January 23, 2013

“The Sky at Night” comes to Greenwich

Report by: Mike Meynell

Pictures by: Mike Dryland, Grey Lipley and Mike Meynell

Lucie Green, Chris Lintott and Chris North from The Sky at Night

Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel from The Sky at Night

Whilst in the middle of preparations for the BBC Stargazing Live event at the National Maritime Museum, we were approached by the BBC Sky at Night team about their forthcoming visit to Greenwich. We were asked to get involved in the making of the very first “Sky at Night” programme to be made after the death of Sir Patrick Moore. Sir Patrick’s links to the Royal Observatory are well known, so it was particularly poignant that the first programme of a new era for The Sky at Night was to be broadcast from Greenwich.

The Sky at Night occupies a special place in the hearts of all amateur astronomers in the UK (and perhaps the world), so the opportunity for us to work in the making of the programme was an opportunity not to be missed. We were asked to organise a solar viewing event at the observatory and a small ‘star party’ in the meridian courtyard. Time was tight and we could only involve a small number of volunteers in the filming, meaning that we had to directly approach a few of those Flamsteed volunteers who had helped out at the Stargazing Live event. Fortunately, most of the volunteers who were approached were happy to help, so we were all set for the day of filming.

Grey blows up the only Sun likely to be on display!	Filming the set-up of the 90mm solar telescope
Malcolm shows off his new double stacking unit as filming continues	Mike and Paul Abel share a joke during filming

If we’d hoped that our luck with the weather would turn following the cloudy skies at Stargazing Live, our hopes were dashed on the morning Wednesday 23 January, when filming was due to take place. Granite skies and the threat of snow flurries put paid to any hope of seeing the Sun for our solar viewing event and looked likely to scupper our plans for an evening star party. No matter… our team of intrepid volunteers duly turned up at the Royal Observatory and started to set up the solar telescopes whilst being interviewed by Paul Abel and Pete Lawrence from The Sky at Night team. It’s fair to say that the weather was absolutely freezing, with a biting easterly wind making it feel even colder. Our sense of humour got us through, but it was with some relief that we stopped filming after a couple of hours.

Then it was the turn of the solar ‘newbies’. We had been asked to find 3 volunteers who had little or no experience of solar viewing. Caroline, Christina and Tom did a fantastic job in the cold conditions and hopefully their appearance on the programme will inspire others to get involved in astronomy.

Behind the scenes of the solar viewing filming	Pete Lawrence interviews Rupert
Grey in the limelight with Paul Abel	Filming Pete Lawrence interviewing Rupert

For the evening ‘star-party’, the weather conditions showed no sign of clearing. Once again, however, we set up our telescopes (this time in the meridian courtyard) whilst being filmed. We were then joined by the whole Sky at Night team: Chris Lintott, Lucie Green, Paul Abel, Pete Lawrence and Chris North; and they filmed the ending to the programme in front of the Flamsteed volunteers.

It was quite something to see the making of a programme which has been part of all of our lives for so many years. I was particularly struck by the incredible professionalism of the team, with Jane Fletcher the Series Producer a real delight to work with. The good humour of all involved in the making of the programme shone through from start to finish. Long may The Sky at Night continue!

$Rupert and Roger discuss big refractors$ Rupert and Roger discuss big refractors	Roger holds the Sun, but Brian looks unimpressed!
Filming the Pete Lawrence interview with Rupert	Jane Fletcher (Producer) chats to Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel
Pete Lawrence and Paul Abel joke about trying to do solar viewing in the snow!	Can we go home yet? The frozen Flamsteed team
The Sky at Night team view some archive images of the Sun	Telescopes set up in the Meridian Courtyard
The Sky at Night team discussing the evening filming	More filming? Paul Abel wants to get into the warm!
Our intrepid volunteers brave the freezing conditions

Thank you to all the Flamsteed volunteers who braved the freezing conditions for so many hours. The Sky at Night would like to return to Greenwich soon… hopefully for a clear night!… and on that future occasion we will ensure that the whole society has an opportunity to participate in the event.

The Sky at Night will be broadcast on Sunday 3 February 2013 on BBC1 at 23:55. The extended edition will be broadcast on Thursday 7 February on BBC4 at 19:30.