12 January 2013 Saturday) - Stargazing Live

Yesterday evening with the house to myself I had a telly-o-thon. I turned the telly on, activated a whole load of stuff I'd recorded onto the Sky-Plus box, and woke up at 2am with neck ache. I then had a relatively good night's kip. It would have been better if I didn't need the early morning tiddle, but I suppose that is down to my age. The main problem with the early morning tiddle is that it disturbs Furry Face.
I eventually got up about 8.30ish, abluted, and watched Fudge guard the house. He likes to sit on the back of the sofa looking out of the window. Should a burglar climb in that window Fudge wouldn't mind, but he goes mental when a house fifty yards down the road gets a visitor. He went berserk this morning when the postman walked down the other side of the road, but didn't bat an eyelid when "My Boy TM" came to visit.

Today was one of those days when I had to choose between various options. I could have gone to the Kent county geocachers meeting. I would like to have been there; "er indoors TM" and "acquired child" went leaving me behind. To be honest I'd committed to being part of today's "Stargazing Live" event months ago. So I put Stargazing Live" on the telly. I'd recorded one of the TV shows in the week and thought I ought to see what it was all about. I lasted twenty minutes. It was a good show for the masses, but like all telly it was very superficial, and after twenty minutes it hadn't actually said anything.

I then took Fudge for a walk. He was in an odd mood today, and wouldn't stop pulling. He eventually settled down though. Whilst out I met an ex-colleague and we chatted for a bit, I completed my circuit of the park and we came home. Over a spot of lunch I watched the last of the BBC's drama about the end of National Service. It was quite a good show, and I only dozed off twice. And then I spent a little while putting the finishing touches to tonight's lecture on Mars. Based on a talk I originally gave to the astro club four years ago it's amazing how our knowledge about the red planet has changed in that time.

And so on to Woodchurch. I arrived a couple of hours before the punters so's I could help get the hall ready. I lugged the chairs and tables about whilst others did their bits. It was a shame the evening was cloudy and wet for an astronomical event, but we had a great time. Jason got his globes out - all three of them. Drew's talks was good. The "ask an astronomer" panel worked well. I'm not sure my talk on Mars was as good as it might have been, but is it ever? And the ladies (and the Rear Admiral) worked wonders in the kitchen. The weather was against us, but we had a turn-out of about one hundred people. It was certainly worth putting the event on. As always there are photos of the day on-line.
and then home to do the astro club accounts. We would seem to be ninety quid adrift somewhere. Woops...!


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