Beauty In The Universe

Audioboo/Podcast Radio

2012-03-05T07:45:00.001-08:00

We have recently begun an audio podcast, just a home-brew guerrilla radio show. I hope it will develop as we go but of now you can enjoy the astronomy episodes. It is Adam's personal account so there are shorts on other subjects such as cycling (he's obsessed) and various bits and pieces, but the astronomy ones will be embedded here for you to listen to. The first three are below, and we will post them here as they are recorded.

Mars at Opposition (mp3)

Jupiter and Venus, Effulgence and Beauty (mp3)

Astronomy for all (mp3)

Audioboo/Burnley Work Inspiration

2012-03-02T09:05:00.001-08:00

I have started a podcast feed over at Audioboo. You can get it here. It's an informal glimpse in to what we do and how it goes down. It is recorded on the fly using my iPhone so expect it to sound like a guerrilla type radio show. I'll podcast about our activities, even have interviews from learners and document events. Enjoy!

Thursday last I attended Burnley Work Inspiration day at Aircelle, Burnley. This was a great day where children were introduced to future career opportunities with some great companies. I was able to turn them on to the sciences and academia as a path for them, and many were suitably impressed with what they could accomplish in an academic career. If any of the seeds I planted do grow I'll likely never see the trees that they become, but it was still nice to be there to fly the flag for academia in front of these students. Photos of the Beauty In The Universe stand below:

Darwen Science Fest!

2012-02-16T02:04:00.001-08:00

Yesterday Beauty In The Universe delivered the inaugural Beauty In The Universe lecture as a part of the Darwen Science Fest, hosted at Darwen Aldridge Academy and organised by Summer Fun 4 All. It was a great day as families came to see not only us, but other practitioners from Crown Paints, Mad Science and others. The photographs below are from the day. A fantastic event. Click the slideshow to see the full resolution images.

2012

2012-01-21T11:40:00.000-08:00

The new year is slowly moving in to gear and we kicked our activities off with an astronomy evening at Livesey Children's Centre in Blackburn. We had over 150 (count 'em: 150!) people, mostly families come along. Rather irritatingly the weather was clear all week, except for the night of this event so we could not get any stargazing in. That was unfortunate as I love doing that and the experience of using a telescope and discovering objects live at the eyepiece, particularly for people who have never observed before is a rather thrilling experience. It simply cannot be reproduced in the classroom or in a presentation, but, alas I have not yet developed the ability to control the weather so we enjoyed Sightseeing In Space instead.

We are in the process of making the necessary arrangements to deliver our next round of Stars and Stuff, our adult education initiative at this very centre so exciting times are ahead. Below are some photos of the evening that the centre staff very kindly snapped for me.

A great night was had by all.

2011 Round Up: Our Best Year Yet

2011-12-21T04:07:00.000-08:00

As Christmas draws in I am doing my usual blog post summary of the year for Beauty In The Universe. Whilst you are all likely shutting down at work and securing the hatches for Christmas, as is everyone here except me, I have an extremely busy Christmas ahead of me, so it doesn't feel much like things are coming to an end for the year for me. Nonetheless, this year we stepped up our game in a big way and I've summarised our great successes below.

Our first residential trip

This year we ran our inaugural Space Camp. In partnership with Summer Fun 4 All we packed up our suitcases and cleared off to Longsleddale Outdoor Pursuits Centre in Cumbria, accompanied by the great Professor Ian Morison of Jodrell Bank. This went very, very well and I have no doubt that we will be doing it again. Photos from the weekend below:

Check out part 2 of the video diary I made (part 1 was before the children arrived):

Rocket building competition

This year we were involved in two rocket building competitions (with a third to come next year - more on that later). We staged one and judged another. Here is the one we judged at Calder Vale and Scorton schools in Lancaster:

Not only a brilliant education for the pupils, but if you watch to the end you'll see a remarkably powerful rocket built by one of the parents. It didn't even land in the same village! I'll never forget the children at Scorton and Calder Vale. It was such a great experience for me to go there and the staff and pupils were fantastic people. Photos of saying goodbye are below:

Stargazing and star parties

We staged a whole bunch of star parties at various schools, children's centres and other venues. These evenings are, for me, vital and among the best experiences we offer because no matter how good the classroom experience is, nothing can replace the experience at the eyepiece of a telescope. Below are selected photos from our events:

Great Wood School Alien Parade

Great Wood School in Morecambe was another brilliant place to go. They staged easily the most original astronomy-related event I have ever seen, an alien parade. The photographs below tell you all you need to know:

Other highlights include the arrival of Kathryn Wright. She has been an outstanding addition to Beauty In The Universe. The long-awaited project launch of Beauty In The Environment which Kathryn herself took forward and completed was a welcome event and ended a frustrating period of development. That project has been extremely challenging to get of the ground, but now that it is up and running we have several big projects ready to go in 2012.

It has also been great to develop our working relationship with UCLAN, to the point where we are now collaborating on some phenomenally exciting projects, namely Wish Upon a Star and the 24 Hour Bottle Rocket Challenge (blog post about those here). The latter project also puts us in the sights of NASA, so we expect that this project will be a huge opportunity for us to develop what we do and expand our work. These projects will be my Christmas work, and the reason I am not really shutting down personally.

2011 has been our best year yet and the successes shown signs of stopping. Expect big things from us in 2012.

Big Plans for 2012

2011-12-15T02:26:00.000-08:00

We have been working very hard over the last few months in order to put in place some very exciting projects for the new year and now, after much deliberation and effort we are finally able to go ahead and announce them here. We have two coming up and they are huge.

Wish Upon A Star

This project is great. We are working with the University of Central Lancashire to produce a book. This is a sort of pseudo-sequel to one of their previous projects, Letters to Africa. Below is a promotional video about that project:

You can see that this was a tremendously powerful project, and the book is still available to buy as well.

This time, rather than exchanging letters, the children who get involved with this will exchange either a constellation, a star or some other astronomical object and the book produced at the end will be a sort of chronicle of the exchange process. The other difference is that rather than Africa, UCLan and Beauty In The Universe will fly out to India this time.

This is a tremendous project and we hope that, if you are from a UK school you will get involved. The official website will be up very shortly at www.wishuponastarproject.co.uk.

24 Hour Bottle Rocket Challenge

This is a very exciting project for us to be involved in. The background to this is the NASA Hi-C mission, an experimental spacecraft which will launch next year and which will photograph the Sun at a higher resolution than ever before. To commemorate this we are working with UCLan and NASA to see as many bottle rockets launched in 24 hours as possible. We will be developing learning materials and promoting this in schools to get as many involved as possible.

Very soon I will be able to direct you to the official website for this project.

2012 is set to be a very exciting year for us. Hope you come along for the ride!

Christmas Approaching

2011-12-08T07:18:00.000-08:00

We are now in December and in a way things are starting to wind down for Christmas as one might expect, but at Beauty In The Universe we find ourselves busier than ever. Our sister company, Beauty In The Environment has just completed its first project and is currently in the planning phase of several big projects that will go live in the new year, so we have plenty to do on that front. As for astronomy activities, our adult education initiative, Stars and Stuff is four weeks in and due to end the last session of this first run of adult education on December 21st. Last night I took a chance and took some telescopes over to do some real stargazing. We were having intermittent spurts of clear sky and the weather held for around a half hour before the rain arrived and prematurely ended the session. Unfortunate, but it was half an hour gained, during which people got a glimpse of the Moon and Jupiter. I hope to do it again before we shut down for the holidays.

