Published on 12, July, 2020
Anyone interested in Space Exploration here?
Anyone passionate about and interested in the big projects?
Anyone interested in a journey through the Universe?
From a very early age I was interested in Space. I remember my dad taking me in the garden to look at the moon through his binoculars. And then he said it was a quarter of a million miles away. Amazing!
By the age of five, I could name all the major planets in order from the sun - and that was when pluto was a planet. With Ithis came Holst Planets Suite, the pulsating sound of Mars, the wonderful Jupiter.. Then there were the stars. I was amazed that the light from the nearest star took four years to reach us.
I was given a book by Patrick Moore for Christmas - The Boys Book of Space. It was amazing reading even for a six year old as I was then. There were tables at the back of the planets, the number of sattelites and the size of them. A lot of the information may now be thought to be incorrect now, but I memorised those tables. Then there was another table of the brightest stars and their distance from earth.
I knew, even at that young age that light travelled at 186000 miles per second (a couple of years later I learned it was 186282 miles per second and forever after took delight in quoting this number. A light year was approximately 6,000,000,000,000 (which was classed in proper numeracy as six billion miles, a billion properly being a million million and not a thousand million as it appears to have become these days!
Patrick predicted some events. The landing of man on the moon he thought would happen in the early twenty first century, and then other predictions for landing on Mars. Around the time I had the Boys Book of Space, there was a children's drama series on television on Saturday teatime called Pathfinders in Space - which went on to three series - Pathfinders to the Moon, Pathfinders to Venus, and Pathfinders to Mars. Unfortunately the television broke down when one of the astronauts fell down a pit on the moon and saw some strange writing on the wall and it took over fifty years for me to find out what happene next, which I did when the series was released on DVD - and there was a real spine tingling moment when it was revealed where the writing came from!
When I was in my early teenage years, the defining film came out regarding space travel - 2001. Never understood it and never really have but it was such a beautiful experience!
I do take an interest in a lot of the documentaries on television about space travel, although it is by no means an obsession.
Finally a joke ... so sorry about this ....
"Doctor, I keep seeing a bright star in the sky. Tell me doctor, is it Sirius (... just in case you need it explaining, it is a pun on 'is it serious'.)
Sorry about that one!
For those interested, the peak of the Perseid meteor shower should be Sunday night to Monday morning (1-3am is usually best). Just like the 'Blood Moon', the English weather may conspire against standing outside and seeing something more than a couple of miles up (as may having to get up in the morning). But maybe not, and there's another chance the following night. Just possible the cloud might hold off tonight too.
Thank you Cassandro for that information, I once witnessed the most amazing spectacle of shooting stars/meteorites whilst on holiday one year.
I shall definitely be out gazing up at space and wondering about the vast expanse and magnitude of it all.
I don’t know an awful lot about constellations or planets but it doesn’t mean I can’t look up and enjoy seeing what mankind has wondered at since the start of his kind.
I too hope the cloud doesn’t get in the way, the Blood Moon was sadly not seen due to cloud.