15. Stargaze

I've always found the stars and astronomy really interesting.  I can spot only two constellations when the sky is clear (Orion/Orion's Belt and The Plough) but I felt this wasn't enough.  The cosmos is vast and there is so much I've never learnt.

When I got an email notification from BBC Audience advertising the BBC Stargazing event, I jumped on it.  A perfect opportunity. I applied for one ticket.

Application complete - woohoo!

On Monday 23rd December I received a CONGRATULATIONS email with my ticket attached.  Unfortunately, Prof Brian Cox wasn't going to be there.

So, the day finally arrived.  Not a perfect start to the day.  I decided I would drive to work as there was no way I was going to be able to get myself home from Egham by train.  My journey into Holborn to work was OK and, in fact, I got into work 50 minutes early (7:40pm ouch).  I went online and Googled "congestion charge" and, to cut a long and boring story short, ended up paying the congestion charge on a site that wasn't TFL (click here to read this article and you'll see why I was so miffed about being duped).

Onto nicer things, my journey to Egham wasn't bad.  A little bit of traffic as you would expect during rush hour.  I got to Royal Holloway University in good time and there was immediately a buzz.  I found my way to where everything was "happening".  The university itself was massive and all uplit in different colours and maybe a little eerie looking.

The first activity I found was a demonstration about Dark Matter.  I couldn't really see much as there were a lot of kids and tall people in my way but I managed to get a very interesting looking photo of "the universe" and a "mass" and then it started spinning and produced a very nice looking shape.

There was a video being shown in the North Quad of the university which was showing Mark Thompson (the People's Astronomer...apparently).  Then a video was shown of Chris Hadfield (a Canadian Astronaut) showing people how you sleep in space.  Very interesting...especially the space pyjamas.  There was a dad with his kids standing behind me and I heard him say to his kids: "Are you going to ask Santa for space pyjamas for Christmas?".  Seriously!  It's only January!

I then went somewhere else to look through telescopes.  It was a beautiful clear night.  Jupiter, as it happens was really bright so some of the telescopes were pointing in that direction.  I got to have a look through the telescope and I could see Jupiter - it was small but I could make out the bands around it.

Yes, even my iPhone was able to see Jupiter

Me (obviously) looking at Jupiter

I then queued up to look through another telescope which was pointed at the moon.  I could see it so clearly - better than looking at pictures in a book.

The scientist guy adjusting focus for the moon

I realised all the telescopes were either facing Jupiter or the moon and I really wanted to learn more about the stars.  I found someone who was manning a telescope to chat to.  I found out that the reddish star in the top left of Orion is called Betelgeuse (which inspired the title of the film Beetlejuice) and is 600 light years away.  Can you imagine?  The light that star is giving out is actually shining from the 1400's but we're only just seeing it now.  Absolutely fascinating.  He also pointed out some other constellations and stars for me: Gemini (which were two stars one underneath the other to the left of Jupiter), Procyon (star), Cygnus (also known as the Swan), the Seven Sisters cluster of stars (Pleiades) and Aldebaran (part of the Taurus constellation - Googled for correct spelling).  He also thought he saw Sirius (the Dog Star) but it was an aeroplane!  The actual star was much lower down than our line of vision, unfortunately.

My phone battery died so I was then unable to take any other photos.

I went somewhere else on the site where they were talking about the Sun and how hot it gets.  There was video footage being shown on a screen and it included footage from when Venus crossed the path between the Sun and the satellite camera which was so exciting to see.  It also showed solar flares.  I got given a postcard which has a QR code linked to a video.  I don't know if it's the same one I saw but the scan (and the link) is below.

Image produced at the University of Central Lancashire (designed by Curren).  Data courtesy of NASA/SDO and the AIA, EVE and HMI science teams.  See the movie at http://youtu.be/2W77qovLCv0.

I then decided to go inside to listen to a lecture (plus it was warmer and on the way towards the exit).  I probably missed most of the talk but from what I could make out it was about the edge of our solar system and finding exo-planets with moons and if there are exo-planets there could be exo-plants but more research needs to happen to be able to confirm this.

Strangely, the guy who was doing the sound for the microphones was none other than Rob Reynolds.  For those who don't know who he is, he's a great singer/songwriter I met YEARS ago at one of promoter, Tony Moore's, Bedford Bandstands.  He also appeared briefly on last year's series of The Voice.  I'd actually bumped into him at one stage during the auditions.  Check him out - great voice!

This experience has made me think about continuing to feed my interest by actually watching the Stargazing Live programme on BBC in the future.  I must catch up with Series 4 On Demand!