Fenderman
Rooters Reporter
Just watched the Sky at Night on BBC2 which followed Beeb's coverage of Spanish GP 3rd practice. I hadn't watched the prgramme since the passing of Sir Patrick Moore. Whilst Sir Patrick had a way of presenting in plain and clear language he never came across as patronising or as a "kid show presenter". Sadly not only did we lose one of the few people who could actually make looking at tiny dots in the sky interesting for people of all ages, we have also, lost The Sky at Night as a serious yet entertaining programme.
In telling us about the wonderous science made possible by Cassini's observations of Saturn we were treated to the occasional glimpse of images captured by the craft whilst three dull presenters. Then we got some happy stuff with peep's out with their telescopes and a quick glimpse of Jupiter and a couple of it's moons courtesy of an amateur whose little girl imparted more useful fact in twenty seconds than the presenters did in the whole programme.
For a rank amateur like me who now only uses a pair of ex-US Army bin's the final insult was the lack of one simple piece of information. If I want to look at Saturn tonight, where will it be in the night sky at the best time to observe it? Fortunately, I don't actually need them to tell me that but it is one of the basic things that Sir Patrick's "Sky at Night" always did.
R.I.P. Sir Patrick's Sky at Night.
In telling us about the wonderous science made possible by Cassini's observations of Saturn we were treated to the occasional glimpse of images captured by the craft whilst three dull presenters. Then we got some happy stuff with peep's out with their telescopes and a quick glimpse of Jupiter and a couple of it's moons courtesy of an amateur whose little girl imparted more useful fact in twenty seconds than the presenters did in the whole programme.
For a rank amateur like me who now only uses a pair of ex-US Army bin's the final insult was the lack of one simple piece of information. If I want to look at Saturn tonight, where will it be in the night sky at the best time to observe it? Fortunately, I don't actually need them to tell me that but it is one of the basic things that Sir Patrick's "Sky at Night" always did.
R.I.P. Sir Patrick's Sky at Night.
