How to spoil a good song

Further to my last post about Billy Bragg's song The Space Race Is Over, I just noticed something about it that I'd never picked up on before:

And I watched the Eagle landing
On a night when the Moon was full

I take it he didn't watch it live then?

File Under: Bad Astronomy, Billy Bragg, Lunar Phases, Apollo 11, Pedantry.

The Space Race is Over

My son and I stand beneath the great night sky
And gaze up in wonder
I tell him the tale of Apollo and he says
"Why did they ever go?"
It may look like some empty gesture
To go all that way just to come back
But don't offer me a place out in cyberspace
Cos where in the hell's that at?

From The Space Race Is Over by Billy Bragg.

Sometimes, just sometimes, when I've not been out for a good observing session for a while (thanks to weather and other things), I start feeling a little like that about maintaining an astronomy weblog.

File Under: Astronomy, Armchair Astronomy, Blogging, Billy Bragg.

Chariots of the Gods

Seen via a link in this article on Slashdot, it would appear that the SciFi channel is going to create a mini-series of Erich von Däniken's book Chariots of the Gods. Sounds like it could be fun, and I can't help but think that it could provide lots of fodder for the Bad Astronomer.

That bit of "almost related to astronomy" news aside, I'm also overjoyed to read that there's going to be a spin-off from Battlestar Galactica based around life on Caprica, around the time of the creation of the Cylons.

File Under: Kooks, Bad Astronomy, SciFi, Battlestar Galactica.

Practical Astronomer

Via this post on the SPA BB, it seems there's a new astronomy magazine heading our way: Practical Astronomer.

Seems like a terribly brave venture given the number of astronomy magazines available currently in the UK (and that list isn't exhaustive).

File Under: Astronomy Magazine, Practical Astronomer.

Observing and Astroblast

I did make it to Astroblast on Saturday although I've not had the time to write up a report of it yet, I'm hoping I might get the chance this evening or some time tomorrow. The reason for this blog entry is to point to the first observing log entries I've made away from home. The first at Astroblast itself and the second on the way home afterwards.

Okay, what I observed doesn't quite fall under "astronomy" in some sense (and perhaps would fall better under the weather category — I'll probably give it a mention over there too) but it was too good not to record and note in my log book and in the online version of my logs.

File Under: Atmospheric Phenomena, Sundogs, Parry Arc, Halo, Circumzenithal Arc.

Astroblast this Saturday

As I first mentioned a couple of months back this Saturday is Astroblast 2006 at the Cambridge Institute of Astronomy. All being well I'll be popping along so I hope to write about it some time next week.

I do wonder how many people will attend. Either I've not been paying much attention it it's not been very well advertised in the UK astronomy press (and it seems I'm not the only one to get this impression). It's also interesting (and sort of worrying) to note that I appear to be the only person who has written about it in the UK astronomy blogs.

File Under: Astroblast, Green Witch, Cambridge Astronomical Association, Institute of Astronomy.

Yuri's Night

Don't forget, tonight is Yuri's Night.

File Under: Yuri Gagarin.