2012 brings with it some extraordinary opportunities for us. Although I cannot say a great deal about most of these things for now, it is looking a near-certainty that we will be going global and taking Beauty In The Universe abroad to continue our great work with an international audience. We will be collaborating with some fantastic organisations and doing some innovative work among great people. We will also be taking astronomy and also environmental science to new audiences and different demographics in the UK, maintaining one of our big priorities, which is to take the phenomenal discoveries of humankind to those who have never benefitted from, or learned about them before.

I will post more information as and when I can, so stay tuned.

Stars and Stuff

2011-11-25T01:03:00.000-08:00

Stars and Stuff is now off the mark and we delivered our second session of astronomy education for adults this week. It has been a resounding success, with 36 people in attendance thus far. Home cooked food served, tea and coffee served and astronomy in an comfortable environment, with plush seating and a relaxed, friendly approach. what we are doing is going down every very well and we are thrilled to be having such a significant impact on people in Lancashire. This is all down to our excellent team at Beauty In The Universe. They have done a superb job on this project.

Registration is still open for the second round and we are already building a waiting list for that, to be delivered in the new year. If you are in the Darwen area of Lancashire and would like to come along then please register at the official Website.

Stars and Stuff

2011-10-28T06:36:00.000-07:00

We have spent the last few weeks and months gearing up for one of our biggest projects to date, Stars and Stuff, and now we are less than two weeks away from commencement.

Today Erica and I spent a couple of hours at The Bee, one of Lancashire's radio stations, developing and recording an 'infomercial' to publicise it and suddenly this whole project came alive in my mind and now we are all extremely excited to see the people of Darwen learn about astronomy and the accomplishments of the human race in space exploration. The sessions will involve stargazing, sightseeing in space, touring the planets and much more and they will be set in a comfortable environment with food and drinks and a friendly atmosphere where absolutely any question can be asked.

You can register interest at the Stars and Stuff website if you would like to attend, or you can telephone Kathryn on 07528 299044. We will collate all of the enquiries and contact you very shortly with details of Stars and Stuff.

Welcome Aboard

2011-09-09T02:34:00.000-07:00

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This month we welcome aboard the talented and innovative Kathryn Wright. She comes to us with a huge amount of experience in education and she will be working on developing our existing projects in to educational powerhouses. She is one of the most talented and gifted people I have met so we are all looking forward to what she will bring to the company.

Why Education in Physics and Astronomy is Cool

2011-09-06T05:13:00.000-07:00

One bike pump, plus one two litre bottle and a suitable reaction mass (water) equals a Newtonian Rocket. This is what we did this summer, and this demonstrates why physics will always be cool.

Working in partnership with the marvellous Summer Fun 4 All we were able to give a bunch of kids a great time, a rocket to take home and launch, and a physics lesson.

Press Release and Project News: Stars and Stuff

2011-09-02T02:41:00.000-07:00

Our Stars and Stuff press release hits the stands - read in full here.

Stars and Stuff

2011-08-25T09:11:00.000-07:00

Today I have the privilege of announcing our latest project, and I can tell you that sitting on this information until things were ready to go live has made me want to burst.

Beauty In The Universe has secured funding from the NIACE Adult and Community Learning Fund which will enable us to roll out a brand new, nine month adult learning project entitled Stars and Stuff. This represents our largest funding award to date and this project will be by far the biggest we have ever implemented, and we simply cannot wait to get our teeth in to it.

Stars and Stuff has a website that you can visit right now and the project is already under way with the planning stages almost complete, and delivery being scheduled as I write this blog post. Our innovative approach and desire to reach the whole world with the awesome science of astronomy, along with the accomplishments of the space explorers of humankind, allows us to reach an enormous number of people.

To that end we welcome on board Professor Ian Morison who will become an employee proper of Beauty In The Universe. Ian has worked with us for some time now, leading our stargazing events and doing an amazing job at Space Camp so we are thrilled to have him as an official Beauty. Ian's experience is extensive and his reputation stands up to scrutiny impeccably as one of the UK's finest astronomers and academics.

We also hope to make an announcement very soon regarding the development of this project and also Space Camp, as we look to push each of these forward to reach more people and uncover the next generation of space explorers, scientists and teachers.

I should acknowledge at this point the role played by Erica in this success. It was she who spotted this opportunity and drove it forward, completing almost all of the work and seeing the potential to do more amazing work. Her diligence and hard work has ensured that many people will be thrilled by this science we love so dearly. Well done and thank you Erica.

We will continue to keep you all updated as we roll out Stars and Stuff. Look for more news here or on the usual social networking sites. Links are on our website.

Space Camp 2011

2011-08-14T09:38:00.000-07:00

I have just arrived home from Cumbria, more than a little tired and absolutely thrilled after a fantastic Space Camp. The children and leaders have had a superb weekend of sports, outdoor activities, fun and food along with a great astronomy presentation from Professor Ian Morison.

We were holed up, oblivious to the goings on of the outside world in Longsleddale Outdoor Pursuits Centre with no mobile phone signal, TV or Internet access and only the countryside, our creativity and each other to occupy our time. It was a great time with so many great memories and since I am completely exhausted right now, rather than write a huge post I will let the photos do the talking. Below is a Picasa slideshow, click for the full resolution images.

A big thank you to all the staff at the centre, volunteers and Professor Ian Morison and Andy from Badmintology. A more dedicated team we could not wish for.

Space Camp

2011-08-08T04:51:00.000-07:00

With our first Space Camp coming up we now have an official website up at http://www.space-camp.co.uk. Bookmark it and we'll be uploading photos, highlights and other goodies soon.

End of Term, a Successful Academic Year and Space Camp

2011-07-14T06:01:00.000-07:00

We are now coming to the end of our school activities for this academic year, and what a year it has been. We have more than doubled the number of schools we went to last year, touched the lives of thousands of parents and children and we haven't finished yet. We said goodbye recently to Casterton Primary School and St Johns Primary in Burnley, St James in Lower Darwen and Longshaw Primary School in Blackburn. This week we reach the end of our work in schools when we complete our work in Darwen with Ashleigh Primary School's Gifted and Talented programme, St Josephs Primary and St Barnabas (incidentally, the site of our first ever observing evening. Nice bit of symmetry there).

It has been a rewarding year, extremely busy and very exciting for us, students, staff and parents. We've had the absolute privilege of calling upon the services of Professor Ian Morison of Gresham College and Jodrell Bank to lead our Stargazing Live observing events. If nothing else, the man is a superstar. Thanks very much to the Society for Popular Astronomy for putting us in contact with him.

Our school work has stopped for the year but our summer activities, however, continue in earnest. We have teamed up with the brilliant Summer Fun 4 All to deliver activities as part of their programme of summer activities. We will be doing a rocket building session where children compete to build the best penumatic-launch rocket and we are also going away on space camp. Twenty children, ten staff and a bunch of telescopes will all be piled on a bus and carted off to a fantastic outdoor pursuits centre in Cumbria where we will be doing sports by day and science by night under the motto:

SAS: Who Cares Wins

Every time I use that phrase the hairs on the back of my neck stand up! I really cannot wait to go. I do not expect to sleep much over that weekend. We are also hopefully going to do some stargazing locally in Darwen too for those who cannot make it all the way up to Cumbria.

It's been a great year and it's going to be a great summer holiday period. The best part of it all is that we are currently running at around a fifth of the capacity and funding we have placed bids for so there is only one way that we can go from here.

Below are some photos of the brilliant staff and students we have worked with this year. Click to go to our Picasa gallery and view the high resolution photgraphs.

Adam, the author of this blog is cycling coast to coast this year for charity. Please sponsor me here.

Check out this song from one of my favourite bands, Kings X.

