Chris Lintott’s Universe

One more post for today – an observing challenge for you all.

Asteroid 57424 (think of the number as a date) has now been named Caelumnoctu in honour of the Sky at Night (we weren’t allowed skyatnight as it isn’t a real word). It’s a main belt asteroid, orbiting the Sun once every 5 years or so, and I would love an image of it. I think it’s near conjunction (behind the Sun) right now, but I’ll find a prize for the first astrophotographer to send me one.

Just noticed the interview I did for the Guardian about Sunshine has appeared on the website. Mind you, you heard it here first.

We had a fantastic 50th birthday party for the Sky at Night a couple of days ago, on the actual anniversary of the first transmission. More than 250 guests turned up (Patrick was hosting an overflow party for 200 or so more yesterday!) and we filmed what felt like hundreds of interviews which you’ll get to see in the next program (broadcast May 6th), along with the best of the archive.

My favourite moments are pictured below. The first shows Patrick with his five surviving producers; from left to right Pat Owtram (9 years), Pat Wood (about 4, I think), Pieter Morpurgo (almost 20), Ian Russell (3, and the producer of the first shows I appeared on) and Jane Fletcher (5 and counting). All deserve much more credit than they get, so it was great to see them all.

The MC for the party was the astronaut Piers Sellers. I’d missed the filming for Patrick’s January interview and so it was wonderful to have a chance to talk to him (the photo below was at the end of a very long night…). Hopefully we’ll hear more from him on the programme soon.