Julia Zemiro to co-host Stargazing Live with Brian Cox

[casstony]

Originally Posted by deanm

I can't bear Brian Cox: he's just a media tart!
(Standing by for incoming flaming..!)
Dean

It's fair enough to say you don't like someone, but the 'just a media tart' comment seems unjustified. Why be mean when there's no need, especially to someone promoting astronomy and science?

[graham.hobart (Graham stevens)]

I have missed it all so far due to work shifts. I sent a pic in though. Will catch up later on ABC iview.
Hey Dylan if that's you in the pic - where did you get the Celestron T- shirt? me want one !!!
cheers
Graham

[Kunama]

A little more seriously now .....

Before Carl Sagan, Patrick Moore and more recently Brian Cox, astronomy was a fringe activity practiced by greying men and women creeping about in the dark, doing something that to most people was a total waste of money.......

In those days hobby astronomers had to be much more dedicated than today, equipment for the hobby had to be made by the DIY method unless one was well heeled, for the cost of scopes and eyepieces of old was akin to buying a house.

Then along came Carl Sagan, Patrick Moore et al... as a result of these "Media Tarts" we can now go out and buy very high quality equipment at very affordable prices and are now longer thought of as weirdos lurking about in the dark.....

[LewisM]

Originally Posted by Kunama

...no longer thought of as weirdos lurking about in the dark.....

...except that time yourself, myself, my wife and Phil were rounded up by the AFP...

[The_bluester (Paul)]

The only thing I thought a little off was I reckon they over egged it a bit with the asteroid danger stuff. I reckon more than a few kids likely got a fright from that. A change in how my 8 year old started behaving tells me it worried him.

Aside from that, I think personally that they have set the tone just about right. We can all moan on here that they do not go into enough detail but as I have said before, we are not the target market. There is no point trying to popularise science by glazing the eyes of 99% of the watchers with in depth stuff that only the people who are already really invested in it are going to understand. Even if they did, I bet we would just be arguing on here about what bits people reckon they had wrong.

If it is not fun and light, the very people we most need to be reaching (Kids just old enough to be getting curious) are going to go to bed.

[leon]

Alex surly you are joking, that crap is so ridiculous you would wonder why any intelligent person would be there.

Leon

[deanm (Dean)]

My apologies if I offended anyone, but really, Brian Cox strikes me as more interested in self-aggrandisement than in popularising astronomy.
Gawd: the bloke used to be a keyboard-playing pop star (how much attention does someone need in life?!).
Now, Brian May (ex-'Queen') is a different kettle of fish - he never needed to 'self-promote'.
Dean

[casstony]

Originally Posted by leon

Alex surly you are joking, that crap is so ridiculous you would wonder why any intelligent person would be there.
Leon

Alex never jokes

[dylan_odonnell (Dylan)]

Originally Posted by graham.hobart

I have missed it all so far due to work shifts. I sent a pic in though. Will catch up later on ABC iview.
Hey Dylan if that's you in the pic - where did you get the Celestron T- shirt? me want one !!!
cheers
Graham

Hehe yeh that's me .. Celestron printed me a custom one for the festival thingy. It's got a CGX ad on the back.. so it should date well!

For the others who were interested in more detail about the Keyhole Nebula pic on Tuesdays broadcast, AAO answered some q's on twitter today so I asked them about more details and AO :

"The focal length of the @AAOastro AAT is 12.7 m. Its primary mirror has a size of 3.9m. This gives F3.2 at primary focus #AskAAO "

and

"We don't have AO (adaptive optics) at the @AAOastro AAT (but working on it). CACTI provides a field of view of 7.85' x 7.85' #AskAAO"

[dylan_odonnell (Dylan)]

Originally Posted by alocky

I was tickled pink last night when they put up my Rho Ophiucus and Antares picture, although someone at the ABC decided to wind the saturation up even more than I dared to! I got the distinct impression from the email exchange with the producer that half the fun was Prof. Cox having the excuse to say 'Flying Spaghetti Monster" with a straight face!
Here's to all the pastafarians out there!
Cheers
Andrew.

