Back in 2009 I was lucky enough to be asked over to film and appear on the BBC’s Sky at Night programme with Sir Patrick Moore, Prof Chris Lintott, special guest Dr John Mason MBE and a few other experts and astrophotographers.
Funny story: Emily was 10 and at School on the day/night of filming. I therefore needed to get permission from the School for her to be allowed to skip 2 days. We stayed over at Patrick’s home, and it was a very late night for both of us!
Anyway, the conversation went something like this with the Headmistress.
Headmistress: We don’t normally allow pupils to take time off from School. May I ask what the reason is please?
Richie: Oh, well, we’ve been invited to pop over to Sir Patrick Moore’s house to film an episode of the Sky at Night.
Headmistress: Really? Erm, OK. I think that falls under the category of an “educational activity”. I can’t see any reason to deny the request. When will I be able to watch the episode?
Job done!
In the end, Emily and I, Neil, Stephen and Ian had an amazing and memorable experience. It was a cracking cold, clear night in Selsey in Sir Patrick’s House.
After the filming, we had an “after party” (well, except Emily, who I sent to “bed” in a sleeping back in Patrick’s dining room on the floor!) in Patrick’s study. Unfortunately, I was driving home in a few hours, but those that weren’t had a wee dram with Patrick – he was a huge fan of whisky, and used to have semi-regularly tasting sessions.
How cool is that?!
Here was the first part of the show – Click to go straight to the right time for Emily & I at 1:47:
After imaging during the filming, Emily and I were asked to show what we had imaged during the night. Click below to skip forward to 24:35, where Emily’s Startrails picture taken with my Canon DSLR, and my pictures of NGC281 – the Pacman Nebula & Messier 1 – the Crab Nebula.
Here is the image of NGC 281 – the Pacman Nebula that is shown on the programme.
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