BBC`s The sky at night program on sats

i keep meaning to ask you all this question:

i take it you know of or have heard of the great UK astronomer Patrick Moore ?

do you know of his TV program The Sky at Night ?

it is the longest running tv program, and was the first to broadcast live from around various parts of the world, during eclipses etc.
His moon maps (that he drew by pencil) were used by both the Russians and the USA.
any whoo.....he produced a special program two months ago all about sats called" Sputniks Children".

it was followed by another program called "The Satellite Story"

www.bbc.co.uk...

this program covered how satellites have affected almost every aspect of our lives, from spy satellites and GPS transforming the military to the communications revolution kickstarted by Telstar. But recent events in China have revealed just how vulnerable we might be, for they suggest we might be on the verge of another new age, one of satellite terrorism.

the most interesting part was the bit that showed two guys in a shed in the garden tracking and taking photos of sats !!....the images were clearer than the ones we have seen recently on this site and others...mentioning no names !!!

both of these are the most informative progs i have ever seen on sats, they even show many things that were classified.

here is a link to the Sky at Night website:

www.bbc.co.uk...

you can view the old progs here:

www.bbc.co.uk...


take care

snoopyuk

[edit on 4-2-2008 by snoopyuk]

If anyone has probs watching the programs via the link let me know.

snoopyuk

great shout snoopyuk, Sir Patrick has been the leading light in the UK astronomy field for well over 50 years now, and how he keeps his energy up at his age is beyond me!!

For those who haven't had a chance to watch any of these programmes, I heartily recommend doing so - you will get an impartial, logical and unbiased opinion on almost anything to do with the cosmos, without spin or rhetoric. My only wish is that he was 50 years younger, so we could enjoy his wisdom for years to come. Plus he is the coolest man alive, that monocle is something else

I grew up watching patrick moore and had a chance to meet him at meteor crater in 1999, unfortunatly was a memorable occasion for the wrong reasons because one of his party had deeper than deep pocketsand thought everything was free, he could not apologise enough, a really really nice guy who knows his stuff.

I try to watch when i can his last two shows where really interesting. the guy needs a telescope named after him he has done so much for the scientific community, and even now runs annual tours from Liverpool Airport to the northern lights.

sky at night is brilliant, i am going to watch this "the sattalite story" as soon as possible.

i grew up watching sky at night, and still watch it every month (luckly its repeated quite alot nowadays ).

always full fo good info

he's also an amazing xylophone player and even a composer. actually he taught himself everything he knows about music.

he also has a great sense of humour and enjoys nothing more than making fun of himself. he's appeared on many shows doing this. (he was also a time lord for dr. who fans!)

patrick moore wiki

patrick moore plays the xylophone

he really does play the xylophone!

[edit on 5-2-2008 by justyc]

Man you guys have made me happy

i am so glad that so many people still hold Sir Patrick with such high regard and respect....

the reason i started this thread was twofold...

1. to educate the young people out there,all about his wonderfull career and his program.

2. to hopefully get some people to check out the two guys in the special program on sats who have an amazing set up in their garden shed (with a sliding roof) . they have catalogued every sat up there, and have pics of most of them ,that can be photographed .


hopefuly someone will watch it and maybe we can track these guys down.
i have tried emailing Patrick and his young Padawan learner, but for some reason all emails bounce back.

thanks to all that have commented so far. and yes justyc he is an amazing player !!

snoopyuk

[edit on 5-2-2008 by snoopyuk]

reply to post by snoopyuk


It wa sindeed a good programme! I've known Pat for years and I keep trying to persuade him to come online and sort out all of the nonsense we get on here!

A ledgand! hope he does have something named after him,

one of the few good things left on the bbc,shame theres not more of it

This is great snoopyuk. I live in the states, but my interest in astronomy started when I was a kid and picked up "The Atlas of the Universe" by Sir P. Moore.

"Sky at Night" is not shown here (at least not with my cable provider), so I will be very busy watching these today.

cool , gald you all are fans !!

thanks for posting

snoopyuk

reply to post by snoopyuk

One completely useless piece of trivia about PM: he lives (lived?) in a house in Selsey, Sussex called 'Farthings' (literally, pre-decimalisation British coins worth virtually nothing, even then) . . . far things . . . a nice pun!

Mike

if you go on the seti part of ats i posted a bit of stuff about patrick moore a while back and if you want to watch the programme its on the bbci player just google it it's stays on for a week.