Coming This Summer

2011-06-24T01:15:00.000-07:00

You would think that we would be winding down for the summer. On the contrary, friends. We are gearing up for a busy summer at Beauty In The Universe. We recently commenced work in a further three schools, St Barnabas in Darwen, coincidentally where we staged our first Stargazing Live event, St Joseph's Primary School and we are also working at Ashleigh Primary School with their gifted and talented group. It is a privilege to be in all of these schools and we have been blown away by their passion and enthusiasm for astronomy.

We are also pleased to announce one of the things we are doing this summer, working in partnership with the excellent Summer Fun 4 All:

Sports and science. SAS: Who Cares Wins. See you in Cumbria everybody.

More Schools See The Beauty

2011-06-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

Right now is a great time to be a part of Beauty In The Universe. We are ploughing our way through a good many schools. This week we commenced work at St Johns in Burnley, with two classes there and we have also started work in Darwen and Blackburn, at Longshaw Junior School and St James Primary School. We have a good few more coming up this term to but I will post about those when we commence work.

A week on Monday we will be taking our last trip to Alston for this academic year, with children attending from a couple of schools in Blackburn. Alston is always good value for the students and we have seen some excellent results from that. It will be the last time we see Katie there, she is the academic researcher who has done such a great job with the presentations and with showing people around the observatory. She'll be much missed by us but she will move on to bigger and better things without a doubt, and UCLAN will no doubt put somebody equally as knowledgeable and skilled in there to replace her.

Summer is coming and we can't fit it all in right now. Everything we dreamt of is happening so we are having to come up with some new ambitions and ideas. This is, to us, a very good sign.

We have also been nominated in the Young Uns Business Awards for 2011 - four nominations no less! We have a chance to win in two different categories and the awards shortlist is online now, so check it out. Whether or not we win, it is nice to be nominated and recognised by our peers, and we will have a great night out. Since I cycle to most things we do it will be one of the few times I wear something other than shorts. I will post about the evening afterwards, however, if you wish to cross your fingers (assuming you're the superstitious sort) then it's June 16th when we go.

A very productive academic year is ending with a bang, and we will not be resting on our laurels over the summer as we get stuck in to summer science activities with Summer Fun 4 All. If you're in the Darwen area then come along and you will get to see what remarkable things you can do with a few household objects, a couple of magnets and a bicycle pump.

Completion at St Leonards and the Coming Summer

2011-05-27T03:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the final day of astronomy club at St Leonards in Padiham. It was also the last day of school before half term so I had some pretty hyper students trying to learn about The Big Bang! Despite the rowdiness we covered no small amount of ground and had the inevitable giggles when a student questioned how exactly astronauts use the toilet in a space suit.

A great school and hopefully one we can return in the autumn with our telescopes to do some stargazing.

We're also thrilled to announce that a group with whom we work very closely, Summer Fun 4 All has won funding from Children In Need to go ahead with a three year programme which will include Stargazing Live with us over summer. We're really pleased about that as we get to show off the cosmos to a whole group of new people that would never be reached with it otherwise. We also have provision for something pretty special over the summer, and I'll be telling you more about that at a later date.

This summer we have made time and provision to make a big impact in the summer holidays. So many people will be looking for something to do and we have a winning lottery ticket, the entire universe to see. Tonight Erica and I will have a curry and further our plans for world domination...

More Schools Experience The Beauty

2011-05-19T03:02:00.000-07:00

We never stand still here at Beauty. This week we are halfway through an after school club run at St Leonards in Padiham. I spent my summer holidays in that area with my grandparents so it is quite moving to be up there teaching and sharing the beauty of astronomy where I used to play on those typically English, long, hot, hazy summer days. This is another great school and the students there are phenomenal. I hope to get a couple of photographs just for posterity.

We also commenced work in a few more new schools. Firstly we went to Casterton in Burnley for the first of six weeks with their year four, five and six. This is a great school and their students are smart kids. It was a joy to do our thing there.

We also went to Blackburn to another two schools, St James and Longshaw Juniors. We did a couple of assemblies there in preparation for lessons and after school clubs there, and as always this went down a storm. We look forward to working with these schools.

We also have some big plans that we are working hard on behind the scenes. Nothing would please me more than to write about them here. When everything is ready to go you'll hear all about them.

Recognition & Appreciation

2011-05-12T04:24:00.000-07:00

There are many ways to measure success and much debate to be had over them, but one thing that I do love is when we receive the ultimate accolade - the praise from the mouth of babes. It is impossible to fool children. If they say you're good, you're good. So it gives me immense pleasure to share this photo with you; cards given to us by children we have taught,

From Cards

To view the full, high resolution image just click on the photo.

Below also, belatedly, are a couple of photos from Stargazing Live with Great Wood school in Morecambe.

From Great Wood, Morecambe Alien Parade

Again, for the high resolution image just click on the photo.

Great Wood School, Morecambe

2011-04-29T04:38:00.000-07:00

This week we went over to Morecambe by the seaside to do a couple of days' work in Great Wood school. This was a great experience for us, and a little different too. The school is running with the topic of space exploration and they asked us to come in and provide some inspiration for them for the whole module, meaning that they are going to do some science fiction writing, art and so forth, all inspired by astronomy. It was a different thing for us and we focused heavily on extra-terrestrials as well as the more numinous elements of astronomy, deep space astrophotography and suchlike. We had a great time and delivered another stargazing evening too, again with a twist as the students were encouraged to come dressed as aliens. Below is a slideshow and also a video with footage of the 'Parade of Aliens'. It was a brilliant evening with around 160 people in attendance, all families.

Click the slideshow to go to our Picasa gallery with high resolution images.

You can view this video in HD on our YouTube channel.

Astronomy Time Lapse Videos

2011-04-22T05:01:00.000-07:00

It;s the Easter holiday so I've taken a break from posting about us so I can show you some incredible astronomy time lapse videos.

First up is Orion:

"Orion" - motion controlled night timelapse from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.

Next, Aurora Borealis:

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Finally, the Mily Way:

The Mountain from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Extraordinary. That's the phenomenal thing about this science, the incredible beauty of what we observe.

Scorton & Calder Vale Rocket Building Competition

2011-04-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

Not too far in the distant past we delivered our award winning service to schools in Scorton & Calder Vale. The project was a roaring success. The students, staff, parents and we all loved it. These are two rural schools situated somewhere within the Lancastrian triangle of Blackburn, Garstang and Lancaster. After we left they continued their study of astronomy and space travel by staging a rocket building competition, and we were invited back to judge it. It was an extraordinary event that saw whole families working with one another, coming together to do something truly fantastic, to build a working rocket with a propulsion system and launching site or device.

It is difficult to express in words how talented these students are, or how brilliant their work turned out to be, so I will simply let the YouTube video below do the talking.

Thanks for the memories kids.

Padiham Green Sends a Message to ET

2011-04-04T08:56:00.000-07:00

This week saw the last session in yet another triumph, this time at Padiham Green school in Padiham, Lancashire. This was a really boisterous and bright set of students with some genuine talent and flair for the sciences. They passionately embraced Beauty In The Universe with enthusiasm and gusto, practically devouring everything I could throw at them. They assimilated some incredibly difficult concept too, including the expanding universe, red shift and the Doppler Effect.

This was an experience to remember for me as much as them, and I hope that we get another chance to work with them and their fine staff. Today they prepared and lunched a message to alien life, and, as ever, video footage is below:

Stargazing at Nursery

2011-03-18T02:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday evening we hosted another excellent Stargazing Live event at a local nursery school. We had a whole bunch of families attend, around sixty to seventy people. We also had a couple of secondary school students who came and operated the telescopes and carried some of our workload, which was a rewarding experience for them and us. It was a roaring success and yet another great evening with Beauty In The Universe.

