Roysal Institute Lectures - 1977 (Carl Sagan)

Roysal Institute Lectures - 1977 (Carl Sagan)

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Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,858 posts

272 months

Tuesday 20th December 2016
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As it's that time of year again when the Royal Institute Christmas Lectures make their appearance, I thought I'd let you see a classic set of episodes from almost 40 years ago.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdXtjNSDi4s

Interesting to realise how much more we know now.

aww999

2,069 posts

268 months

Tuesday 20th December 2016
quotequote all
Thanks, I will check these out if I get time. It's just as interesting to speculate on what we think we know now, that will turn out to be tomorrow's steady state hypothesis . . . my guess is that gravitational wave astronomy will upset the applecart when it provides enough data to refine expansion constants and try to correlate with supernovae observations.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,858 posts

272 months

Tuesday 20th December 2016
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Just discovered that today is the 20th anniversary of his death.


Einion Yrth

19,575 posts

251 months

Tuesday 20th December 2016
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I recently watched all of the original Sagan version of Cosmos on youtube. I just went to find it again and it appears that those who would profit from the great man, dead though he be, have pulled the audio tracks.

:shrug:

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,858 posts

272 months

Tuesday 20th December 2016
quotequote all
Einion Yrth said:
I recently watched all of the original Sagan version of Cosmos on youtube. I just went to find it again and it appears that those who would profit from the great man, dead though he be, have pulled the audio tracks.

:shrug:
Buy the boxed set. I did.

RizzoTheRat

26,018 posts

199 months

Thursday 22nd December 2016
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I went to the RI the other day, first time I've visited, that lecture theater is quite a bit smaller than it looks on TV.

Edited by RizzoTheRat on Thursday 22 December 11:49

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,858 posts

272 months

Thursday 22nd December 2016
quotequote all
RizzoTheRat said:
I went to the RI the other,
They have more than one?

Most rooms look bigger on TV than they do in reality - probably down to the lenses fitted to the cameras.

When I visited NASA Mission Control in 1981, the actual room containing all the consoles etc was decidedly smaller in real life compared to how it looked in the familiar TV pictures.

RizzoTheRat

26,018 posts

199 months

Thursday 22nd December 2016
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
They have more than one?

Most rooms look bigger on TV than they do in reality - probably down to the lenses fitted to the cameras.

When I visited NASA Mission Control in 1981, the actual room containing all the consoles etc was decidedly smaller in real life compared to how it looked in the familiar TV pictures.
Dammit, amazing how my brain fills in the missing words when I read through something biggrin

The main thing that surprised me was how small the gap between the front row of seats and the desk is, I always remember them wheeling big bits of kit around for demos at the Christmas lectures.

Russ35

2,561 posts

246 months

Thursday 22nd December 2016
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Its the 80th Anniversary of the Christmas Lecture being shown on TV.

GI Taylor FRS delivered a 20 minute snippet of his Lectures on 'Ships' at the Alexandra Palace studio, which had only launched a few months earlier itself. It was part of the two hours of television which was broadcast that day. This most likely makes the CHRISTMAS LECTURES the first science show seen on television. 80 years on, and they're broadcast in full every year.

Eric Mc

Original Poster:

122,858 posts

272 months

Thursday 22nd December 2016
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A number of years ago, the BBC did actually stop broadcasting the Christmas Lectures. Luckilly, Channels 4 and also Channel 5 stepped in and took over for those years. BBC eventually realised the error of their ways and took them back.

Per Wiki -

The Christmas Lectures were first televised in 1936 on the BBC's fledgling Television Service. They were broadcast on BBC Two from 1966–1999 and Channel 4 from 2000–2004. In 2000 one of the lectures was broadcast live for the first time. Following the end of Channel 4's contract to broadcast the lectures, there were concerns that they might simply be dropped from scheduling as the channel was negotiating with the Royal Institution over potential changes to the format, while the BBC announced that "The BBC will not show the lectures again, because it feels the broadcasting environment has moved on in the last four years." Channel Five subsequently agreed to show the lectures from 2005–2008, an announcement which was met with derision from academics. The lectures were broadcast on More4 in 2009. In 2010, the lectures returned to the BBC after a ten-year absence from the broadcaster, and have been shown on BBC Four each year since then.

spyder dryver

1,330 posts

223 months

Thursday 29th December 2016
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Eric Mc said:
Most rooms look bigger on TV than they do in reality...
Aha!



Russian Rocket

872 posts

243 months

Friday 30th December 2016
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went to see the lectures being recorded this year and last, fulfilling my childhood dream

(actually RR junior went and I was his responsible adult, I sat with the other parents upstairs, it is very clear that most of the parents are more excited then their kids)