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Stargazing Live

Angel4576

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Anyone else watching this on BBC2?

Professor Brian Cox and Dara O'Briain at Jodrell Bank, only 5 minutes down the road from us.

Fascinating stuff so far, albeit a little lightweight, but interesting none the less.
 
I caught this too. Sadly we've got clouds ruining our night view tonight, but I guess you can't have everything.

Still, I can look forward to the partial solar eclipse tomorrow, all being well.
 
Enjoyed it. Don't know if you saw the 'Wonders of the Solar System' series that Brian Cox did, but he seems to have a way of explaining things fairly simply so that the interested, but uninitiated can follow things fairly easily.

I'm not entirely convinced that Dara's the right foil for him on the show though, I think I'd possibly have preferred Cox doing it on his own, but I sense that the Beeb may have felt that under 'live' conditions they wanted someone to keep Cox focused. I get the impression that his enthusiasm may lead him to get carried away at times.

Impressed with the quality of photos that are capable with a DSLR camera though. We're quite lucky where we live, it's only about 10 minutes from Jodrell Bank, but whereas JB's on a flat, we're at the top of a hill, clear view of skies all around us. May have to invest in a decent camera and/or telescope.
 
Caught a bit of it, and then seeing the sparkly stars on screen somehow transmuted themselves through the wonder that is my brain into enough motivation to take down the Christmas decorations and hoover the house.

Don't blame me; blame my free association. :p
 
Enjoyed it. Don't know if you saw the 'Wonders of the Solar System' series that Brian Cox did, but he seems to have a way of explaining things fairly simply so that the interested, but uninitiated can follow things fairly easily.

I'm not entirely convinced that Dara's the right foil for him on the show though, I think I'd possibly have preferred Cox doing it on his own, but I sense that the Beeb may have felt that under 'live' conditions they wanted someone to keep Cox focused. I get the impression that his enthusiasm may lead him to get carried away at times.

I loved "Wonders of the Solar System" when it was shown a while back (and also caught some of the repeats on BBC Four last week) - I really like Prof. Cox's enthusiastic presenting style. Did you catch him on the Huw Wheldon lecture which was on TV a few weeks back?

Incidentally, I thought Dara O Briain wasn't too bad as a foil for Cox, and his own physics background complemented the programme pretty well. Mind you, I find Dara can get carried away on a few things at times too (based on how I see other shows presented by him) but the next few nights should be fascinating. The content was lightweight, but not so much that it would put anyone off - let's just say that for the most part I understood it. :lol:

Impressed with the quality of photos that are capable with a DSLR camera though. We're quite lucky where we live, it's only about 10 minutes from Jodrell Bank, but whereas JB's on a flat, we're at the top of a hill, clear view of skies all around us. May have to invest in a decent camera and/or telescope.

I never had a telescope of my own, and I currently live on a hill, although our local observatory isn't too far away (I saw a partial solar eclipse from there many years ago). Still, I might dust off the old binoculars later...


Oh, and speaking of "Wonders...":

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30ruBtLIvJM[/yt]

:guffaw: The man himself is a fan of this.
 
i know, that annoyed me.

i wanted science blerk to say, 'oh and you can't travel through time through wormholes and btw, a supernova would never wipe out all life in our galaxy and don't even get me started on turning a supernova into a black hole!!! :scream:'
 
My favourite bit was where he griped about Spock being able to breathe in the clip shown of him beaming down to an alien planet. Only the planet in question was Vulcan! Fcuktard! :lol:
 
I loved this - Cox and Dara is a great pairing. Ross being a bumbler was enjoyable too, as was the volcano footage in Hawaii. I'm really getting into astronomy and physics lately and can't get enough of programmes like this.

Why didn't they debunk slingshotting the sun to time-travel though!?
 
Great series. Though for me it was Stargazing recorded on my BT Vision box as I work till 10pm at least. I did not catch much of 'Wanders of The Solar System'. However now having seen this, Prof. Cox has won me over, he is a great presenter. He would be a very good presenter for The Sky at Night when (long in the future I hope it is) Patrick Moore stops.
I thought having Dara O Briain on the show worked well too. I guess Frankie Boyle was too busy to do it :)
Can't wait for the next one!
 
^^ Look out for "Wonders of the Universe" coming later this year.
Another interesting fact about the man: as well as being the keyboardist from D:Ream back in the 90s, Prof. Cox even made it to People magazine's Sexiest Man Alive poll in 2009.

As for "The Sky At Night" I had always wanted Brian May (from Queen) to take over from Sir Patrick, but Brian Cox would be an excellent presenter when the inevitable occurs.
 
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