OT I know , but aurora alerts have been posted here before and this is an event that no one alive now has ever seen; due early next month - a transit of Venus. I've taken the day off work to see it to add to the total eclipse of the sun + moon, Halley's Comet, supernova, Mercury and other stuff I've been lucky to see. If we miss it there's another in 2012 and that's it for us!
OT I know , but aurora alerts have been posted here before and this is an event that no one alive now has ever seen; due early next month - a transit of Venus. I've taken the day off work to see it to add to the total eclipse of the sun + moon, Halley's Comet, supernova, Mercury and other stuff I've been lucky to see. If we miss it there's another in 2012 and that's it for us!
There's going to be a special BBC programme of the event. Adam Hart-Davis
is
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doing it.
Brilliant - my favourite TV presenter. When he did "Local Heroes" about how that Scots bloke worked out the mass of the earth and then all of the bodies in the solar system by inventing contour mapping, measuring the mass of the same mountain he'd mapped and working out its gravitational pull by the angle from vertical on suspended lead weights, I was crying like a baby :-) -- Simon M.
Mine too. One of the reasons I was sad to leave Leeds and move back down south was not being able to watch Local Heroes any more. Then the BBC bought the series off Yorkshire TV and I was happy again.
My wife can't stand him, though.
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When he did "Local Heroes" about how that Scots bloke worked out the mass of the earth and then all of the
bodies
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in the solar system by inventing contour mapping, measuring the mass of
the
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same mountain he'd mapped and working out its gravitational pull by the angle from vertical on suspended lead weights, I was crying like a baby
:-)
He's the first person who has ever been able to explain to me in terms I can understand how a cantilever bridge works.
"Simon Mason" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
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Brilliant - my favourite TV presenter. When he did "Local Heroes" about how that Scots bloke worked out the mass of the earth and then all of the bodies in the solar system by inventing contour mapping, measuring the mass of the same mountain he'd mapped and working out its gravitational pull by the angle from vertical on suspended lead weights, I was crying like a baby :-) --
Nevil Maskelyne was a Londoner ! And he was sent to St. Helena to observe the 1761 Venus transit (but it was cloudy). Made Astronomer Royal and issued the instructions on how to observe the 1769 transit and lead the observations at Greenwich.
My favourite 1769 transit story is that the citizens of Glasgow obeyed the request not to light coal fires on the day so that the seeing would be better !
"Simon Mason" <[email hidden]> wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:
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I've had a pint of Harvieston Schiehallion in my local pub - does that count? :-)
Almost certainly! It's made in Pitlochry, fairly near Schiehallion, so undoubtedly the brewery employs several people who've been up Schiehallion. They'd certainly have transferred some Shiehallion grit from their boots when they were trampling the hops. Or have I got mixed up there somewhere? :-)
[email hidden] (Tim Henderson) wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:
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My favourite 1769 transit story is that the citizens of Glasgow obeyed the request not to light coal fires on the day so that the seeing would be better !
That'll be the last time those Weegies did as they were told!
Is it just me, or does "Transit of Venus" sound like a [censored]'s boudoir on wheels[1]?
We used to have an ageing Transit van at school (back in the days when you could get away with transporting kids in long wheelbase transit vans with benches bolted inside). It was, of course, known to some as Gloria, short for Gloria Mundi.
"Just zis Guy, you know?" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
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We used to have an ageing Transit van at school (back in the days when you could get away with transporting kids in long wheelbase transit vans with benches bolted inside). It was, of course, known to some as Gloria, short for Gloria Mundi.
Is that because boys were sometimes sick in it?
Our Latin teacher's favourite genuine howler was a rendering by one of his less talented pupils of "sic transit gloria" as "he was sick crossing the channel".
I used to school hereabouts <http://makeashorterlink.com/?Y2C822448> Douai is on top of a hill - one of the highest points in Berksire, or so I believe - and there were no artificial lights anywhere nearby. From my room in my final year I had a beautiful view of the night sky; my window looked almost directly north.
