As regular readers may know i do have a fascination with all thing astronomical. If i had the choice i would devote much more time to it and expand the tiny fraction that i know but i have spent many hours stood in a dark field trying to catch a glimpse of a meteorite or struggling to hold a star map so i can work out which one of the pinpricks of light above my head is Venus.Not to far from me is the South Downs Planetarium whose patron was Sir Patrick Moore and i was lucky enough to bump into him on a few occasions at the Planetarium and once while he was waiting to be interviewed by the local radio station.
We talked about his 50 plus years of 'The Sky At Night' and how he's lunar maps were used to plan the Moon Landing but he had one story that has nothing to do with Astronomy that makes me smile.
It was during the early years of his TV show and during a live segment a blue bottle flew into his mouth. Not wanting to spit it out live on television, he took a large gulp, swallowed it and carried on with piece to camera.
A genuinely nice guy and he and his show will be sadly missed by anyone who has an interest in looking up at the night sky.
1 comment:
Lucy, there are numerous apps for iphone, droid, etal that let you point the phone camera at the sky and it tells you the star, planet, etc. you can also select a celestial body and arrows on the phone display will guide you to the orb of your choice. most cost about $2.
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