camera was on him so he could not spit it out or puke so just carried on even though all he felt was nausea!:D

i urge people to try to find a way to see this show,some of the guests will surprise you!;)

Patrick Moore is one of very few people i have no problem calling SIR!

Rubecula

Watched it and enjoyed the show immensly. Longest running tv show in the world. Never thought iof it that way but it must have directly and indirectly caused so many people to get involved with astronomy, astrophysics, space exploration and so on.

When Sir Pat goes to the big telescope in the sky who could possibly replace him?

I watched it for the moon landings, the launch of Telstar and so many things that I have fond memories of, yet it is the times that things went wrong that still makes me smile.

Long may it continue.

clln

Lovely tribute Rubucula!:)
You remember the Moonlandings?
Oh i wish i was you.
do hope you post your memories sometime.:)

keane2097

Subscribing so I don't forget about the extended version.

Please bump the thread if I forget to

clln

keane2097 wrote: »

Subscribing so I don't forget about the extended version.

Please bump the thread if I forget to

Duly BUMPED Keane.

Now ya owe me one!:P

Cú Giobach

Chrisht I'd love to sit and have a pint with Brian Cox and Martin Rees.

clln

Cú Giobach wrote: »

Chrisht I'd love to sit and have a pint with Brian Cox and Martin Rees.

Well i have but i regret to say they are not Murphy's or Beamish fans like ye Culchies in Cork:p

pint of Guiness is their only man!

Sincerely;

a Jackeen!

Cú Giobach

clln wrote: »

Well i have but i regret to say they are not Murphy's or Beamish fans like ye Culchies in Cork:p

pint of Guiness is their only man!

Sincerely;

a Jackeen!

Nice one clln, was the conversation good?

I'm afraid this particular culchie has to admit he doesn't drink Murphy's or Beamish only lager and whiskey, just don't tell anyone.

Zubeneschamali

My favourite bits from the show:

Patrick Moore is believed to be the only man alive who's met Neil Armstrong, Yuri Gagarin and Orville Wright!

The Astronomer Royal thinks Brian May (of the band Queen) looks just like Isaac Newton! What other tv show could you hear that on?

clln

Cú Giobach wrote: »

Nice one clln, was the conversation good?

In my dreams Cu, i was telling tall tales there....:o

I'm afraid this particular culchie has to admit he doesn't drink Murphy's or Beamish only lager and whiskey, just don't tell anyone.

Your secret is safe with me!:D

Rubecula

clln wrote: »

Lovely tribute Rubucula!:)
You remember the Moonlandings?
Oh i wish i was you.
do hope you post your memories sometime.:)

When Apollo 11 lifted off I was glued to the tv as it was all over the news, then three days later my best friend and myself were round at his house to watch the landing.

"Contact"

"Houston, Tranquility base here, the Eagle has landed"

Just like it was yesterday.

I was in my early teens. (not telling you how old I was LOL) But my mate's parents were out staying with relatives, so he and me decided to raid his father's home brew to celebrate.

That was the first time (but not the last) his dad came to the rescue to two totally drunk as skunks young lads.

We had sat up all night watching the tv, and Patrick Moore was coming on to tell us things that had already been explained a hundred times before by James Burke. (Remember him?)

The thrill of that first moon landing stayed with me for so long. I was planning on trying to join the space program to go to the moon base that was CERTAIN to be built within a couple of years.

I was full of dreams and confidence and bravado. Now I am an old(ish) man who will never get there, and too sure of my own mortality to even try.

But the excitement of that day is still with me in small corners on my mind.

Additional: I still have somewhere in the loft models of the Apollo/Saturn 5 rocket and a complex model of the moon lander that I took great care to build. I have signed photos from Aldrin Collins and aArmstrong somewhere and Nasa sent me lots of pictures of other astronauts too. They are stored away somewhere, if I can only remember where.

clln

Rubecula wrote: »

When Apollo 11 lifted off I was glued to the tv as it was all over the news, then three days later my best friend and myself were round at his house to watch the landing.

"Contact"

"Houston, Tranquility base here, the Eagle has landed"

i can almost word for word speak the final two minutes or so,but that is from watching Discovery channel Docs way too often,not to mention youtube

"Rodger Tranquility,We copy you down,you got a bunch of guys about to turn blue,we're breathing again"
from the Capcom when Eagle touched down with only about 30 seconds of fuel before abort!:eek:

I was in my early teens. (not telling you how old I was LOL) But my mate's parents were out staying with relatives, so he and me decided to raid his father's home brew to celebrate.

that had to have been the only way to go:)

James Burke. (Remember him?)

no my first big deal was the marsrovers first pictures.
Leo Enright closest Ireland has to a Patrick Moore or a James Moore waxed so lyrical about it!

The thrill of that first moon landing stayed with me for so long. I was planning on trying to join the space program to go to the moon base that was CERTAIN to be built within a couple of years.

:D:D



[/QUOTE}But the excitement of that day is still with me in small corners on my mind.

Additional: I still have somewhere in the loft models of the Apollo/Saturn 5 rocket and a complex model of the moon lander that I took great care to build. I have signed photos from Aldrin Collins and aArmstrong somewhere and Nasa sent me lots of pictures of other astronauts too. They are stored away somewhere, if I can only remember where.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the reply Rubecula,it is a real pleasure to read!:)

Rubecula

Thank you for your kind words, for me it is all just memories, I tend to forget others were not there sometimes.

See you on Mars:pac:

clln

Rubecula wrote: »

See you on Mars:pac:

that would be a nice way for all his fans here to go to the 'the great gig in the sky',beats going six feet under!:)
any Celestial object we could not identify no doubt Patrick would sort us.

i bet he would love the message Michael Collins the pilot of Apollo 11s command module Columia wrote for posterity on the capsule.

He who had to stay in orbit while Armstrong and Aldrin got all the glory on the Lunar module Eagle but never griped about it!
i love this picture!:)

http://blogs.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/files/2009/07/collins-writing-in-cm1.jpg