Heheh amen brother! Well done on getting a feature, it's a great pic. Even when I look at my shots at home on my TV the saturation increases to ludicrous levels.. which is ironic after how long we carefully obsess over the balance in our images

d

[alpal]

Originally Posted by dylan_odonnell

Hehe yeh that's me .. Celestron printed me a custom one for the festival thingy. It's got a CGX ad on the back.. so it should date well!

For the others who were interested in more detail about the Keyhole Nebula pic on Tuesdays broadcast, AAO answered some q's on twitter today so I asked them about more details and AO :

"The focal length of the @AAOastro AAT is 12.7 m. Its primary mirror has a size of 3.9m. This gives F3.2 at primary focus #AskAAO "

and

"We don't have AO (adaptive optics) at the @AAOastro AAT (but working on it). CACTI provides a field of view of 7.85' x 7.85' #AskAAO"

Hi Dylan,
OK so no adaptive optics - thanks.

cheers
Allan

[xelasnave]

Originally Posted by leon

Alex surly you are joking, that crap is so ridiculous you would wonder why any intelligent person would be there.

Leon

I wanted to draw attention to the crap that is presented on TV in an effort to have folk think before they nit picked the wonderful effort of the ABC (both production crew and presenters).

Cooking shows really annoy me, ...how do I know their content...I channel surf ... And I will watch stuff just to see what is being presented.

I make a point of showing astronomy photos to everyone I meet, and tell them they can visit iceinspace to see and learn more.
It is surprising how few people know what is out there...today I spent 20 minutes showing my dad a large selection of photos from our deep sky selection here trying to show him the wonderful efforts of our members..he was impressed.
He will forget so I show him stuff about every two weeks.

It is my belief astronomy should be taught in schools especially Sunday school.

Again well done ABC and thanks for uplifting the image of an old man with a beard and long hair.
Alex

[xelasnave]

I would like to see a series produced that takes the viewer on the journey from binos to astrophotography.
Each week a little more.. Starting with observing the Moon, the Sun planets easy deep sky stuff..how telescopes work, a week by week scope build, how to cook foods that go with astronomy, astronomy related dating, naked astronomy, astro photography where each week a contestant is sent home and a segment for astronomy humour.
And a beard growing contest of course.
Alex

[xelasnave]

Not to forget the best astronomy tattoo.
Alex

[LewisM]

You crack me up Alex

[glend (Glen)]

I see Dylan's lurid Rosetta made this last episode. Congratulation Dylan. Whoever was responsible for those screen images should turn down the saturation. Did they explain narrowband false colour images to the audience?

And Alex, can we see your astronomy tattoo? I don't know if i will live long enough to get my hair that Gandalf long. The world needs more ecentrics.

[xelasnave]

[/QUOTE]

And Alex, can we see your astronomy tattoo? I don't know if i will live long enough to get my hair that Gandalf long. The world needs more ecentrics.[/QUOTE]

I dont have one.. yet.
My hair is down to my nipples and my beard is longer but I am not rich enough to be called ecentric.. yet.
I was thinking a tat of Orion would be great but I bet everyone has one of those.
Maybe a gallaxy.. I dont know.. Any suggestions.
Alex

[Osirisra (Ken)]

Congrats Andrew and Dylan and everyone else in getting their images featured on the show.

I have been watching the BBC version of the show each year and to finally have our own version was a awesome. Having the best result of all the shows for the citizen science project is a big win for us!

I was certainly chuffed to have one of my pictures featured on the show and yes it certainly was over saturated and bright but I would guess that would be due to the screen and camera they use.

Lets hope that we have more ABC Stargazing live!

[Lognic04 (Logan)]

if you ask me, im sick of all astronomy programs always coming down to aliens. astronomy, not space! they could have at least walked through some constellations or astronomical events happening recently, not reverting to the boring old same question, "are aliens real?" i get people want to know whats out there, but at least talk about 'stargazing', as intended.

[vaztr (Andrew)]

What we need is a 'Southern' The Sky At Night, surely that's doable with all the digital channels showing repeats all the time!!!