Will Hay - Amateur Astronomer (Telescopes!)

[Macavity]

While "researching" (lol) my Comedy Thread, I was reminded
of one early childhood Laugh: Will Hay in "Oh Mr. Porter!".
As Sir Patrick reminded us, a noteworthy Amateur Astronomer
(Discoverer of a "White Spot on Saturn" way back in 1933!)

A sucker for anything featuring *Historic Telescopes* me...
Nowt to do with me! The Credits within the Youtube Video.

 

Edited December 27, 2017 by Macavity

[Peter Drew]

Complete with early dongle.  

[Victor Boesen]

His quote in the end is so true

[mikeDnight]

Absolutely fantastic!

It's a shame that Dale hasn't managed to get his hands on Will's 6" refractor with which he discovered the white spot. Nice portable refractor there though, with some wonderful history attached to it!

Superb!!!

[michaelmorris]

Great video, thanks for posting.

[paulastro]

What a truly fantastic bit of film.  Thanks for posting it Mike, I really enjoyed it - I think I'll watch it many more times! 

[John]

Very interesting and enjoyable

Thanks for posting this Chris

[The Admiral]

You might be interested in this photo of Will Hay during a visit to the Edgbaston Observatory. I don't know when it took place.

Ian

 

[Astro Imp]

Wonderful, I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

[Tiki]

I really had no idea. Thanks for posting.

[Aramcheck]

A scan of Will Hay's "Through The Telescope: Astronomy For All" book can be found here:- https://archive.org/details/ThroughMyTelescope

Currently reading it & so far  the "once seen... never forgotten" line is genius.

Cheers
Ivor

[jambouk]

On 04/01/2018 at 15:22, The Admiral said:

You might be interested in this photo of Will Hay during a visit to the Edgbaston Observatory. I don't know when it took place.

Ian

 

The chap in the middle looks like Frank Dyson; this may help narrow down the date if you can confirm if it is. Dyson was president of the Birmingham and Midland Institute in 1929, he died in 1939. Martin Mobberley may know more, he wrote a wonderful article on Will Hay:

http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2009JBAA..119...67M

 

[johninderby]

A favourite of Sir Martin Rees the Astronomer Royal. Martin was kind enough to send me a load of info on Will Hay a few years ago. 👍🏻

Edited April 10, 2020 by johninderby

[The Admiral]

10 hours ago, jambouk said:

The chap in the middle looks like Frank Dyson

Sorry, can't confirm that. The photo came from a collection of the daughter of of the Director of the Observatory.

Ian

[ScouseSpaceCadet]

Well blow me down... You learn something new every day. Will Hay was a staple of Saturday morning TV way back. I had no idea! Ta.