The Sky at Night

Ice Tea · 20 Mar 2022 at 10:26

It seems to keep vanishing off the radar with the breaks they keep taking, not back on until April.

Didn't they try and cancel it before?

Tombstone · 20 Mar 2022 at 10:39

Never been the same for me once Patrick Moore was gone. What a magical guy he was

Rannoch · 20 Mar 2022 at 11:02

I have loads of old episodes with Patrick. He got me into astronomy.

Malevolence · 20 Mar 2022 at 15:23

Yeah, was wondering when the next episode is. They could do with binning Maggie Aderin-Pocock off though. I can't stand her presentation style, she always speaks as if she's addressing a class of five year olds.

Ice Tea · 21 Mar 2022 at 07:20

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mk7h

They can't even be bothered to update their website, i found out through twitter.

SPG · 21 Mar 2022 at 16:39

Both presenters are tosh tbh, but you got to hit the WOKOMETER before being able to do the job your paid for first.

Gerard · 22 Mar 2022 at 00:30

Tombstone said:
Never been the same for me once Patrick Moore was gone. What a magical guy he was

Very fond of the Germans as well, :eek:

Tombstone · 22 Mar 2022 at 01:45

Gerard said:
Very fond of the Germans as well,

Well I cant blame him there, I mean I like Jurgen Klopp, Christoph Waltz and Claudia Schiffer, so I like the Germans too

Mr Badger · 22 Mar 2022 at 02:20

Gerard said:
Very fond of the Germans as well,

Tombstone said:
Well I cant blame him there, I mean I like Jurgen Klopp, Christoph Waltz and Claudia Schiffer, so I like the Germans too

Unsure which comment is the "more" tongue in cheek, but I seem to recall Patrick Moore being less than complementary about our Teutonic cousins and Wikipedia says:

World War II had a significant influence on Moore's life – he said his only romance ended when his fiancée Lorna, a nurse, was killed in London in 1943 by a bomb which struck her ambulance. Moore subsequently remarked that he never married because "there was no one else for me ... second best is no good for me ... I would have liked a wife and family, but it was not to be."[116] In his biography of Moore, Martin Mobberley expressed doubts over this account, as it was not possible to identify Lorna, saying that Moore told varying stories about her.[117] In his autobiography, he said that after sixty years he still thought about her, and because of her death "if I saw the entire German nation sinking into the sea, I could be relied upon to help push it down."[118] In May 2012, Moore told the Radio Times magazine, "We must take care. There may be another war. The Germans will try again, given another chance." He also said, in the same interview, that "the only good Kraut is a dead Kraut".[119]

Feek · 22 Mar 2022 at 17:43

Malevolence said:
Yeah, was wondering when the next episode is. They could do with binning Maggie Aderin-Pocock off though. I can't stand her presentation style, she always speaks as if she's addressing a class of five year olds.

I can’t stand the way she pauses when she speaks, it’s like Captain Kirk multiplied by ten.

casper_uk · 22 Mar 2022 at 22:40

Tombstone said:
Never been the same for me once Patrick Moore was gone. What a magical guy he was

Agreed, I imagine it won't be long before they cancel the show.

Ice Tea · 24 Mar 2022 at 06:38

I vaguely remember talk in the past of it being moved to BBC iplayer only.

Bubo · 24 Mar 2022 at 11:45

Malevolence said:
Yeah, was wondering when the next episode is. They could do with binning Maggie Aderin-Pocock off though. I can't stand her presentation style, she always speaks as if she's addressing a class of five year olds.

I get the distinct impression the BBC gave her the job with the express intention of driving viewers away so they could finally cancel it.

Ice Tea · 2 Apr 2022 at 12:22

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0016cbz

11 April 2022
Exoplanets and Antarctica
The Sky at Night The Sky at Night team report on the new scientific methods being used to detect exoplanets and how the winter darkness of Antarctica is critical to their success.

At last a update.

Blackjack Davy · 4 Apr 2022 at 03:23

Patrick was an amateur (in the sense of he wasn't trained or have any formal qualifications in the subject) astronomer who instinctively understood amateur astronomers with their telescope in the back garden and star charts and spoke directly to them, with the occasional contribution by scientists in their field who he sometimes would be sceptical of (I remember him being a stalwart of the theory that lunar craters could be created by volcanic activity something almost nobody would agree with today)

The two new presenters I don't have any issue with but they're scientists who ordinary people can't relate to I don't even think they own a telescope - its simply become a programme where the latest or new scientific discoveries are reported and actual stargazing in ones own back yard has been pushed aside almost to the point of irrielevence - I'm not sure who's to blame for that honestly

Malevolence · 4 Apr 2022 at 05:33

Blackjack Davy said:
The two new presenters I don't have any issue with but they're scientists who ordinary people can't relate to I don't even think they own a telescope

Surely you mean the one new presenter, Maggie Aderin-Pocock. Chris Lintott is a professional astronomer and astrophysicist, a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and co-founder of the Galaxy Zoo project. He's also been presenting The Sky at Night for over 20 years now. Do you really believe that he doesn't own a telescope?

GreatAuk · 4 Apr 2022 at 12:43

Used to really enjoy it but I've not watched any recent episodes tbh... I don't mind Chris, but fully agree it's just not the same without Patrick.

Given it's a fairly niche sort of program it's kind of surprising it's lasted as long as it has at the BBC tbh.

Suspect they either just want to run it into the ground to have an excuse to cancel it once and for all, or try and transition it into some kind of regular 'space is cool guys, did you know stars are millions of miles away, wow, now here's an animation of an astronaut landing on the moon' type kids' program (which Maggie would probably be much better suited to).

Reminds me of when they tried to kill it by giving it the graveyard slot which Patrick complained about a fair bit...

Thread has reminded me about it though, had completely dropped off my radar. Might watch a recent episode tonight.

Retro6 · 9 Apr 2022 at 23:33

I used to enjoy it but it can be boring at times talking about mundane subjects other times it can be really interesting.

Blackjack Davy · 10 Apr 2022 at 00:12

Malevolence said:
Surely you mean the one new presenter, Maggie Aderin-Pocock. Chris Lintott is a professional astronomer and astrophysicist, a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and co-founder of the Galaxy Zoo project. He's also been presenting The Sky at Night for over 20 years now. Do you really believe that he doesn't own a telescope?

Sigh. I mean they're not amateurs with a tiny 'scope in the backyard I mean why would they they've got access to observatories with all the high tech avaliable as professional astronomers. Which is far beyond the experience of the average viewer.

Btone · 10 Apr 2022 at 21:50

Try watching Dr becky she does weekly vids, and once a month she does a extended vid telling you what to watch fo out for in the next month, and when to look for it