stargazers live.... thoughts?

[Seafury]

it should be renamed Star Gazing Live Big Brother with a dance off at the end that would keep everyone happy

[devilgas]

and why do they have to keep involving random so called "celebs" who have no interest or no involvement in the subject ? they are more interested in promoting their own image and worth as comediens or whatever they certainly don't add to the program and one can image the main presenters being quite annoyed at their inclusion I expect they are the idea of some spotty 18 year old" media studies "producer as a good idea, sorry rant from old, grey,dribbling individual over lol

yup. didn't see the point of david baddiel being on there at all. phil jupitus was slightly better, but neither gave the impression they had even looked through a telescope (might be doing a dis-service to PJ there though).

if a celeb corner must be used, then at least get someone on who's interested in astronomy / an amateur astronomer.

btw, like others, i thought brian may was brilliant and, despite his obvious extensive knowledge on astro stuff, really brought a grass roots perspective to the prog.

oh yeah, loved the uncaged monkeys feel to the B2E show last night! deffo needs to be longer

[Seafury]

from another forum it seems that Brian May was very supportive of SPM in latter years, if so what a super chap

[fredster]

btw, like others, i thought brian may was brilliant and, despite his obvious extensive knowledge on astro stuff, really brought a grass roots perspective to the prog.

Yep i agree too, Brian May was superb. Loads of enthusiasm, could talk astronomy at any level and really gave the show a grass roots feel on that first night. He has a genuine interest that relates to the majority of amateurs, even happy to be slumming it with his dobsonian. Definitely the star of the show so far.

[Stargazer_00]

When I heard "cosmic expansion was faster than the speed of light" I actually cringed.

How can physicists preach light speed as the absolute limit at which anything can happen and then condone expansion add being ftl? If one thing can go faster then why not others? Slippery slope stuff. I actually thought she'd made a gaff judging by brians expression yet they followed up on it in the after party.

On the actual show though was really good. Enjoyed Watching it after the clouds had rolled in here. I must say the Liverpool astronomy club should be shamed for abandoning their scopes in a field on a clear sky night to serve as a back drop in a studio. Would've been great to see at least1 person stay and say they'd sooner be in the field observing!

[JB80]

I thought last nights was a top show, really good and interesting.

I also like Back to Earth too, it would be a good format to have weekly.

[Astrosurf]

I thought it was very good a improvement on last night, on a side note when I checked facebook I noticed friends talking about the stars and stargazing live... people who I would never imagine talking about.

That's very interesting. Excellent.

[waynezilla]

When I heard "cosmic expansion was faster than the speed of light" I actually cringed.

How can physicists preach light speed as the absolute limit at which anything can happen and then condone expansion add being ftl? If one thing can go faster then why not others? Slippery slope stuff. I actually thought she'd made a gaff judging by brians expression yet they followed up on it in the after party.

On the actual show though was really good. Enjoyed Watching it after the clouds had rolled in here. I must say the Liverpool astronomy club should be shamed for abandoning their scopes in a field on a clear sky night to serve as a back drop in a studio. Would've been great to see at least1 person stay and say they'd sooner be in the field observing!

I think the point is that the expansion was "faster" than the speed of light. Nothing was moving through space-time faster than the speed of light, space-time itself was expanding. I think there's a subtle difference.

It's a pretty heavy subject, and I think its good that this stuff is at least being discussed on a prime-time show even if it wasn't explained too well. Better than the usual guff anyway!

[Astrosurf]

Darwinian evolution comes into play here with the "Survival of the Fittest"

Ha! Good one!

[cantab]

Can you see a person who enjoys those shows wanting to hear about Polar Allignment, or perhaps the history and principles of the Triplet Apo? Me neither....

The history of the apo's predecessor, the achromatic lens, I actually reckon would be a pretty cool thing to cover, because it's something no less a figure than Newton himself thought was impossible!

How can physicists preach light speed as the absolute limit at which anything can happen and then condone expansion add being ftl? If one thing can go faster then why not others? Slippery slope stuff. I actually thought she'd made a gaff judging by brians expression yet they followed up on it in the after party.

The light-speed limit comes from special relativity, but general relativity allows ways to "get round" it by distorting spacetime itself. Things like wormholes and (Alcubierre) warp drives are theoretical but probably impractical ways, while the expansion of the Universe is a way that it actually happens.

