Patrick Moore keeps his promise

[James Harris]

Patrick Moore signed off the December 2012 The Sky at Night promising
to give some tips in the next show on how to set up a telescope. With
his unfortunate death on December 9th one could be forgiven for
thinking he would not now be able to give that advice. However ...

According to the Radio Times XMLTV schedule Patrick recorded the
advice shortly before his death and it is to be included in the
programme to be broadcast on 7 January at 00:05.

Other scheduled showings of the same programme:
10 January at 19:25
12 January at 09:35.

As for who will and who should take over from Patrick:

http://groups.google.com/group/uk.sci.astronomy/browse_frm/thread/b4ad37dce331bfb1

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/9751563/Brian-May-should-replace-Sir-Patrick-Moore-on-Sky-At-Night-astronomy-experts-say.html

James

[Edward Cowling]

>
> According to the Radio Times XMLTV schedule Patrick recorded the
> advice shortly before his death and it is to be included in the
> programme to be broadcast on 7 January at 00:05.
>

Brilliant news. I'll set my recorder for it.


--
Edward Cowling North London UK
http://twitter.com/gnilwoce
http://mardoun.weebly.com/
http://www.facebook.com/ed.cowling

[CD]

On Fri, 4 Jan 2013 06:24:51 -0800 (PST), James Harris wrote:


> According to the Radio Times XMLTV schedule Patrick recorded the
> advice shortly before his death and it is to be included in the
> programme to be broadcast on 7 January at 00:05.

Good news, but I predict PM will just do a brief intro & Paul & Pete will
be doing the telescope stuff.

I predict less than 1 minute screen time.

[Dave Liquorice]

On Sat, 5 Jan 2013 10:18:40 +0000, CD wrote:

>> According to the Radio Times XMLTV schedule Patrick recorded the
>> advice shortly before his death and it is to be included in the
>> programme to be broadcast on 7 January at 00:05.

Thanks for the heads up must set the PVR...

> Good news, but I predict PM will just do a brief intro & Paul & Pete
> will be doing the telescope stuff.

Nothing new there.

I see StarGazing Live is back on Tuesday BBC2 2000. Wouldn't have known
about that if I hadn't been working with the truck that will be doing SGL
today at Macclesfield. I hope they aren't thinking of Dara O Brian for
Sky At Night, his "Science Club" is far too dumbed down. I could probably
tolerate Brian Cox.

--
Cheers
Dave.

[Richard Tobin]

In article <kccuc1$uj3$1...@speranza.aioe.org>,
Hils <hi...@saynotospam.net> wrote:

>Patrick Moore was so effective because he *wasn't* a "professional".
>When he interviewed the "experts", he was learning with viewers

No, he was pretending to learn. The presentation of that pretence
might have been more effective because he was an amateur, though I
don't think most casual viewers would actually have known that he was.

-- Richard

[Alastair McDonald]

"James Harris" <james.h...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:243f6e5e-86ef-4fb5...@r4g2000vbi.googlegroups.com...

> Patrick Moore signed off the December 2012 The Sky at Night promising
> to give some tips in the next show on how to set up a telescope. With
> his unfortunate death on December 9th one could be forgiven for
> thinking he would not now be able to give that advice. However ...
>
> According to the Radio Times XMLTV schedule Patrick recorded the
> advice shortly before his death and it is to be included in the
> programme to be broadcast on 7 January at 00:05.
>
> Other scheduled showings of the same programme:
> 10 January at 19:25
> 12 January at 09:35.

Despite your heads up I missed it :-(

But it is available on BBC IPlayer here :-)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01pt8sy/The_Sky_at_Night_Reaching_for_the_Stars/

Cheers, Alastair.

[Alastair McDonald]

"Martin" <m...@address.invalid> wrote in message
news:atvle8h7sliff00d9...@4ax.com...

