What did you make of Horizon?

[DrRobin]

Hi,

You can't edit posts now, see Seems a small number of users have abused the system.

Might give Sky Survey a try, it looked pretty neat.

[themos]

I watched a bit of it. I didn't like the way the scientist didn't make clear that the idea that the universe looks the same no matter what galaxy you are on is an assumption, not something dictated by the data. We make that assumption, that we are not in a special place, in order that we can do science.

[Beulah]

hmm - must admit I was asleep by the end but nothing to do with the show- will check it again when I get home tonight - I'm hoping it will be like the Matrix- you get more out of it second time around.

Thanks mate, just put on my rental list for a second viewing.

[will-i-am]

I'm pritty new to the whole cosmology/astronomy and i found for me the programme was very interesting and pritty easy to understand but i still marvel at the size of the universe, i try and picture it and how our tiny planet fits in to the scale of things and its mind blowing.

[stevetynant]

Thanks mate, just put on my rental list for a second viewing.

I think the Matrix is the best science fiction film ever bar none- but it does take a few goes.

Apologies for deviating the thread but in the rain yesterday watched Contact with Jodie Foster - really like that film - based on a book by Carl Sagan. When I watched it the first time I really hadn't developed into the keen astronomer I am now starting to become but even to me some of the stuff on that film seems pretty simplistic - great viewing none the less.

Back on track - IPlayer again tonight - try to take some more of it in.

[c3po]

just watched the programme again on iPlayer. I say again as i watched part of it last night after getting in late last night... i found the programme to be really very interesting, and now my brain hurts! multiple universes all expanding in an infinite space that itself is expanding

[russ.will]

I'm hoping it will be like the Matrix- you get more out of it second time around.

How? Does Keanu Reeves' acting get better with more practice?

Russell

[stevetynant]

Trying desperately hard to stop this becoming a science fiction film thread - I shall not bite Russell lol - back on topic

[NGC1966]

The programme content for me just scratched the surface......... there were a alot of discoveries/theories in there, some old ones, but because of that I think they generalised too much, mainly because they only had an hour. Maybe too popular science......

I'd like to see a series of them focusing on a priciple and the people behind it. Some of the people involved spend years on a project.

[DrRobin]

That is the problem with this type of programme. It is no good saying Horizon has been 'dumbed down' or 'it isn't like the programmes they used to make', the problem is the Internet and access to Wikipedia and sites like this.

Once apon a time if you were interested in a subject you subscribed to a journal, either one of the professional societies or one of the hobby mags. Articles for professional journals take up to 6 months or more to publish, not sure how long for a mag. Now everyone can post and keep up to date with events/discoveries in glorious colour the minute after they happen and as such programmes like Horizon are always going to be out of date.

They also have to appeal to a wider range of viewers, not just the real experts. Let's face it anyone who has registered on here is likely to be very interested in the subject so of course it is going to look fairly boring or at least old hat.

I have watched quite a number of programmes of the like in the last couple of years and would say that last nights Horizon was fairly typical, there was a good mix of science with enough background for the lay person to understand. Next time Horizon is on and focusses on a completely different subject (not astronomy or the Universe), watch it and you will probably think it is back on form.

I guage programmes by how much time I actually spend watching it and not popping in to the kitchen or reaching for my computer. I watched a fair bit of last nights programme, so it must have been reasonably entertaining, if not informative.

[LukeSkywatcher]

The show wasnt what i expected. I thought they would be showing the size difference between stars etc. Most of the show went in one eye and out the other.

[faulksy]

have recorded it so will watch tonight, than less the skys stay clear

[BargeGazer]

Just watched my recorded version and I was hooked from about minute two. Of course it is superficial. Of course there are assumptions - but that is how theories develop. And of course it was full of graphic effects from the movie world. But it was still interesting and reminds me that there are other avenues of thought to be applied to all the physics of the universe than we (I) use today.

Keep them coming BBC.

