my name is mwd

Recently, I read Bill Bryson’s book A Short History of Nearly Everything, which is a very good book, and I recommend highly. It’s a quick tour of how we came to be and how scientists came to understand (and ofter misunderstand) this process. One of the things that stuck in my mind was the description of how people first discovered things about the Earth and the solar system in which it is based by observation of the heavens. I decided then that I’d really like to know more about this and, more importantly, see if for myself - at the moment they could tell me planets where cubiod and I’d have to believe them. Anyway, this is a long way of saying that I’ve discovered a curiosity for astronomy at the moment.

This is helped by Andy’s discovery that the astronomy department at the Uni here has public lectures once a week (see link to this entry), so Andy and I have been along to the last two. The try and let people see things through the telescopes they have there, but unfortunately it’s been cloudy every wednesday since September (so I’m told :). Still, it’s interesting enough with just the talks. I did manage to get out last night with a copy of Stellarium, a free program that shows you what everything in the sky is, and went around trying to spot things. I learned two things: 1) that I could see Saturn quite easily (it was next to the moon, handily) and 2) a compass would be quite handy.

At some point I’d like to get my hands on a telescope perhaps to see things like the planets and local galaxies etc. for myself. There’s handily a local telescope shop nearby, strangely called Green Witch, and Andy and I went to have a look. The guy running the shop was very helpful, and I now have a good idea of what I’d want if I was to get a ‘scope. Though at the moment I’m loathed to make any big purchases until I know I’ve got a job beyond March!

Anyway, do get the Bryson book if a nice overview of science and how we got to knowing what we know is of interest to you!

Link: http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/public/