Photo slideshow below, click to see the full high resolution images.

Stargazing at Turton and Edgworth

2011-03-13T04:27:00.000-07:00

We recently staged a stargazing event at Turton and Edgworth primary school. In attendance was the fantastic Professor Ian Morison of Jodrell Bank. We had around 100 children and parents in attendance and it went superbly well. Ian delivered a short talk when the clouds rolled in. Below is a slideshow. To view the high resolution images click the slideshow. Video to follow shortly on our YouTube channel.

Scorton and Calder Vale, and Darwen Children's Centres

2011-02-11T02:02:00.000-08:00

Over the last few weeks we have been delivering astronomy sessions to two schools near Lancaster, Scorton and Calder Vale. This was a great experience for us and a really memorable time. One of the best times I have had since we started the company actually. The students were simply ravenous in their pursuit of knowledge and I am certain that the seeds of great dreams have been planted. The culmination of our time there was last night's observing event with our special guest, Professor Ian Morison of Jodrell Bank. It was a tour de force and Ian did a superb job. The advantage of these two schools is that they are in the middle of nowhere, meaning we had extremely dark skies, and fortunately the weather held out. Regrettably my phone battery was dying, so it killed the camera flash meaning no photos - D'oh! I do, however, have plenty of photos from our time there anyway, which I have posted below. I was also fortunate enough to be able to get a couple of posters from AstroFest which were autographed by Brian Cox which I gave to the school, and, as they seemed to have an obsession with Pluto there I also donated a book about the (seemingly) controversial little planetoid to them.

Photos below now. To see the high resolution shots simply click the slideshow.

Demonstrating black holes with a bin bag

Space art by students, inspired by Beauty In The Universe

Saying goodbye to a fantastic bunch of students

I'm sorry to be leaving, but the wrench on both sides tells us how great a time we all had. Thanks for the memories kids, and thanks To Holly, Liz, Allison and all the ladies at Scorton and Calder Vale.

The brilliant students at students at Scorton and Calder Vale

In other news, we also delivered, on the same night (don't ask - it was frantic) to a children's centre in Darwen. Another great event and around thirty families attended, many looking through telescopes for the first time. That is what Beauty In The Universe is all about, taking this science to people who have never experienced it before.

Darwen families observing

this was an eighteen hour day that commenced at 0430 for me. To say I am exhausted is an understatement, but what a labour of love. It was well worth it.

AstroFest

2011-02-09T00:37:00.000-08:00

Erica and I recently went down to Kensington to AstroFest. We had a great time. I personally attended a couple of fascinating lectures. One was about the detection and tracking of Near Earth Objects and the other about the restoration of Moon landing footage. I also bumped in to a lecturer, Don Kurtz, who recently appeared on BBC Stargazing Live. The highlights were undoubtedly meeting Mandy at the SPA and the big names I met: Sir Patrick Moore and Brian May (yes, THAT Brian May - he is an expert on interplanetary dust).

Check out below photos from the weekend, including meeting Brian and Patrick. I had to leave before I was able to get a shot with Brian Cox, but I did get a book signed for my son.

Amazingly, for an astronomer who has been at it for around 25 years this was my first AstroFest. It was a pretty frantic weekend but well worth it. It was great to see how much time these men had for the fans, particularly Patrick, whose health is making meets and greets like this prohibitive. I am the only person in my school generation I know of who stayed up late to watch The Sky At Night so this man is a hero of mine, and after reading his autobiography I found him to be a remarkable man in many ways, not just astronomy. Brian May was so gracious and had so much time for us geeks who are not lucky enough to have been in one of the greatest bands of all time.

Now we're back to work, and we're every excited about the future. check out our latest video about eclipses, made after several requests from Facebookers and parents.

Breaking New Ground

2011-01-09T04:46:00.000-08:00

At Beauty In The Universe it has always been our desire to break new ground, do things in a new way and to take challenges head on. January is no exception as this month we are heading in to the year with several successful funding bids in place, new [laces to go to and especially, new cultures to reach. This year we attend our first Islamic school, a girl's school in Preston. This is a really exciting opportunity for us. Right from the start, when we first decided what we wanted to accomplish, reaching minorities was right up there. We even touched on this in one of our teaching videos, Clutching Stardust. FRom the first pitch we put to a school we insisted that what we are doing appeals to all cultures, races, genders, religions and so forth. To educate is all we care about and we never turn down an opportunity to do it.

We approach with sensitivity this great opportunity. It is as much a chance for us to learn as for the students at the school. The response we have experienced from the Islamic community as we have encountered it has been incredibly enthusiastic, as well it should be since that culture has a great heritage in astronomy. We look forward to delivering our service to this school and creating an even more inclusive company, full of passion for the thrill of astronomy, full of respect for it's adherents.

The primary motivation Erica and I decided on was that we love astronomy and we will do anything to teach any child to love this science, and to learn to apply it and explore the universe for themselves. The twentieth century space explorers were almost exclusively white, male westerners, or Russian. We hope that the world can embrace space exploration, and we dream of seeing all peoples work together to further the knowledge of mankind.

Hunting ET

2011-01-01T07:05:00.000-08:00

We are now heading in to the new year and there is a real buzz about the Internet, and it is all about finding extra-terrestrial life. NASA has a space probe called Kepler looking for extra-solar planets and the expectation of finding Earth-like worlds is getting pretty feverish. Below is an interesting video, detailing the findings of Kepler's first five discovered worlds:

If I had to bet on it then I think that if there is to be a discovery in the next few years of extra-terrestrial life then it will be Kepler that finds it. The most likely way, in my opinion, is through spectroscopy. It is possible to collect star light that shines through the atmosphere of a planet. This light will hold the signs we are looking for. When the light is split in to its spectrum (the colours of the rainbow) we observe absorption lines. These are black lines in the spectrum and they occur when the light has passed through a particular substance, so for example, the lines will appear at a certain point when the light has passed through oxygen, and different points for hydrogen. The practical upshot of this is that bu analysing these lines it is possible to detect what is present in the atmosphere of a planet. Things like methane, ozone, carbon dioxide are all produced by living things. This will not be definitive but might be a clue. What we really want to detect, however, is chlorophyll. Chlorophyll can only be produced by organic processes, meaning that its detection will be definitive. If we find chlorophyll then it's in the bag.

Keep up to date with Kepler. It is a very exciting mission. There has never been a better time to be an astronomer.

The hunt for chlorophyll is on.

Eclipse Time!

2010-12-20T03:57:00.000-08:00

A brief video I made about tomorrow's eclipse.

2010 - A Great Ending

2010-12-17T03:58:00.000-08:00

For reasons unknown, Blogger deleted this blog. I have restored what backup content I have, but I think a few posts are lost, so thanks very much Blogger, and apologies to you readers.

We have had a great year and all ready things are gearing up for 2011. Here is a photo of Erica and I collecting our UCLAN Business School Business of the Month Award:

From UCLAN Business of the Month Award

Next year we hope to tap in to our biggest resource: students. We think the UK should continue to punch above its weight in the sciences, and what have we got that is better than our children? To that end we have plans to do some extraordinary things that will be posted here when everything is in place. We created a great 2010 and it was a quantum leap from 2009, and we intend the same for 2011.

In other news, we completed the year with a trip for students to Alston Observatory. This was a great event, and photos are below:

For high resolution images click the photographs.

To see 2010 in pictures go to this video or visit our Picasa gallery.

Another Grand Week

2010-10-01T08:10:00.001-07:00

Today I rounded off a brilliant week with an after school session at St Matthews in Blackburn, where I am sitting as I type. There are some very sharp minds at this school and they have impressed me, not only with their knowledge, but with their intelligent questions. I hope that some of them have the opportunity to pursue physics at undergraduate level. That is a big part of Beauty In The Universe, to drive students to university and to encourage academic study as well as encouraging personal times of study and backyard astronomy.