[Catweazel]

There wasn't much stargazing going on

[pete_l]

How can physicists preach light speed as the absolute limit at which anything can happen and then condone expansion add being ftl? If one thing can go faster then why not others? Slippery slope stuff. I actually thought she'd made a gaff judging by brians expression yet they followed up on it in the after party.

The relativity equations say that as the speed of a "thing" that has mass approaches the speed of light, the mass of that thing would increase towards infinity. Since heavier things need more energy to accelerate them than lighter things, the amount of energy needed for something with mass to reach the speed of light would also be infinite.

Light can travel at "the speed of light" as photons (as far as we can tell) don't have any mass. If they do turn out to have mass, then someone's got a lot of explaining to do

I think the loophole is that "space" doesn't have mass, so the relativity limitations don't apply.

[Naemeth]

The relativity equations say that as the speed of a "thing" that has mass approaches the speed of light, the mass of that thing would increase towards infinity. Since heavier things need more energy to accelerate them than lighter things, the amount of energy needed for something with mass to reach the speed of light would also be infinite.

Light can travel at "the speed of light" as photons (as far as we can tell) don't have any mass. If they do turn out to have mass, then someone's got a lot of explaining to do

I think the loophole is that "space" doesn't have mass, so the relativity limitations don't apply.

That covers it . If space has mass too (which it may do, Dark Matter?) then there needs to be a lot of explaining.

[smudgeball]

Instead of standing all the amateurs behind them in the back to earth show, why not invite one of them to sit with them?

Perhaps a more knowledgeable member of their club, the could then talk about "stargazing"

(and it would be cheaper than rolling in a "celeb" for the evening)

Neil

[Rob]

I think its been good so far. To be honest it does rain a lot in this country, so filler stuff required for the hour show. Show 2 was much more 'Stargazing' as such.. and I feel the guests so far have also been good. It has to appeal to the masses.. it must fire up the imagination.

Thought it was great to have the interview with Adam @ JPL

Good Job I say

[devilgas]

I must say the Liverpool astronomy club should be shamed for abandoning their scopes in a field on a clear sky night to serve as a back drop in a studio. Would've been great to see at least1 person stay and say they'd sooner be in the field observing!

i think it boiled down to "do i have 30 mins observing or 30 mins of being on live tv?"

[JamesF]

No-one else picked up on BC's blooper last night when he said that Promixa Centauri was "the nearest star to us", then? I'm sure he'd not have let anyone else get away with such ambiguity

James

[smudgeball]

No-one else picked up on BC's blooper last night when he said that Promixa Centauri was "the nearest star to us", then? I'm sure he'd not have let anyone else get away with such ambiguity

James

I pointed it out to the wife and she just Tutted

[JamesF]

i think it boiled down to "do i have 30 mins observing or 30 mins of being on live tv?"

Or 30 minutes of "being ignored on live tv" In their shoes I'd probably have gone because I'd expect the conversation to be interesting, though given the rarity of clear skies of late I'm not entirely sure. Knowing I was recording it I might well have decided to stay out

James

[smudgeball]

...mind I live in Scotland so you don't often get to see the one that is the nearest !

[David Galvin]

i think it boiled down to "do i have 30 mins observing or 30 mins of being on live tv?"

Sounds like the green eyed monsters are out and about again. :-)

Several of us would have loved to have stayed and observed but due to the programme being live it meant that security on the site was heightened due to the possible attempt of demonstrators etc. Besides it was alot warmer in the studio and I managed to blag a doughnut.

[studdedsole]

Something new I learned and didn't even twig previously, maybe because we spend so much effort to achieve focus, if you defocus a stars image the true colour of the star reveals itself - completely passed me by previously this gem

[JamesF]

Something new I learned and didn't even twig previously, maybe because we spend so much effort to achieve focus, if you defocus a stars image the true colour of the star reveals itself - completely passed me by previously this gem

Yes, that was something really useful to know. I don't think I've seen it discussed anywhere before.

James

[the rev]

There were interesting parts, but I must say I missed the live link ups to some of the events around the country. I always felt they were good to see, whether clear or cloudy as it showed grassroots at work with visitors

[Ptarmigan]

if you defocus a stars image the true colour of the star reveals itself - completely passed me by previously this gem

I liked that demo as well.

You might be interested in these :-

http://www.aao.gov.a...ns/misc011.html

http://apod.nasa.gov...d/ap040708.html