Moon

Been thinking about the moon a fair bit in the last few days. Firstly to mark the death of Neil Armstrong on Saturday. It’s a shame I didn’t get the news until I’d got home from Exmoor where there is no mobile signal and definitely no 3G else I’d have spent some time taking a look around the Sea of Tranquility through the thin cloud.
I bought a copy of another old book today, Patrick Moore’s Moon Flight Atlas. A brilliant book that I remember borrowing from the library time and time again as a child. It filled me with awe and wonder then how we could go to the moon. Still does. It’s amazing to think 40 years have passed and it all occurred before I could remember.
A few years ago I visited the Smithsonian Air and Space museum in Washington DC. Two things struck me there. Firstly they had the command module from Apollo 11 encased in Perspex. It was incredible how small it was and the damage on the heat shield showed it to be made of what looked like chicken wire. There was also a mock up of a lunar lander and that really did look like it was made in a shed by some enthusiasts. This is the technology that put man on the moon! They say there’s more computing power in the phone that I write this post on than uses in those missions.
But still the moon landings are a memory for my parents generation.
I was out in the garden earlier this evening putting the damp tent from the weekend up to dry out. It started raining so I came in. Just been out again to do the bins and the moon was looking magnificent between the trees. Took a quick photo or two on my phone, as above.
This week there’s a blue moon. Not that rare an occurrence really. Second full moon in a month is all that means.

By way of tribute to Sir Bernard Lovell 1913-2012

By way of a tribute to Sir Bernard Lovell who died this week.
The wonderful Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank was used as a giant projection screen for the Flaming Lips Transmissions gig. Here’s the intro to Race for the Prize that I filmed there last year.