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The Sky at Night - The End


palebluedot

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More use of video astronomy and or camera that give a better idea if what we are seeing would be useful, so that people don't become disillusioned with "faint fuzzies". This is an area that t programmes are hit and miss with. We want to bring the experience to the sitting room.

Nicks comment about bbc continuing to back things sounds good. Gathering several programmes together and bringing it more mainstream would help, the recent solar and star

Party episodes I really enjoyed.

Some prerecorded (cloud free) material would help!

Fingers ever crossed

PeterW

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I really hope this does not happen, it's the only real program covering our hobby. It is sad that all the time I thought, hopeful wrongly, that they were just waiting for the great Sir Patrick to pass away before the knife went in.

When they started our with the new team I was not sure about it at first, but people have to be given a chance to develope their own style, they have done and I like it now, it's a nice balance. Lets keep fingers crossed and hope it is just a shot across the bows.

Alan

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I think for me BBC (or perhaps all) television is just becoming increasingly irrelevant.  I've just looked at what I recorded last week that I thought might be interesting to watch (I never watch anything live).  Across all of BBC1,2,3 and 4 I recorded two hours worth of television.  Out of a total of something like 450 hours broadcast.  I listen to the radio more than I watch television these days.  Not watching television means I find other things to do with my time and as a result I often won't even bother to record something that might be interesting, be it S@N or Brian Cox or whatever.

Left to my own devices I'd probably not bother with it at all.

James

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It's funny really, a few years ago there were three regular productions I went out of my way to watch...

...Formula One, Top Gear and The Sky At Night...

Now the F1 is reduced by half, the script of Top Gear is so laboured over it may as well be carved into marble, and The Sky At Night is looking likely to be axed (assuming our Twitter source is trustworthy).

Maybe it's just me getting older but I don't know who the BBC represents any more, because it certainly isn't me.

Yes, by all means cater for the viewing tastes of the young, the ignorant and those who just want to stare at the screen and not have to think for an hour or two, there's nothing wrong with that now and again.

But why do so at the expense of those of us who fall outside of your target demographic? Last I checked our license fee is the same as everyone else's.

The BBC is an organisation I had come to love over the years, one I have fiercely defended as a global benchmark for quality and integrity. More and more I am starting to feel abandoned and isolated by this gradual shift towards the mediocre and the asinine.

Shame

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I'm going to have to annoy a lot of people here and be 'on the fence' about this.

Nick Howes tweeted a good point earlier, about how Springwatch proved a shifting format can work. So much so that they now have autumn watch and will probably end up having some other *insert season*watch.

Rather than a monthly show which gets aired at a peculiar time, I would actually rather the BBC did a quarterly Stargazing Live at prime time, or a bi-annually Stargazing Live which ran the Springwatch format and aired at a good time on a good channel throughout the week. I remember the last Stargazing Live, the awareness and media around it was far more amplified than any Sky At Night could dream of. My friends were talking about it, websites were writing about it and it penetrated a new market for the hobby, which S@N struggles to.

If the BBC did a Stargazing Live around October every evening for a whole week, around when galaxy season kicks in and had a different focus on each evening with the usual science and *wow* bits, and with the (0.00001%) possibility of clear skies and live stargazing - then had another 6 months later in say June, when there's still a few interesting targets and clearer skies, any maybe a larger focus on planets for live stargazing; I think it could turn out to be a promising endeavour. They could cater for all levels of astronomers on each of those programmes in the week, and supplement it with editorial online. 

It effectively condenses a years worth of S@N in to a biannual week long schedule, at a better time (which kids can actually watch), covers 6 months worth of science discoveries, caters for all levels of astronomer, only has a week long impact on normal regular scheduling, gets Brian on TV doing his sexy thing, and hopefully would have a larger impact.

This is where some broadcast is moving to, event based scheduling condensing entertainment in to small and more irregular moments which have a bit more impact. It worked for Springwatch, it worked for C4's 'Inside Nature's Giants', it works for X Factor finals, the list goes on.. 

I was rather expecting retaining S@N AND Stargazing Live, maybe even extending the latter to a whole week.

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The BBC is an organisation I had come to love over the years, one I have fiercely defended as a global benchmark for quality and integrity. More and more I am starting to feel abandoned and isolated by this gradual shift towards the mediocre and the asinine.

