The Sky at Night (eBook)

Patrick Moore (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2010 | 2010
XV, 169 Seiten
Springer New York (Verlag)
978-1-4419-6409-0 (ISBN)

Infos

When I became the producer of the Sky at Night in 2002, I was given some friendly advice: 'It's a quiet little programme, not much happens in astronomy.' How wrong they were! It's been a hectic and enthralling time ever since:, with missions arriving at distant planets; new discoveries in our Universe; and leaps in technology, which mean amateurs can take pictures as good as the Hubble Space Telescope. What a privilege it is to work on a programme with such a huge heritage! I am constantly amazed looking back at the flotilla of excellent programmes which have gone out over the past five decades. The Sky at Night has always been at the sharp end of science broadcasting, whether it's showing the first view from the far side of the Moon or pictures of a new comet which has swept into our sky. Viewers can depend on Sir Patrick to tell them the latest news and explain what it means. It's an outstanding achievement and Sir Patrick still holds the world record for being the same presenter on the longest running TV programme. Our guests love coming down to Farthings, Sir Patrick's home. For them, me- ing him is like meeting their astronomical hero. Over the past five decades, the Sky at Night has managed to talk to the space scientists and astronomers making the landmark discoveries. No matter how busy they are, they make room for Sir Patrick.

Sir Patrick Moore is one of the world's leading popularisers of astronomy. He has written more than 100 books and presented his BBC TV program The Sky at Night every four weeks since 1957, making it the world's longest running television program of any kind. While still in school, he became a member of the British Astronomical Association (BAA) and was later appointed director of Brockhurst Observatory. He served as director of the Armagh Planetarium between 1965 and 1968. He is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (and a Jackson Gwillt medallist), a member of the International Astronomical Union, a holder of the Goodacre medal, and former president and current life vice-president of the BAA. A minor planet (# 2602) has been named after him. He was knighted in November 2000. He was also made a Fellow of the Royal Society. As the presenter of the record breaking The Sky at Night series, Patrick was awarded a BAFTA in 2000. The most important research Patrick has carried out has been about the Moon. He is credited with discovering the Mare Orientale. He did this with his 'traditional' 12 1/2 inch reflector, which still sits proudly in his front garden. His maps of the Moon were among those used by the Russians in 1959 to correlate the first Lunik 3 pictures of the far side. He was also at NASA for the lunar mapping prior to the Apollo missions. Chris Lintott, the co-star of the latest episodes of Sky at Night, has a massive fan base that derives equally from The Sky at Night and from his paradigm-shifting astronomy website Galaxy Zoo, which has some 150,000 members.

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When I became the producer of the Sky at Night in 2002, I was given some friendly advice: "e;It's a quiet little programme, not much happens in astronomy."e; How wrong they were! It's been a hectic and enthralling time ever since:, with missions arriving at distant planets; new discoveries in our Universe; and leaps in technology, which mean amateurs can take pictures as good as the Hubble Space Telescope. What a privilege it is to work on a programme with such a huge heritage! I am constantly amazed looking back at the flotilla of excellent programmes which have gone out over the past five decades. The Sky at Night has always been at the sharp end of science broadcasting, whether it's showing the first view from the far side of the Moon or pictures of a new comet which has swept into our sky. Viewers can depend on Sir Patrick to tell them the latest news and explain what it means. It's an outstanding achievement and Sir Patrick still holds the world record for being the same presenter on the longest running TV programme. Our guests love coming down to Farthings, Sir Patrick's home. For them, me- ing him is like meeting their astronomical hero. Over the past five decades, the Sky at Night has managed to talk to the space scientists and astronomers making the landmark discoveries. No matter how busy they are, they make room for Sir Patrick.

Inhalt

Foreword 6
Introduction 8
About the Author 10
Acknowledgements 12
Contents 14
Chapter 1: Eye on the Universe 18
Chapter 2: The Turbulent Sun 21
Chapter 3: Comet Crash 25
Chapter 4: The Search for Life Elsewhere 28
Chapter 5: Mapping the Sky 32
Chapter 6: News from the Planets 34
Chapter 7: Spanish Ring 39
Chapter 8: The Sizes of the Stars 42
Chapter 9: The Edge of the Solar System 46
Chapter 10: The Telescopes of Mauna Kea 49
Chapter 11: Turkish Delight 53
Chapter 12: Ringed World 56
Chapter 13: Matter We Cannot See 60
Chapter 14: Gamma-Ray Bursters 63
Chapter 15: Wandering Giants 66
Chapter 16: The Problem of Pluto 69
Chapter 17: Non-identical Twins 72
Chapter 18: The Sounds of the Stars 75
Chapter 19: Space-Man 78
Chapter 20: Exploring Mars 81
Chapter 21: The Lakes of Titan 84
Chapter 22: Fiftieth Anniversary 90
Chapter 23: SuperWASP 93
Chapter 24: Scorpion in the Sky 96
Chapter 25: The August Perseids 100
Chapter 26: Black Holes: And Black Magic 104
Chapter 27: Jodrell Bank: Fiftieth Anniversary 107
Chapter 28: The Grand Collision 109
Chapter 29: Holmes’ Comet 113
Chapter 30: Cosmic Debris 116
Chapter 31: Nearest Star 119
Chapter 32: The Flight of the Phoenix 122
Chapter 33: Devil’s Advocate 126
Chapter 34: Galaxy Zoo 129
Chapter 35: Four Hundred Years of the Telescope 132
Chapter 36: The Merry Dancers 136
Chapter 37: The Fountains of Enceladus 139
Chapter 38: The Herschel Telescope 142
Chapter 39: Onward to the Moon 145
Chapter 40: Forty Years on 150
Chapter 41: Impact! 152
Chapter 42: Life? 154
Index 157

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.11.2010
• Zusatzinfo: XV, 169 p. 43 illus., 33 illus. in color.
• Verlagsort: New York
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Natur / Technik ► Weltraum / Astronomie
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Physik / Astronomie ► Astronomie / Astrophysik
• Themenwelt: Technik
• Schlagworte: Amateur Astronomy • Astronomy • BBC astronomical television series • observational astronomy • Patrick Moore • television astronomy • the sky at night
• ISBN-10: 1-4419-6409-6 / 1441964096
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4419-6409-0 / 9781441964090