Anyone watching this over the last 3 nights?
I'm not a star gazer but this has been one of the best things on TV for years. Brian Cox could single handedly turn around the perception of science for kids in the UK.

I've Sky+d all the Stargazing programmes and can't wait to watch them. I bought myself the Wonders box set for Christmas and think Prof Brian Cox is the most enthusiastic presenter on TV - he makes me regret not taking more of an interest in physics when I was younger. He brings science to the novice in the same way Attenborough brought nature to the novice - unmissable

And the perception of science for the ladies in the UK.

Apparently so, but he is probably gay

I took that for granted.

Someone for you to D:Ream about.....

keyboards

Groomy has said that nobody should ever have to use google.

There is no way the fat short-haired bloke turns into the skinny bloke with very long hair, though

(I thought he was the one in the Superman top, and then realised it was a woman )

I think it was mentioned on FISO ages ago but can't remember when or why.

Because we like irrelevant tittal-tattle ?

I do think we should rename FISO to DadsNet, or ManNet, or similar

Men talk more bollocks and have more pointless conversations than women could ever hope to have. It is one thing we do better.

Some old scores to settle in the solar system - looks nasty :-



but hey, here's a pic for Cheryl (straight out of Look In by the looks of it)



and a completely random picture, which is nice

Was one of the Stargazing events just up the road from my house on Tuesday night. didn't know anything about it but wondered why there were cars parked everywhere and loads of traffic at 8pm

One of the stargazing live viewers has discovered a planet in response to a request on the show.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16612181

My first thought watching it was that I couldn't believe that a science programme like this could be on at prime time on a major channel. Made me glad to be British as I'm often reading about the lack of intellectual shows in places like the US.

Enjoyed all the programs... much better than last year, plus the kids and I managed to get the scope out on Monday. Good clear skies this time around.

Edit: This little puppy...

Have any of you stargazers seen this great bit of open source software - Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope.

Install and set it up with the Latitude/Longditude co-ordinates of your home using any of the free postcode lookup map sites, like streemap, and it will show you what stars/planets/nebula you should be able to see. Has some great extra features like zodiac lines, known satellites, quick locate by name etc... It has about 600,000 stars in the basic install but you can download more if you have a decent telescope to try and find them. I really like the quick zoom features and date/time controls.

Can you hook up a camera to that and take photos?

In a very basic way, yes mate. I could get a modified webcam and connect it to where the eyepiece goes.

Serious astro photography requires a much more sturdier (and motorised) mount and best results like you've seen on Stargazing Live use bigger telescopes than mine. They can handle the weight of a DSLR camera bolted onto the scope.

In a nutshell, astro photography is a much more expensive and time consuming part of the hobby. Which is why I stuck to a scope that was more geared towards purely visual star gazing.

Something like this... Nearly 10 times what I paid (not including a camera)!!!

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/reflect ... 6-pro.html

But... you can get images like this...

A bit steep!
I live in a city so never see stars anyway but this stargazing programme has rekindled an interest I had as a child.

I live in NE London and we still get good views... Find a dark part of your garden that is shielded from street lights and once you let your eyes get used to the dark, you'll be surprised ( ) by what you can see.

I live in a top floor flat in central amsterdam but have a large roof terrace at the back where there are no street lights (just house lights and normal city light pollution). if i were to buy a telescope i reckon I would limit to 500 Eur max but that would have to be for a very good scope. 300 Euro would be more realistic. I would want to be able to attach a DSLR to it. A motorized one would be nice but a real luxury.

Got to go to work now but will post later some recommended scopes that might do what you want.