February 7th, 2008
Cheer Chris Up!
Posted by
jane in
submm
No telescopes open and more snow on the way. We could do some laundry for excitement, but are saving that for tomorrow in case we need more excitement then. Chris needs cheering up - please help!
And in a rash moment, he gave posting access to his fellow observers, heheh… so
Chris Quote of the day: (we were walking past the visitor centre where someone was grappling with a shiny metal thermos) “Look, that man has a telescope!” Um… yeah, that’s why they pay you the big bucks, Chris…
Survival Tactic of the day: not eating the Prawns of Death, which re-appeared again on the salad buffet. They’re kinda brown now.
on February 7th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Poor Chris. Come back to the UK and come to Astrofest with us instead!
I’ll try to think of something. In the meantime:
What happened to the man who broke the law of gravity? He got a suspended sentence.
Two atoms go into a bar. One of them says to the other, “Hey, you know what? I think I’ve lost an electron!” The other says, “Are you sure?” The first says, “Yes - I’m positive!”
on February 7th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Don’t worry Chris, bad weather seems endemic. This afternoon’s partial solar eclipse here in Sydney was totally obscured by heavy thunderstorms. We have had heavy rainfall all week and I’m off tomorrow with 35 G&T students for from NSW for a road trip to all the major telescopes in NSW; Parkes, the AAT, the Australia Telescope Compact Array and others interspersed with viewing nights with small optical telescopes under wonderful dark skies. Unfortunately the 5 day forecast is anything but good
A colleague of mine was at Mauna Kea a couple of weeks ago for his second visit. His first a few years ago was totally in fog. This time wasn’t much better though some semi-clear skies tempted him to set up his impressive camera gear only to have more clouds roll in.
Hope you manage to get some good weather and fresh seafood!
on February 7th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Heh Alice, that’s a good idea!
Oh and Chris, if you read this, I finally got a copy of the Dutch “Bang!” and I LOVE it!
Hold on over there and talk soon…
on February 7th, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Heisenberg is driving along the motorway & gets pulled over by a police car.
The policeman says to him “Do you know how fast you were going back there?”
Heisenberg replies, “No, but I do know where I am.”
on February 7th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Plainly there is hope - if the prawns are suntanned, then the sun will come out again eventually, as will the other suns in our galaxy and the other galaxies in the Zooniverse.
By the way, who’s Jane?
on February 7th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
The reply from number 10 has come back so feel happy that you were part of getting people to lobby :
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You recently signed a petition relating to the Science and Technology
Facilities Council (STFC): http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Physics-Funding/
You may wish to know that the STFC issued a statement on its funding plans
today - you can read the statement on the STFC website by going to:
http://www.scitech.ac.uk/PMC/PRel/STFC/CouncilPR010208.aspx
Regards,
Downing Street petitions
Petition information - http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Physics-Funding/
If you would like to opt out of receiving further mail on this or any other
petitions you signed, please email optout@petitions.pm.gov.uk
on February 7th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
… I’m an astrobiologist from Scotland. I work on extrasolar comets and exo-planet habitability - take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Ceti for some work we did on tau Ceti at JCMT!
Loved the Heisenberg joke!!
Chris went up at 6 am this morning to help with Snow Inspection. Not seen him back yet. Maybe a case of “I ‘m going out, I may be some time…”
on February 7th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
Nice to meet you, Jane!
Um . . . that’s quite worrying . . . I do hope he comes back eventually - was this before or after he posted about the response from Downing Street?
“There’s snow Chris around at present . . .”
on February 8th, 2008 at 12:28 am
When I left Chris and Jane on the mountain last night they were in high spirits and (foolishly) optimistic for their observing prospects. The smiley face on Mars could not fail to cheer anybody up.
However, all this talk about Prawns of Death and Dutch Bang is making me worried for your sanity up there. And now Chris has gone walkabout up there…. anybody else read “Into Thin Air”?
I must say, I have regularly seen the Prawns of Death at HP and have never been tempted - projectile vomiting at altitude while sitting in front of your shiny MacBook not advisable to anyone. As for Dutch Bang… well I’ve never tried but it sounds like something I’d be willing to try… as long as it doesn’t involve getting my shiny MacBook dirty!
on February 8th, 2008 at 5:18 am
It’s a Dutch version of the book “BANG!” which Chris wrote with Sir Patrick Moore and Brian May a couple of years ago . . .
on February 10th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
(Me yet again . . .)
I must say, doing laundry sounds a right washout!
I hope you did get some good observing done eventually - and the Astrofest stories will keep you entertained for a long time. That is, if you don’t sack me.
Galaxy Zoo has certainly proved that people CAN all get to know each other over the Internet . . . I look forward to all of us making you laugh a lot . . . safe flight!
on February 11th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Gosh… that Jane! Hello!
on February 18th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I always find the old ‘boot-polish-on-your-observing-partners-binoculars’ gag
does it for me when I need cheering up.
Ahh the Beano, what a repository of information it was.