just had a "eureka" moment

[tinvek]

with appolagies to archimedes thought like him i am in the bath though i suspect he didn't have a laptop with him.

was just thinking about "the one show" thread and it suddenly hit me, the idea not the laptop, whilst "the sky at night" is a wonderful progam for people such as ourselves, what this hobby needs is a more " mass market" television presence.

the one show could be the answer. imagine if once a month they had a 5 or 10 min feature on what was visable and interesting to the layman in the coming weeks? presented in a simple non techincal manner at a level that even adrian chiles can understand. they could even pre record it at night with the "expert" showing chiles what to look for. no fancy equipment, aim it at what can be seen with the naked eye or a pair of binos.

what does anyone else think about it?

[shaula]

excellent idea but it just never seems to happen, even in the IYA!! There's still not enough astro-stuff out there.

I've started up an astronomy forum in work (obviously with a link to SGL!) & put posters up & loadsa people think it's dead cool but I think many more think I'm a geek!!

I recall someone once saying to me 'it's only dots in the sky- what's the big deal?'!

You know who you are!! & you should be shot...

[Mikea]

Good idea tinvek!!

"'it's only dots in the sky- what's the big deal?'!" - there's no hope for some people!

[calibos]

Maybe telling them the names of the stars might get them interested. Point up at the big triangle of stars in the Summer sky and say, "Thats the Love Triangle. That ones called Jordan 346, the other ones called Andre 531, They haven't named the third one yet......"

[Tantalus]

If it's going to be for the mass market Tinvek, then perhaps it's gonna take something more spectacular than a laymans tour of the night sky. Something more like Carl Sagan's Cosmos ? (I understand an updated version was shown on american tv a couple of years ago)

This being the IYA, you'd think someone in tv could put 2 and 2 together.

[Milliways]

Great idea.. i think most people are interested in astronomy but dont know what a telescope is what they can do, i spoke to my friend about astronomy and he didnt realize that you can see more up there than what you can just see with your eyes, he thought that a telescope just magnifies the dots he came over and i showed him jupiter and the M31, he was shocked and amazed!!

I think there should be more readily available infomation about astronomy and how to get into it!

Btw, laptop in the bath..... not a good idea!!

[tinvek]

dont worry its running on battery and its an old one i bought purely for web browsing, i player and playing DVDs (way cheaper than a dedicated protable DVD player with a similar sized screen) if it packed up it would be no real loss

[Macavity]

Well, I suppose, if the world were "different", once might tack a few words about the current NIGHT sky onto the end of TV weather forecasts. Most regional TV includes a "photo of the day" section, so I suspect there would be time...

[Dave]

In an ideal world...

The media and people expect too many bells and whistles and instant gratification.

A few years ago, I invited my neighbours round to view a lunar eclipse.

I told them the time to come round just as the Moon was entering the Umbra and the changes in light became more prominent. Unfortunately, they all decided to come round over an hour early as they could see the Moon was already up. After an hour or so, of not seeing a lot happening, they all got a bit twitchy and one by one they left, despite me trying to explain that it hadn't even started properly. Anyway, they missed the main event with all the lovely colours. But at least I could observe it in complete peace after they went.

As an aside, the media are pleased to fill column or broadcast time.

But they certainly don't seem to help in portraying science in a reasonably balanced way these days.

[mike.brightmore]

Perhaps a way of appealing to a wider audience would be to have famous people who are also amateur astronomers, like Brian May, talking about their hobby. How about a regular feature called 'The stars talk about the Stars'. After all the Queen of Nepal did an excellent job when she presented a programme about the Northern Aurora.

[TheThing]

Maybe telling them the names of the stars might get them interested. Point up at the big triangle of stars in the Summer sky and say, "Thats the Love Triangle. That ones called Jordan 346, the other ones called Andre 531, They haven't named the third one yet......"

Surely that should be 'those TWO are Jordan 346...'?!?

(Ok, back to the gutter for me!)

[Sparrow]

I think it's an excellent idea. I struggle to create any enthusiasm in any of my friends - about the only thing that seems to amaze them is if I point the scope at Saturn. My daughter will dutifully come out and have a look and then say "can I go back in now - I'm missing America's Next Top Model" - there's no hope!!!!!!

The Sky at Night is great but it really isn't what I would call a starter programme. A once a month slot would be brilliant just telling people what they can just go outside and see if they just look up - even if it's only some of the better known constellations or when a meteor shower can be expected, or perhaps when the ISS is due over head.

Sadly, my friends are more interested in the equipment than what can be seen through it - I keep trying to tell them that it's only a tool to do a job and the real interest is above our heads.

[minimalist]

Excellent idea, absolutely. Here in the US there is a guy named Jack Horkheimer (I hope I got the name right) who does a weekly show on naked eye astronomy, pretty cool! His favorite closing quote, "Keep looking up!" is pretty catchy too. Very down to earth kinda show, definitely to the level of the younger/beginner audience. Here's a link to his site, you can see some of the shows on there:

JH STAR GAZER HOME PAGE 07.21.09

Something in that format I think would be great in any country.

Daniel