> On Mon, 7 Jan 2013 15:32:25 -0000, "Alastair McDonald"
> <a...@abmcdonald.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>"James Harris" <james.h...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>news:243f6e5e-86ef-4fb5...@r4g2000vbi.googlegroups.com...
>>> Patrick Moore signed off the December 2012 The Sky at Night promising
>>> to give some tips in the next show on how to set up a telescope. With
>>> his unfortunate death on December 9th one could be forgiven for
>>> thinking he would not now be able to give that advice. However ...
>>>
>>> According to the Radio Times XMLTV schedule Patrick recorded the
>>> advice shortly before his death and it is to be included in the
>>> programme to be broadcast on 7 January at 00:05.
>>>
>>> Other scheduled showings of the same programme:
>>> 10 January at 19:25
>>> 12 January at 09:35.
>>
>>Despite your heads up I missed it :-(
>

> It is only 7th January. Are you a Time Lord?

No, it was broadcast yesterday :-)

Cheers, Alastair.

[CD]

On Mon, 7 Jan 2013 15:32:25 -0000, Alastair McDonald wrote:

> But it is available on BBC IPlayer here :-)
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01pt8sy/The_Sky_at_Night_Reaching_for_the_Stars/
>
> Cheers, Alastair.

Hate to say "I Told you so" but he was only on screen about 30 seconds. But
they did turn it into a good tribute show with some old clips. I also
noticed Chris Lintott did an interview from his house that was done after
his passing I suspect.

Don't forget the extended edition on Thursday, the telescope stuff was
great.

[Ar]

On 08/01/13 09:23, CD wrote:
> Hate to say "I Told you so" but he was only on screen about 30 seconds. But
> they did turn it into a good tribute show with some old clips.

Mostly of Moore saying goodbye!

[Max Demian]

"CD" <n...@way.ok> wrote in message
news:1mms0q137gtmy.gsd8s4n1h9hk$.dlg@40tude.net...

I reckon that 'goto' computer stuff is cheating. Entering the id of the
object on a keypad and the telescope whirs to the right direction.

Moore had 18 seconds at the start and 11 seconds at the end, when he said
the 'next programme' would be about the Sun and auroras.

I wonder what will happen to that?

--
Max Demian

[CD]

On Fri, 11 Jan 2013 23:15:32 -0000, Max Demian wrote:

> reckon that 'goto' computer stuff is cheating. Entering the id of the
> object on a keypad and the telescope whirs to the right direction.

Maybe, but it makes it a lot more accesible to beginners. You still have to
do a bit of work lining it up. I'm going to get one.
I had a cheap Aldi refractor, the mount was terrible, impossible to line up
on anything smaller than the moon. In the extended TSAN there's an example
a a crap telescope that Paul Abel brought to the garden. It's all about the
mount.

>Moore had 18 seconds at the start and 11 seconds at the end, when he said
>the 'next programme' would be about the Sun and auroras.

Pretty much the norm for the last few years if there was no house guest

>I wonder what will happen to that?

It will be shown as normal with the regulars on hand, Chris Lintott, Paul
Abel, Pete Lawrence & Chris North?

[Max Demian]

"CD" <n...@way.ok> wrote in message

news:k4gk6ohhrqbq$.eylnluh3z5p6$.dlg@40tude.net...

Maybe they'll stitch together shots of Moore ad infinitum introducing the
'guests' who will carry on with the show.

He must have said everything about everything astronomical in his time,
though the lip sync might get a bit dodgy.

--
Max Demian

[Martin Brown]

Replaced by an avatar? It could be done with the computational power now
available for animated 3D although it would be very expensive.


--
Regards,
Martin Brown

[Dave Liquorice]

On Sat, 12 Jan 2013 11:22:35 +0000, CD wrote:

>> reckon that 'goto' computer stuff is cheating. Entering the id of the
>> object on a keypad and the telescope whirs to the right direction.
>
> Maybe, but it makes it a lot more accesible to beginners.

Maybe, you don't *have* to use it, as was demonstrated in the programme.

> You still have to do a bit of work lining it up. I'm going to get one.

I suspect it makes setting up quicker as well. Don't they also track the
object as the earth rotates so you are not having to constantly adjust
something?

--
Cheers
Dave.

