BBC 2 has just re-run the first in a five part series called – I think – “Wonders of the Solar System”. It’s presented by a guy called Professor Brian Cox – the Professor seems to turn up in every reference to it so I’ll include it here.
Anyway I missed it on Sunday owing to poor organisation on my part, so I made a point of getting entertainment.ie to send me a reminder so that I didn’t miss it today. It was awe-inspiring television. It is the sort of television that I wish I’d seen about physics and astronomy when I was 15 years old. The only thing I can remember about astronomy in any detail from when I was a child was a piece in a Christmas annual linked to a television program on RTE or Network 2 or something directed at people a bit too old for Bosco and a bit too young for the Nine O’Clock News. I don’t remember much about it although I think Hilary Orpen and Pat Butler were amongst the presenters. Anyway, one Christmas, the annual was purchased and it had a piece on Voyager 1 and Voyager 2.
Both of these space craft are still in existance, and against all expectation, they are both still communicating back to the home planet. Brian Cox got to go and see one of the transmissions coming in from – I think – Voyager I.
What got me were several things. Yes, I’d love to see the Aurora Borealis. I spent some time in Finland when I was 26 years old, not a lot of time, but some. The wrong time of the year to see any Aurora Borealis. And I remember seeing an eclipse here in Dublin about a year later – I was working for one of the banks at the time, so yeah, it wasn’t that long after the trip to Finland. And I still remember the wonder with which I watched the space shuttle streak across the sky a few months ago. It was amazing.
We are very lucky sometimes. I like to keep remembering that when I see bad news. Really, when you strip out the financial system, we live in an amazing place.
This program covered a lot of the globe. Norway. India. Death Valley and Chile, which I visited via television a few weeks ago looking at deserts with the History Channel. When you live in a city that’s strung up on economic problems it can be too easy to forget about the world out there.
The other thing is, sometimes there’s very good, even great, television to be watched. It’s just finding out about it can be tough enough sometimes. This is why I love the whole idea of video on demand.
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I caught that programme on BBC HD Channel last Wednesday – restores your faith in what can be put out by the BBC. It was hugely informative, the photography brilliant – the eclipse of the sun was explained not only by the commentary of Brian Cox but by the visuals which were almost self explanatory. It should be compulsive viewing for primary and even secondary shool kids.Great stuff!
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