The UK has a great heritage in the sciences and I hope we at Beauty can do our part to keep that alive.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Blackburn,United Kingdom

Planet Building: Our Own Magrathea

2010-09-28T14:58:00.001-07:00

Today Audley Infants School discovered the planets by designing their own. They took inspiration from the features observed on the planets in our Solar System and used that knowledge to come up with alien worlds of their own with geographical, geological and meteorological features being common themes. They were a pleasure to work with and a talented bunch.

Check out their drawings here:

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Sycamore Ave,Burnley,United Kingdom

Back In Action

2010-09-21T00:50:00.001-07:00

Beauty In The Universe is back in action. Yesterday I delivered the first session of a lunchtime club in Crosshills School Blackburn, with the usual awe-filled reaction from students and teachers alike.

Being back in the classroom was a welcome return and I look forward to more and more of it as we expand our plans over the next academic year.

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Darwen Starlight Walk

2010-08-25T14:45:00.001-07:00

Tonight I went on a starlight walk to Darwen Tower. Unfortunately we were clouded out, but I still delivered a talk and showed a few sights off using the excellent Google Sky Map for Android. That seemed to go down very well, and we hope to do it again in the autumn or winter. It was great to see people of all ages in attendance, and a shame that we didn't get to see th night sky.

Here is a nice Picasa stream from the occasion:

Darwen Starlight Walk

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And That's a Wrap Everyone

2010-07-17T14:29:00.001-07:00

This week we wrapped for this academic year, notwithstanding summer clubs and suchlike. The final session was at Rosewood Primary School. Here is their attempt to contact ET:

I will blog more about the point of this exercise, suffice to say that it is fantastic fun and a hugely rewarding time for the students. Rosewood have talented students who will no doubt go far. See you next year guys and gals.

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Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

2010-07-07T03:50:00.001-07:00

It's all change at Beauty In The Universe again. Firstly, I am going to be a daddy again:

Yet another Little Beauty.

Yesterday we began our first adult education course at 3 In A Bar in Darwen. Getting there and back was a 44 kilometre round trip:

View 3 in a bar inward in a larger map

I cycled it as usual and, as ever, loved every second of it. It was a well-attended and interesting session. Adults are a different breed to children when in the classroom, but nonetheless it all went very well. If you would like to come along then the location is on the map above - Belgrave Road in Darwen, Lancashire, and sessions are free to attend.

Tune

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Mapping the Science

2010-06-30T10:30:00.001-07:00

Today Beauty In The Universe has launched a very exciting new feature to the website. Using the Ushahidi open source event mapping platform we are going to start mapping lessons, lectures, star parties and observations. Anyone can do it, and the application is here. You need give no personal details to us. All you have to do is select what you wish to record, a lecture, lesson, observation etc, give a map location and you may also attach links or photos.

This will be a great way to map the state of astronomy education in the UK, and possibly the world. We hope to map and record all kinds of events and anyone can get involved in this citizen science project.

At the Ushahidi you can also get apps for your iPhone, Android or Windows Mobile phone so you can record as you go.

Get stuck in everybody!

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The National AIDS Trust

2010-06-28T04:35:00.001-07:00

Beauty In The Universe has today agreed to work with The National AIDS Trust in order to raise funds awareness in the fight against a disease that has been the scourge of the late Twentieth Century.

This is a cause that is profoundly important, and education, awareness, research and donations are vital if we are to see this disease cured. We hope to use our services and events to raise money for the NAT, through small donations for our services outside the curriculum rather than a fee per se.

We hope to become more philanthropic as we continue to take astronomy to the masses. We hope you will join us in donating to worthy causes.

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New Additions To The Beauty In The Universe Roster

2010-06-20T12:30:00.001-07:00

We never stay still at Beauty In The Universe. We have hatched several plans that remain, as yet, on the down-low. They are big plans but they are not ready to be announced yet. One thing I can announce, however, is a significant increase in our number as we look to expand and influence farther and wider than its current level.

As of today we have two more partners on our staff roster. First up is Kasia.

Kasia is with us to get stuck in to Erica's side of things, funding and navigating the world of not=for-profit. She will assist in pushing forward in areas we are currently targeting, as well as making new projects happen quickly and efficiently.

Next up is Rachel.

Regular followers of Beauty In The Universe on Facebook and YouTube will already be familiar with her input, as will everyone reading this blog. Rachel built, and continues to update and maintain our new website, and she also provides the voice-overs for our YouTube video content.

Both Kasia and Rachel are American, and Rachel still lives over there, in Los Angeles. Beauty in The Universe is a truly international organisation. This chap, pictured here with his significant other:

Is James, a student from Australia who contacted us to get help with a school project on astronomy. Of course, we were only too pleased to help, and we look forward to a great result for James. Beauty In The Universe now reaches three continents and is pushing on to become more and more influential. We hope that you come with us for the ride.

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Weekly Green Statistics

2010-06-18T01:39:00.001-07:00

As promised I am logging all of my travelling and calculating the number of green miles versus polluting miles. Here is the breakdown of my travelling this week, ending today:

Total distance travelled: 13.73 kilometres

Of that:

Distance cycled: 7.23 kilometres

Distance walked: 6.5 kilometres

For my commuting that is a total of 13.73 green kilometres and that is 100% of my total distance travelled.

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Professor Brain Cox Live Webcast

2010-06-16T02:24:00.001-07:00

STOP PRESS

Professor Brian Cox is giving a lecture on The Big Bang on June 28th. The good news is that it is going to be shown online in a live webcast. Details here.

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Friends of Beauty In The Universe

2010-06-16T01:40:00.001-07:00

Check out what the friends of Beauty In The Universe are getting up to:

This is the excellent Faces From Earth, an organisation we hooked up with a while back. Check them out. We hope to work with them if our respective schedules allow, and in particular we hope to get involved with their superb E.T., are you out there? project.

Another oasis of knowledge is flourishing, good on you Faces From Earth.

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In Their Own Words

2010-06-15T11:41:00.001-07:00

Check out some of our students, in their own words.

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Beauty In The Universe YouTube Channel

2010-06-13T21:57:00.001-07:00

Check the new, official Beauty In The Universe YouTube Channel. The URL http://www.youtube.com/user/beautiverse. You can sign up to YouTube and subscribe so that you receive notifications of new videos we upload.

All the videos we upload are not copyrighted by Beauty In The Universe so feel free to repost them elsewhere or, if you are an educator, you may use them for your own educational programme. Please do not reproduce them without permission, which you can obtain by emailing us.

We hope you enjoy Beauty In The Universe on YouTube.

Tune

Further Funding Successes & Initiatives

2010-06-12T05:15:00.001-07:00

Today I am pleased to make several significant and exciting announcements.

Firstly, we have successfully petitioned Blackburn and Darwen CVS for funding to take Beauty In The Universe in to that area. This is a significant breakthrough for us. We are expanding our reach and influence in to a wider area of Lancashire, thus enabling many students to to discover the fascinating science of astronomy. The funding award is significant also because it represents our largest single award to date, and it is a real thrill to see local government putting their faith in education, and in a discipline that has proven to be effective, exciting and stimulating consistently throughout history. It is also a vindication of our method and aims as, during these difficult economic times the oasis of knowledge, Enlightenment thinking and reason is flourishing.