[Martin Brown]

On 12/01/2013 15:00, Dave Liquorice wrote:
> On Sat, 12 Jan 2013 11:22:35 +0000, CD wrote:
>
>>> reckon that 'goto' computer stuff is cheating. Entering the id of the
>>> object on a keypad and the telescope whirs to the right direction.
>>
>> Maybe, but it makes it a lot more accesible to beginners.
>
> Maybe, you don't *have* to use it, as was demonstrated in the programme.

I reckon that for a beginner scope you are still better off with a bit
more aperture and a star atlas (or one of the free charting programs).

Like Cart du Ciel http://freeware.intrastar.net/planetarium.htm
or simulators like Stellarium http://www.stellarium.org/

>
>> You still have to do a bit of work lining it up. I'm going to get one.
>
> I suspect it makes setting up quicker as well. Don't they also track the
> object as the earth rotates so you are not having to constantly adjust
> something?

Not really - to set up a basic Dobsonian altazimuth scope you plonk it
down approximately level and you are away.

If you have one with an equatorial mount you need to work out where the
north star is and point the polar axis approximately at that.

To set up a goto scope you have roughly level the scope and then find
two named bright stars in the sky which define the coordinate system.

Any motor driven scope should be able to track a target.

Goto is a luxury. You are better off learning to find the brighter
objects and planets with a slightly larger non-goto scope first but in
these days of instant gratification then maybe goto is helpful.

The snag is that many of the objects don't look like much in a very
small scope and so there is a tradeoff. My money would be on more
aperture and no goto as a first scope. You do need a good tripod and
mount that isn't made out of jelly and sticky tape. Some of the cheapest
toy scopes have really awful mounts making them impossible for beginners
to use and very frustrating to point at an object.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

[CD]

On Sat, 12 Jan 2013 15:53:10 +0000, Martin Brown wrote:

> You do need a good tripod and
> mount that isn't made out of jelly and sticky tape. Some of the cheapest
> toy scopes have really awful mounts making them impossible for beginners
> to use and very frustrating to point at an object.

As I found out with the Astrolon thing I got from Aldi. Managed to offload
it on a car boot for �12.50. I'm leaning towards a Dob. if it's good enough
for Brian May...

[Martin Brown]

On 12/01/2013 17:03, CD wrote:
> On Sat, 12 Jan 2013 15:53:10 +0000, Martin Brown wrote:
>
>> You do need a good tripod and
>> mount that isn't made out of jelly and sticky tape. Some of the cheapest
>> toy scopes have really awful mounts making them impossible for beginners
>> to use and very frustrating to point at an object.
>
> As I found out with the Astrolon thing I got from Aldi. Managed to offload

They do from time to time offer a half decent spotting scope with 80mm
objective. Not perfect for astronomy but it isn't too shabby at lower
magnifications either for the incredibly low price. Tripod is ~OK.

Precision optics are one thing where you get what you pay for!

> it on a car boot for �12.50. I'm leaning towards a Dob. if it's good enough
> for Brian May...

Astrofest in London is *the* place to go to see what is on offer.
Everybody who is anybody is there (including most years Brian May).
8 & 9th Feb at Kensington EVents Centre according to their website:

http://europeanastrofest.com/conference/

Almost all the kit suppliers and dealers have a stand too so you can see
some really big (ie unaffordable) kit and get 10% off.

http://europeanastrofest.com/exhibition/

I have no connection with Astrofest other than going along most years.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

[Ar]

On 12/01/13 14:38, Martin Brown wrote:
>
> Replaced by an avatar? It could be done with the computational power now
> available for animated 3D although it would be very expensive.

Next you'll suggest he appear as a "Gamesmaster" :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa2u6wYPYOQ

[GordonD]

"Max Demian" <max_d...@bigfoot.com> wrote in message
news:albkoj...@mid.individual.net...

DGP will be watching that - he thinks auroras are the dark bits around a
nipple.
--
Gordon Davie
Edinburgh, Scotland

"Slipped the surly bonds of Earth...to touch the face of God."