David

[4lefts]

i quite liked it. i think how much you enjoy these shows depends on the state of your own knowledge. if you know most of this stuff already, then yeah, you want something more in depth. they could easily have done a whole program on dark energy/matter, and it would have been a lot more interesting to many people keenly interested in this stuff, but i suppose it would have seriously narrowed the appeal to other people.

i found the bits on the sloan digital sky survey interesting, and the bloke with the huge array of cameras doing the milky way mosaic, and using wmap data to draw big triangles.

[Nevy]

I bought that app of the milky way ( sky survey) and I'm a bit disappointed with it , it's just a panoramic photo of the sky , you can't zoom in very much and see stuff in detail , the veil for example is just a smudgey arc , I can see better detail in my telescope in light polluted skies , hopefully there will be updates for it soon :-(.

Sent from my AWSOME iPhone using Tapatalk

[Nevy]

Edit ( ha ha I've got an edit button )

It doesn't orient itself in the right place in the sky when you hold the iPhone up

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[JamesF]

I watched a bit of it. I didn't like the way the scientist didn't make clear that the idea that the universe looks the same no matter what galaxy you are on is an assumption, not something dictated by the data. We make that assumption, that we are not in a special place, in order that we can do science.

Well, yes. My understanding is that the cosmological principle ("everywhere looks like everywhere else") is one solution for the model of the universe, but it isn't the only one. If it isn't the correct one however, according to the model the evidence for that will not lie within the observable universe. Assuming the cosmological principle applies is considered reasonable therefore because it's easier to work with a model that doesn't have special cases, because there's no evidence that it will make any observable difference which solution is chosen and because it avoids having to explain why there should be special cases. If you like, of all possible solutions it's the simplest one that fits the known data which is a good place to start from a scientific point of view, but might still be wrong

James

[JamesF]

I've avoided reading this thread until I watched the programme. I found it both interesting and irritating. The CGI "map of the universe" really got on my wick and I didn't really "get" the idea of measuring triangles on the CMB. The entire idea of dark matter and dark energy still leaves me feeling slightly uneasy as if they're some gigantic fudge to get the numbers to work and could still turn out to be completely wrong, but much of the content was interesting and some of it I wasn't previously aware of.

James

[themos]

Hello James. It's not that I think the cosmological principle is unreasonable! It's more with the way it was presented as if it was dictated by observations/data instead of being something we assume in order to make interesting cosmological theories.

[JamesF]

Yes. Perhaps if they explained why it's assumed to be the best solution to chose it might offend the sensibilities rather less. Can't disagree with that at all.

James

[umadog]

I really enjoyed it, I must say. The more I hear about the macro structure of the universe the more amazing it sounds. It sounds almost as though dark energy and dark matter are forces similar to gravity but that work on an even larger scale, orders of magnitude larger than that of gravity.

[8kids]

I haven't seen the horizon for months ............did you see what I did there ............oh please yourself.

[mallorcasaint]

Edit ( ha ha I've got an edit button )

It doesn't orient itself in the right place in the sky when you hold the iPhone up

Sent from my AWSOME iPhone using Tapatalk

Mine does.

[Nevy]

Mine does.

Maybe I'll try it outside , it was north , south ect that was in the wrong orientation but it got better if I waved the phone about but most of my other space apps have no trouble lining up inside the house , maybe its a bit sensitive.

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[DrRobin]

I've avoided reading this thread until I watched the programme. I found it both interesting and irritating. The CGI "map of the universe" really got on my wick and I didn't really "get" the idea of measuring triangles on the CMB. The entire idea of dark matter and dark energy still leaves me feeling slightly uneasy as if they're some gigantic fudge to get the numbers to work and could still turn out to be completely wrong, but much of the content was interesting and some of it I wasn't previously aware of.

James

I wouldn't get too hung up on 'the fudge' sorry dark matter, scientists have always invented things to make the sums work. In fact isn't that how we found the outer planets before they could even be seen? Without dark matter our existing laws can't explain how the universe holds together, that could mean that a lot of our great scientists are wrong and earth will spin off out of the Milky Way. Still that might happen in a few billion years when we collide with Andromeda.

If they had stripped out the cgi universe to just one showing and got rid of the log cabin scene it wouldn't have been a bad programme. Some more pics of the night sky would have been better.