Chris Lintott’s Universe

I’m a little late in reporting this one, but I thought you’d be interested to see how the observatories on Mauna Kea, Hawai’i (my favourite place in the world) are responding to a larger than usual Earthquake that happened ten or so days ago. That Hawai’i is a violent place is obvious to anyone who has visited the Kilauea volcano, the world’s longest running erruption, but at magnitude 6.5 or so this was a much bigger quake than the usual tremors. Worst hit was Keck – both at the summit and in their control room, which was on the side of the island closest to the source. This picture showing staff working to move the telescope by hand, seems to sum up the effort involved…

and as proof there’s an earthquake, here’s a record of how the telescope I use – the JCMT – responded to the shake. My infamous jinx with anything mechanical has caused many things to go wrong here but this is new even for me…

The launch of the book on Monday was a surreal experience, at least for me. I suppose I’d got used to working with Brian and Patrick and it hadn’t occured to me quite how strange a trio we made! The Guardian had an excellent article which begins

Brian May wore a resplendent rock god crimson velvet jacket, Sir Patrick Moore wore his monocle, and Chris Lintott wore a slightly sheepish smile, when the most unlikely trio in the history of publishing took a curtain call yesterday.

and you can judge for yourself via Brian’s picture here.

So far people seem happy, but to judge for yourselves you really should read the book (of course). Amazon have sold out but you can still obtain a copy via the Bang! shop.