Secondly, we have now agreed a grant award from our local council which will allow us to buy at least one portable telescope. This means that we will shortly be able to offer observing events and star parties. This is another string to our educational bow and one which I am personally very pleased about. Observing the night sky is something that cannot be replicated in the classroom and the experience itself can have a profound effect on people. It is a numinous and almost transcendent thing, particularly when one sees objects for the first time, and one which we are now able to offer to students.

Thirdly, we are making our first foray in to adult education. This will be staged at a brand new Darwen venue, 3 In A Bar. The format is yet to be agreed upon fully but it is looking like a monthly adult education evening. This is a long held ambition of both myself and Erica, to make an impact and both adult and family learning.

A while ago I calculated that as a result of our initial round of delivery to schools we have been able to reach in excess of 700 students (not including teachers). These additions and awards now mean that 700 will soon be 7000. It is our ambition to keep adding zeroes to that number.

Another School

2010-06-10T03:50:00.001-07:00

This week Beauty In The Universe began sessions in another school, Cherryfold Primary in Burnley. This is a lively school and a smart bunch of students. These sessions are double ones so we will deliver the whole of the six week course in three weeks. This is challenging in some ways but satisfying in others. The main obstacle that 90 minutes of science challenges the attention span of even the most hardened academic, however, this was overcome with our innovative delivery and methods and, quite simply, by scheduling a break strategically to allow the students to blow off steam.

It seems to me that the schools in Burnley are oases of talent and ability. To be able to tap in to that and encourage academic endeavour is always going to be a privilege. Naturally, we do not expect every student we come across to pursue a physics degree, but that is not and never has been our intention. Of course we want to increase interest in the space sciences, but a wider goal is to prove to students that knowledge and scholarship is the coolest thing in the universe. Our part in the regeneration and growth of Burnley is growing and despite the government cutbacks we will shortly see, we hope we can continue to build.

Cuts are monetary, recession is temporary, but knowledge is a legacy.

Brain Cox Makes The Case Brilliantly

2010-06-04T09:29:00.001-07:00

2010-05-26T09:21:00.001-07:00

Today was the final day of our 'mini-astrofest' at Lomeshaye Junior School in Nelson. This is a photo of one of the classes there. I will blog more in depth about it later, right now I have just got off my bike after cycling home from school and I am dog tired.

Suffice to say it was a great day of astronomy.

Assembling The Masses

2010-05-17T04:20:00.001-07:00

Today was the first session at another school on our initial rotation of five schools. This time it was a twenty minute assembly and, quite frankly, we smashed it in to the stratosphere. There was only time to show a few Hubble images and a quick video about stars but, as is the standard, the students were hooked with almost a constant 'WOW!' being heard throughout. We are back in there tomorrow to deliver full sessions to their year six students. We'll blow them away again.

Is there anything better than seeing youngsters discover how cool knowledge and science is?

Progress, Expansion and Star Parties

2010-05-16T08:52:00.001-07:00

Beauty In The Universe always thinks forward, so I am pleased to announce that we recently had an extremely fruitful and interesting meeting with our local councillor, who kindly invested the time and resources we need to be able to buy some better equipment than we have at the moment. As a result of this we will very shortly have the ability to produce near-professional quality multimedia presentations. This will help us to educate to n even higher standard in the classroom and also it will improve the standard of our online delivery. It also means that we are going to be able to buy some decent telescopes and, as a result, offer star parties as part of our service and delivery. We are very excited about this as live events and telescope time have been next to impossible to include in our service thus far. That is now all going to change.

As a result of the support of our local politicians we are now in a position to broaden our service, extend our reach and enhance our delivery.

Further to this we are currently attempting to break in to a wider Lancashire audience. We have our sights set on Blackburn and Hyndburn education authorities as our next targets and, to that end we have already dispatched the necessary applications for funding ad whatever clearance we might need.

A few posts ago I set out some brave words, a rallying cry if you will. It was a statement of intent that, during a time of recession when the country is bracing itself for a battering, we are doing everything we can to advance the life-defining era of knowledge and to play our part in the age of reason. I hope now that you see I meant every single one of those words.

At Beauty In The Universe we do not know how to fail.

Progress and Progressive Thinking

2010-05-11T07:39:00.001-07:00

Our new website is in the testing stage so expect to see our revamped site very soon.

We are now halfway through our initial schools programme, rolled out in Burnley. It's been thrilling and we are pleased to have reached so many students. We now enter the inward run of schools with another school signed up and several schools enquiring about funding our service via the Institute of Physics. We have expanded our reach and are now pitching to wider areas of Lancashire, namely Blackburn and Rishton. We expect funding to arrive imminently to take the science of astronomy in to those schools too.

We have also hooked up with our local councillor, Liberal Democrat Charlie Briggs. He has assisted us in several ways and it now looks like we will be able to offer professional quality multimedia and also stage star parties as a result.

All of the above has come about as a result of our push for new ideas and to try new things. We are seeing such success and we hope to keep building and pushing knowledge.

Beauty Goes Google, Social Networking and Innovation

2010-04-30T22:34:00.002-07:00

Since the inception of Beauty In The Universe we have relied heavily on technology to distribute knowledge and information. Our philosophy is that knowledge and information should be free and we work with that in mind. We are currently undertaking a revamp of our website which will see it upgraded with better functionality and a more clean and slick look, and hopefully our blogs will be adapted to look the same. I am not a web designer but I do have some skills in that area, although regrettably I do not really have the time to learn advanced things like PHP and server scripting to be able to build complex web infrastructure as I would like to. Fortunately there is no longer any need to do so as I have had assistance on this from several fronts. Firstly, a friend of mine in California has very kindly donated her time and abilities to build the new website we need. I will give her the appropriate shout-out when the work is done, and only if she wants me to of course.

Secondly, we have invested in Google data services. We have used Google from the beginning, but now we have invested the tiny sum of £33 per user for Erica and I to upgrade to their full application service. I won't go in to too much detail, but for anyone starting a new business or looking to move in to any kind of independent service with a web-based element I cannot recommend this highly enough. Beauty In The Universe now has a full IT service and it has cost less than £100 to do it. I would also recommend a Google venture with British business innovators called Getting British Business Online. This is a service that will give you a free .co.uk domain name and web templates to get your business online in a couple of hours. It's free and you'd be foolish not to do it. Google is, at the moment, the cheapest (almost free) way to deploy business applications and web presence for your business. It already integrates perfectly with Android phones to ensure you're always connected, so when the inevitable Google Chrome operating system netbooks start appearing Google will be able to give businesses powerful tools to manage their daily affairs.

We are also stepping up out efforts to reach people in new and innovating ways. Erica and I have provisionally made arrangements to fly to Yellowknife in Canada to see the Aurora Borealis first hand. That is something we want the world to experience with us and so we want to find new ways to get information out there. You can already find us on Twitter here and we are pushing 300 fans on our Facebook page. We are going to start producing video material that stands alone, outside of the classroom. Currently the videos we produce are for teaching purposes, and so they only make sense in the classroom environment. That will change this year as we step up our involvement with YouTube and Vimeo.

We will also step up our networking via media services such as Spotify. I am a big fan of Spotify and have been a music lover and musician for many years. At Beauty In The Universe we do not believe in staff sitting in grey offices, working to death in silence. We are seeking to create an environment and culture that fosters creativity, innovation, and inspiration and working at Beauty will always be a family-friendly, children-friendly, stimulating and enjoyable experience. Music is always playing, energy is always present and ideas are always flowing. Spotify is just one way we can reach people and music is a unique thing that says so much about a person. I for one have an outrageously eclectic collection that, if I continue accumulating new music as I have previously, will be measured in terabytes. There is, in my music collection, something everyone loves and by the same token, something everyone hates.