This is pretty much how I feel.  One of the reasons I will not sit in front of the television these days is because I just don't care to have my intelligence insulted.  It's not just the BBC to be fair.  For example, programmes with adverts so often these days seem to feel the need to start each part by reminding you of what happened before the last set of adverts.  Are people so dumb that they can't recall what happened only two or three minutes ago?  Rather than engaging people with interesting content the intent these days seems more to smother the audience with mediocrity.

Programme-makers seem to have forgotten that some people have no issue with "entertainment" being challenging, thought-provoking and informative.  The only challenge most television presents for me is avoiding poking my own eyeballs out with a pencil.

James

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I can't help but wonder what evolution is going to do with the human being James, now that we don't have to think any more, infact we are constantly encouraged NOT to think. I wish I could say all will be fine but nature does not appear to keep traits that are of no use to use any more or are no longer used.

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I was told by one of the presenters early this year that the program would continue until christmas and then the BBC would make a decision about it's future .  If this is true and we are only in September this is a total disgrace  . The BBC has gone downhill drastically over the last five years  , we have seen the Television centre shut down and sold of nowadays in the UK TV like everything else is privatised outside companies make the programs for the BBC  as it has sold of the studios and transmitters its totally incapable of producing programs itself sadly as Sir Patrick is no longer with us  Farthings was the Studio without this being available  the costs would have went up drastically as without television centre all the programs have been visits to observatories etc. In the old Days Patrick would be in a studio and give us a 20 minute talk and interview mainly BAA  amature astronomers and ocasional profesional Astronomers

The BBC is totally dumbed down nowadays  this is yet another example of why in Scotland we need our own Scottish Broadcasting Corporation   

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I think for me BBC (or perhaps all) television is just becoming increasingly irrelevant.  I've just looked at what I recorded last week that I thought might be interesting to watch (I never watch anything live).  Across all of BBC1,2,3 and 4 I recorded two hours worth of television.  Out of a total of something like 450 hours broadcast.  I listen to the radio more than I watch television these days.  Not watching television means I find other things to do with my time and as a result I often won't even bother to record something that might be interesting, be it S@N or Brian Cox or whatever.

Left to my own devices I'd probably not bother with it at all.

James

James, I hear you. I hardly ever watch live programming, my lifestyle and work schedule rarely allow it. The majority of the programmes I watch are all recorded to be enjoyed at a more convenient time.

However, I think that tv viewing figures don't actually take into account the new , different ways that people watch tv, whether it be recorded, on +1 channels, or on demand services such as those online.

I noted that just a few days ago, the BBC's 'The Voice' received much lower viewing figures for series 2, than for series 1. Probably due to an over saturated market for so-called talent shows. However, much to my dismay, instead of axing a failing programme such as this, the BBC pay what I can only presume is an exorbitant figure to get Kylie on board to try and increase viewing figures. Why can't they just call it a day on programmes that are seen, in slightly different formats, elsewhere?

It is my (possibly very naive) opinion that Kylie's fee alone could probably pay for S@N for another year!

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I really hope this is very early days with this petition. if that 870 doesn't get closer to 25000 then the bbc will have their mind made up for them. don't misunderstand me, I don't want to see it go but if I was running one of the big five tv stations, i'd want to know a lot more people are watching.

Ok, I'll be up against the wall with my blindfold on ready and waiting ;)

Edit:- I guess they know how many people are wtching....what I should of said is how many people care if it's canned

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I really hope this is very early days with this petition. if that 870 doesn't get closer to 25000 then the bbc will have their mind made up for them. don't misunderstand me, I don't want to see it go but if I was running one of the big five tv stations, i'd want to know a lot more people are watching.

Ok, I'll be up against the wall with my blindfold on ready and waiting ;)

The petition has only been up for 9 hours. We are about to hit 1000.

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I'll be sad to see Sky at Night go, but think it's probably due a complete revamp. Think running it for a year after Sir Patrick's passing has been respectful, but it was always his program. If the program is going to be relaunched in a new, perhaps more accessible format say like Stargazing Live, then it could be a good thing. I struggle to catch the Sky at Night, it's on so very late, never on the iPlayer. Shoot me if you will, but other programs have moved on with technology and the times. I 'm not going to sign the petition yet, in the hope that there's a new program coming that has a fresh look, maybe even with new presenters? 

Chris

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