2014-01-11 - Astronomical Observatory Stargazing ride

Late to the party dammit!

And to think I stayed up till 2am the other morning to see this blob

A second ride may be out of this world.

1. Hairnetnic
   
2. Chak
   
3. shinkuu kiss
   
4. Ludd
   
5. blue fleet
   
6. sky-browse.
   
7. t.o. infinity and beyond
   ∞. skygazer
   9 Messier 606
   
8. Mattsplanb
   
9. Samuelson
   
10. conker
    
11. mars (Aquarius)
    
12. HairyChris
    
13. Cazakstan
    
14. balmain
    
15. Ramaye (Aquarius)
    
16. b. Velocio
    
17. bothwell (Uranus)
    
18. Seraphinx
    --------------------
    
    

b. blueprints
b. middleofnowhere
b. Bundo
b. Eyko
b. UmeVelo
b. Temp
b. Miss Mouse
b. keanulooser
b. T4
b. BisonIncandenza
b. Marco
b. Husy
b. Vanneau
b. Tanya g
b. Dr Cake
b. Nigel 182
b. Torker

Excited for this now, first decent ride of 2014. Bike will be getting a bath and an a good lube up today in anticipation >_<

101 astronomical events to look out for in 2014 (not necessarily on this ride, specifically)

http://www.universetoday.com/107259/101-astronomical-events-for-2014/

I have five free tickets for the Stargazing Live event at Royal Holloway College out at Egham this Thursday, but won't be going. If anyone wants them, let me know and I'll send them over. Looks good for kids, but mine have said they're not interested.

out
fuck everything :<

1. Hairnetnic
   
2. Chak
   
3. blueprints
   
4. Ludd
   
5. blue fleet
   
6. sky-browse.
   
7. t.o. infinity and beyond
   ∞. skygazer
   9 Messier 606
   
8. Mattsplanb
   
9. Samuelson
   
10. conker
    
11. mars (Aquarius)
    
12. HairyChris
    
13. Cazakstan
    
14. balmain
    
15. Ramaye (Aquarius)
    
16. b. Velocio
    
17. bothwell (Uranus)
    
18. Seraphinx
    --------------------
    
    

b. middleofnowhere
b. Bundo
b. Eyko
b. UmeVelo
b. Temp
b. Miss Mouse
b. keanulooser
b. T4
b. BisonIncandenza
b. Marco
b. Husy
b. Vanneau
b. Tanya g
b. Dr Cake
b. Nigel 182
b. Torker

:(

Ok, I rode the southern section yesterday and it seems fine, but keeping 20 people together is going to be tough, so please be quick through lights and junction s etc to keep the group moving!

And a reminder that it is £5 per person to cover costs of opening and staffing the observatory. With that in mind please remove yourself from the list by 8pm Friday, to give the backups a chance of organising themselves. I'd expect anyone still on the list by that point to pay up the £5 regardless of whether they made the ride or not.

Nb. The Baker Street Irregular Astronomers will be out in force in Regent's park this Thursday in tandem with BBC stargazing live. Lots of chances to see amateur scopes in operation...

Nb. The Baker Street Irregular Astronomers will be out in force in Regent's park this Thursday in tandem with BBC stargazing live. Lots of chances to see amateur scopes in operation...

Thanks for the tip, I think I will definitely check that out this Thursday.

So feeder rides..

Anyone cycling down from East to Greenwich that I could tag along with?

What time is this kicking off? Had a quick scan through the thread but couldn't see any timings.

As top of the reserves I assume I'll get on this ride, but need to know times as Sat is already looking to be a busy day.

I think it's around 2pm, but that's buried somewhere in the thread - be good to have a confirmed time in the OP.

I think it's around 2pm, but that's buried somewhere in the thread - be good to have a confirmed time in the OP.

Yeah, I'll do that now

Excellent, now would the next person please drop out, c'mon, it'll be cloudy and it'll probably piss down, it'll be awful, you won't like it...

Hold on, Ramaye's still on the list, he's banned isn't he? I'll have his spot.

I am really hoping for a second ride a little later in the year!

Can't make it.

1. Hairnetnic
   
2. Chak
   
3. 
   