Beauty In The Universe always looks for new ideas and methods. Where we come from in Burnley industry is stagnant and the town, from an academic point of view, needs the proverbial rocket up the backside as education here is poor. Beauty is a response to that and in October 2009 we ignited the engines. In seven months we have secured funding for this company to survive at least one year. That much is now guaranteed. We have put in several bids for funding to do things that are what most people would describe as, frankly, audacious to the point of being outrageous. Do you think we care? No. We are going to educate this town out of recession. One of our great motivating factors is a report produced by Centre for Cities, a government think tank that predicted Burnley will be last out of recession due to poor education and limited business innovation. We at Beauty are fed up of reports like that. Whenever anyone wants to say anything bad about the UK they mention Burnley. We are not only motivated to change that, but to ram those words down the throat of whomever predicted it. Mark my words Centre for Cities, you should have made your words a lot sweeter than that because you're going to be eating them soon enough.

The reality of our situation may well be economic recession for now, but we will find a way. Burnley lacks a lot of what we have to offer. I don't know any other organisation in Burnley that writes a blog, for example. At Beauty everyone does and everyone will. There are few organisations in Burnley genuinely dedicated to innovation and knowledge. Further inspiration comes to us through that though, because the best way to do things is always the new and innovative way. The rest of the country can stick to its knitting if it likes. I am sure that there will be challenges and setbacks along the way, but if there is one thing that being resilient and stubborn has taught me, it's that Burnley will flourish if Beauty In The Universe and others like us stick to our guns and raises a standard for knowledge and innovation. I don't know where the next big innovation is coming from, but I do know that its someone I see in school right now. I don't know what that person will do, but I do know that she or he will do it because of what we teach them. Things are tough right now for many people. Economic times are hard, there is a generation of 18-24 year olds who are seemingly on the employment scrap heap, and Centre for Cities has turned to it's favourite whipping boy, Burnley. As I said, I don't have the new answers, I just have the current ones. Let the children build the future by investing in their present.

What is Beauty In The Universe's message to Burnley? Dig in now and ride the storm. Keep the faith in knowledge and education. When they think you're finished then your finest hour is just around the corner.

We're Back!

2010-04-22T04:53:00.001-07:00

After an Easter break that seemed like an eternity, Beauty is back! We are pleased to announce that we have recently confirmed a two day astronomy 'fest' at a Lancashire school.

We're seeing some real energy in Lancashire science education. The opportunities in front of us are tremendous.

Beauty In The Universe: The Beauty

2010-04-09T11:44:00.001-07:00

Trip to Alston Observatory

2010-03-29T05:58:00.001-07:00

Today it was the Final Session in The Rose School in Burnley and rather than a normal session we took a trip away to Alston Observatory. (Map link here). This facility is available to us as a part of our partnership with the excellent University of Central Lancashire. This was a fantastic day and we enjoyed the presentation entitled 'Telescopes as Time Machines', along with video projected on to the observatory dome, further video about Saturn and the Cassini mission. The students and teaching staff got an opportunity to play with a couple of telescopes , although seeing was limited to distant terrestrial sights of course, since it was daytime.

This really was a great experience for the students and I can only imagine what an evening open day is like there as it is a very dark location and there is some fantastic equipment there. UCLAN could not have a better facility for its outreach programme. I am very envious of the staff that get to use the place!

Here is a Picasa photostream from the day. Click the image to view the rest.

Rose School Observatory Trip

Further Progress

2010-03-25T07:55:00.001-07:00

I haven't blogged for a week or so, mainly because the work is picking up and things are getting hectic. Next week we take a trip to UCLAN and I am very much looking forward to that. What I am most pleased about is that we have secured a further contract to deliver our service, this time to one primary school over the course of three days in May. We are very excited to be working with this particular school and I personally look forward to meeting the pupils. If they are anything like the pupils we have encountered so far they will no doubt be fund to work with and a pleasure to be around. The schools in Burnley have a wealth of talent in them, perfect for educating our way out of recession. I look forward to the day when students begin to graduate from universities they attended because we inspired them to pursue academia, and in particular the sciences.

Tune

Progress

2010-03-12T10:56:00.001-08:00

More progress. This week was comets for one school, climate change for another and for one more, black holes. All three classes were great and it is fantastic to see Burnley endowed with such talented students. There are definitely good times ahead for these students.

Today I began another series in another series of sessions in a new school. I cycled to this one and disaster struck when my chain snapped. I was so relieved that Laura was able to rescue me. I arrived on time fortunately and all was well. In this session there were almost twenty students plus two parents. I am always very pleased when I see children and parents learning together. That is a rewarding thing for Beauty In The Universe. This was another great school, and I think we will do well for the students there.

Did you know that the recent Earthquake in Chile slowed the Earth's rotation by 0.126 milliseconds?

Dream Theater: Raw Dog

Busy Busy, Busy

2010-03-04T04:30:00.001-08:00

Man I have been busy recently. Funding applications left, right and centre, teaching, planning, stargazing, researching, cycling wherever I can. The summer is coming and things are looking good. This week was another great week for teaching. We covered the most requested subject Beauty in the Universe receives, Black Holes. Getting across to students the weirdness of these objects is quite a challenge, and I hope they got it. Even more so as I now know that they read both mine and Erica's blog.

I'm watching you kids.

I kid of course. I am planning to shift our programme slightly and cover the end of all things next week. This will allow me to talk about the conservation of nergy, thermodynamics and entropy. Stay tuned as that should be a pretty barking mad lesson conducted partly in the yard, weather permitting of course.

Some may have noticed I frequently post a song at the end of my posts. Music is a fine wonder, so this week I sign of with a classic of American pop/rock, the mighty Toto performing 'Africa' live.

Fun and Funding

2010-02-27T20:11:00.001-08:00

This week was another new taster session. We took our wares to Hapton Primary School and once again our taster session about star formation, abiogenesis and proplyds went down a storm. These kids were great. They were full of questions and once again I found myself surprised by the intelligence they displayed in their questioning. I was not surprised to find smart kids, but there are questions and then there are questions. The most rewarding thing is when we see a student starting to use inductive reasoning, often showing the ability to infer intelligent answers from various propositions we present to them. I was so impressed by a couple of students who were able to employ induction and a sort of young strain of syllogistic logic to ask intelligent questions. This was pleasing not only because of the questioning, but also because the questions suggested certain premises had already been dismissed prior to formulating the question. Now that WAS exciting. When a child has been educated to a standard sufficient to allow them to self-educate intelligently then that child is equipped well for the academic challenge. I am in no doubt that there were at least a couple of future scientists in this school.

The session went down, as I say, very well and it is always great when the teachers and learning support staff are as engaged in the lesson as the students. This is often the case with astronomy as it is rare and also almost transcendent and numinous in parts. The best sign of a good lesson is when we are told to shut up! The students would have questioned all afternoon but inevitably the wider curriculum came rushing in. How thrilling it is to have the students chatter our ears off from beginning to end.

Other good news is that the Awards4All funding application we previously had rejected looks as though it will be approved upon reapplication. I am not the expert on this sort of thing, that is Erica's forte, however, it seems that a minor detail was incorrectly stated or interpreted and clearing it up will allow us to go ahead. That will be great result if that comes in, allowing us to buy significant resources for educating.

A great song.

Earth Moon

2010-02-22T02:43:00.001-08:00

Today was the first day of a new term, six weeks now until Easter, and it was the first session proper delivered to the secondary school in our rotation. The last time I was there was a taster session delivered to a great bunch of kids with a bundle of attitude. I love these kids. Today's session was delivered to their GCSE class with a couple of 'stepper-uppers', i.e. talented students from lower years. The subject was the Earth - Moon system, and I managed to export a great deal of knowledge in 45 minutes. We covered libration:

Libration is a 'wobble' observed in the Moon's orbital motion as it faces Earth. The GIF above demonstrates this by showing the motion greatly accelerated. 50% of the surface of the Moon is visible from Earth at any one time, but thanks to libration it is possible to see 59% of the Moon's surface can be observed.

