Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Tortoises, Venus, and Uranus...

I can see Uranus. Snigger.

Speaking of tortoises, I'd started writing this post yesterday, but kind of lost interest. That's not a very good start for my daily blog is it? But I promise you, it gets better!

Anyways, this post is all about a "massive upcoming TV event". Probably not on the same scale as Live Aid. Or even the National Lottery, or whatever it is they call it these days. Anyway, for all you SpaceFans™, here's some interesting information (if you like that kind of thing) about the up and coming Transit of Venus.


Apparantly, nobody alive has ever seen it, but I'd wager some of those really old, massive tortoises on the Galapagos Islands remember it. This astronomical event last happened in 1882 and will be shown in a one-hour special on BBC Two. The show will be hosted by another NewLinks Favorite Crusty "one for the ladies" TV Presenter™ Adam Hart-Davis. He's the bloke responsible for the dreadful, but watchable Mystery Science Theatre 3000 Science Shack, and the equally reprehensible, but hypnotically compelling Rough Science.


As Venus passes between the Sun and the Earth on the morning of the 8th of June 2004, BBC cameras will be at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and other locations around the country where amateur and professional astronomers witness this bi-curious phenomenon, not seen for 122 years.


In preparation for the stellar spectacular, BBC Two will screen a half-hour prequel spectacular on Saturday 5 June at 5pm as an introduction to the main programme. It will show viewers how to see the transit safely and effectively, and will preview some of the many public events round the country where telescopes will be set up to let people see this extraordinary stellar event. If it wasn't on a Tuesday we could've had another candidate for a Newlinks trip!

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