4. Ludd
   
5. blue fleet
   
6. sky-browse.
   
7. t.o. infinity and beyond
   ∞. skygazer
   9 Messier 606
   
8. Mattsplanb
   
9. Samuelson
   
10. conker
    
11. mars (Aquarius)
    
12. HairyChris
    
13. Cazakstan
    
14. balmain
    
15. Ramaye (Aquarius)
    
16. b. Velocio
    
17. bothwell (Uranus)
    
18. Seraphinx
    --------------------
    
    

b. middleofnowhere
b. Bundo
b. Eyko
b. UmeVelo
b. Temp
b. Miss Mouse
b. keanulooser
b. T4
b. BisonIncandenza
b. Marco
b. Husy
b. Vanneau
b. Tanya g
b. Dr Cake
b. Nigel 182
b. Torker

MoN, you're up

1. Hairnetnic
   
2. Chak
   
3. middleofnowhere
   
4. Ludd
   
5. blue fleet
   
6. sky-browse.
   
7. t.o. infinity and beyond
   ∞. skygazer
   9 Messier 606
   
8. Mattsplanb
   
9. Samuelson
   
10. conker
    
11. mars (Aquarius)
    
12. HairyChris
    
13. Cazakstan
    
14. balmain
    
15. Ramaye (Aquarius)
    
16. b. Velocio
    
17. bothwell (Uranus)
    
18. Seraphinx
    --------------------
    
    

b. Bundo
b. Eyko
b. UmeVelo
b. Temp
b. Miss Mouse
b. keanulooser
b. T4
b. BisonIncandenza
b. Marco
b. Husy
b. Vanneau
b. Tanya g
b. Dr Cake
b. Nigel 182
b. Torker

MoN, you're up

Woo hoo!

it'll be cloudy and it'll probably piss down, it'll be awful, you won't like it...

This is all obviously bollocks, it's gonna be excellent.

Saturday cloudy with occasional light rain.
...says the met office

;(

^on the plus side there's going to be no rain left in the sky by Saturday. Maybe if we all get there half an hour early and huff and puff for all we're worth from the hilltop we can blow all the clouds away leaving clear skies for the planet and alien space craft spotting. And if its really cloudy we'll have to resort to doing a longest skid contest in our socks on the shiny floors.

I've been listening to an old Surgeon remix this week which has a sample from Obledo 0.39, a trippy 1976 concept album on space and physics by Vangelis. In it there is a sample of a bloke wittering on with loads of stats about our little rock, such as:

maximum distance from the sun 94,537,000 miles
minimum distance form the sun 91,377,000 miles
mean distance form sun 92,957,200 miles
mean orbital velocity 66,000mph
orbital eccentricity 0.017
obliquity of the ecliptic 23 degrees 27 mins 8.26 seconds
mass 6,600 million million million tons
equatorial diameter 7927 miles
polar diameter 7900 miles
oblaqueness 1/298th
density 5.41
mean surface graviational accelation of the rotating earth 32.174ft per second per second
escape velocity 7 miles per second

Me posting that in no way assumes I know about any of these things, just that listening to it has been making me excited about this ride all week, bring on much wow.

^on the plus side there's going to be no rain left in the sky by Saturday. Maybe if we all get there half an hour early and huff and puff for all we're worth from the hilltop we can blow all the clouds away leaving clear skies for the planet and alien space craft spotting. And if its really cloudy we'll have to resort to doing a longest skid contest in our socks on the shiny floors.

If it rains a little, ie still rideable, or is cloudy then we can still tour the observatory. If the weather is crappy then I'll call it off, as riding in the rain isn't much fun basically.

I'd like to leave that until the latest as possible, ie midday on Saturday. Is that too late? would people prefer to know the night before?

I'd have thought that noon on the Saturday would give most folk time to avoid setting off for a ride that's cancelled, but I'm happy with an hour's notice as I'm not far from Greenwich.

I'd say Saturday morning, myself - means we'll be able to see the weather a bit better and nobody's really going to be leaving to head to Greenwich too early. Noon might be scraping it a little for me as I'll have stuff to do in the morning away from the interwebs.

Sat morning. Give everyone a chance to prep or reorganise.