We also talked about eclipses, total, partial and annular. We covered the landings, including a thorough debunking of the Moon Landing conspiracies, each with accompanying explanations of why they are so preposterous, and this is a very useful tool actually, an easy way to cover a diverse knowledge base very quickly. After that we had a general chat about the Apollo missions, Apollo 13 and various interesting elements of the missions like the Lunar Rover, the geography and topography of the Moon and a little about the formation.

It was a Monday morning lesson, sleeps heads in some ways, but nonetheless a great lesson and the shock and awe in the face of how cool astronomy is was absolutely clear.

Song.

Binary Opposites, Black and White, Yin and Yang

2010-02-18T09:41:00.001-08:00

Today we struck up a conversation with the excellent Mr Eclipse. I am sure I do not need to tell anyone what a man with such a name is renowned for. His website is one of the best amateur sites out there devoted to astronomy, and even more specifically eclipse chasing. One of the modules on the six week course we are doing in schools is devoted to the Earth - Moon system and therefore it goes without saying that eclipses are a large part of that presentation.

I have to confess that I love Erica's methodology. I happened to mention this guy (real name Fred Espenak) in passing whilst I was showing her an Annular Solar Eclipse and she instantly said

You like him? Let's talk to him!

This is what Erica does so well, essentially everything I don't! I assemble data and prepare and produce seminars and clubs based upon what guys like Espenak do. It never occurs to me to talk to these people. To be quite honest, if I did I would be so bombastic and aggressive that I would likely scare or offend them anyway. I am good with high impact, shock and awe. Not so much with chat and show. When we founded Beauty in the Universe we were kindly assisted by an academic at UCLAN who put us in touch with the right person at UCLAN, with whom we now share a fruitful relationship. This particular academic was kind enough to attend our introductory meeting with UCLAN astrophysics and afterward he quietly intimated to me that hooking up with Erica was likely to be the shrewdest move I will ever make. I have no hesitation in agreeing wholeheartedly with his comments. Her talents for fundraising, speaking business lingo and, quite literally, collecting people, know no bounds. Whatever I have brought to Beauty in terms of vision, energy, passion and knowledge she has more than matched with business prowess, financial acumen, people skills (something I am entirely devoid of) and compassion. Her Yin is every bit the equal to my Yang.

As a result my pipe dream of using the substantial talents and materials brought to bear upon astronomy by Mr Eclipse for educational purposes is now a distinct possibility, and that is all because of Erica's mastery of the art of talking to people. That is why she is Director of Implementation. A dream that never takes form is a tragedy. Erica turns intentions in to events, talk in to action, potential energy in to kinetic accomplishments.

For as much as the students we see learn from me in the sessions we deliver I learn just as much about how to do this thing called business. Naturally, in true Adam style I cannot say it in person, I am too busy being me, but the formidable presence a strong woman in business cannot and should not ever be underestimated. Of such relationships, careers, even lives are made of.

Song.

The Society For Popular Astronomy

2010-02-16T07:46:00.001-08:00

Today we are pleased to announce the formation of a formal partnership with The Society for Popular Astronomy

I have been a member for a year or two now and we are excited to be able to use their endorsement and their influence in schools. We look forward to introducing our students to them and to seeing us work together for the benefit of UK education.

If you are from a school and would like to know how the SPA and Beauty in the Universe can contribute to your educational efforts then please email us and we can send you some information.

Tired Yet Pleased

2010-02-12T17:44:00.001-08:00

Today was our third taster session and it was delivered on the last day before half term to Lowerhouse Primary School in Burnley. I have to confess that these sessions take a lot of energy and wear me out, but it is a good feeling, a gentle fatigue that reminds me how cool this job is, despite the mild terror of self-employment during the worst recession in living memory. After half term the lessons and sessions begin proper. I estimate that Erica and I were able to reach around 100 students today. I live for these moments, when I see students totally engaged and energised by science, assimilating the complexities of things like black hole physics, abiogenesis, astrobiology and solar physics. It is difficult to do anything other than beam with joy at these children. They are smart, they are sharp and they are intelligent, full of potential. I have no doubt that some of them might go all the way and get a good university education. It is so exciting to be able to influence them in that way, and they deserve it.

The taster sessions are delivered in two parts, with the first dealing with abiogenesis and the chemistry of life and the second nebular accretion and star formation. I usually wind these sessions up with Pale Blue Dot and today I was utterly blown away when one of the kids knew who Carl Sagan was. That made me jump inside just a little bit. Pale Blue Dot is a great way to finish a class with something inspirational, and, after so much hardcore science, something that is also a rest for the mind and which appeals to the human sense of, and appreciation for the transcendent and the numinous. I love Pale Blue Dot for many reasons, but one of them as that it is a reminder to me that however much I love science, empiricism and suchlike, human beings are ultimately creatures of emotion, and thus it serves to force me to engage with education using a holistic methodology. Today I was utterly thrilled that, when the Powerpoint slide with Sagan's photograph appeared on screen, one student knew him, and even better, it was a girl. This science seems to naturally appeal to boys so I always try to get the girls equally involved and engaged. That doesn't usually take a massive amount of persuasion but I do it nonetheless because one thing Beauty in the Universe definitely will not be is a gendered organisation. As it turns out her father grew up aware of the same 1980's sense of wonder and fascination at space exploration that I did so he bought her the box set of Carl Sagan's Cosmos. Good for him, and especially for her. This town needs more parents like that.

Tune.

To Know and to Care

2010-02-09T02:30:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was another very fruitful day. It was supposed to be tough, but I found it to be a rewarding challenge. We were delivering another taster session and this was the first one Erica and I have done together. This will likely not happen too often so it was interesting to see how the dynamic between us worked. It was great to have Erica there to do all of the relationship building work that I am really not at all good at. That was one huge advantage, and my shrewdest move to date has been working with her.

This was a school that was allegedly challenging in the extreme. Obviously I won't name the school, but the students there are purported to be challenging, with emotional and behavioural issues and so forth. Of course this was borne out in the lesson, they were higher maintenance and had a stack of teenage attitude (I love that about teenagers), but it was an extremely interesting and engaging lesson. Naturally the first half hour was loaded with sulking and pretending not to care, but as time went on more and more of them became interested and thrilled by the science of astronomy, vindicating my belief and conviction that knowledge is always the winner in a fight between it and ignorance and apathy.

These students are good kids who need people who not only know, but who also care - exactly the kind of students Beauty in the Universe loves.

Song

Young Astronomers and More Progress

2010-02-06T03:56:00.001-08:00

This week has been a very good time for Beauty in the Universe. We have secured a further funding award from CVS in Burnley and we have hatched a plan to create a club for young astronomers, with the working title 'Little Beauties'. This means more work of course, but fruitful labour rather than a chore. I will build a separate website where children can get updates, learn to stargaze and download/watch videos about astronomy.

Things are going well and we are experiencing small scale successes that are already beginning to add up to a very substantial whole. Our next goal behind the scenes is to secure enough funding to lease office space and fund two full time positions that we can guarantee for at least twelve months, and then after that we will create two internships for school leavers. In schools the goal is to do an excellent job on our first contract.

In the long term our goal is to prove Centre for Cities wrong. We could not have made a better start.

More Progress

2010-02-05T03:48:00.001-08:00

This week has been one of our busiest yet. I estimate that I have put around fifty hours work in this week. We have secured the five schools we need to proceed with our initial six week programme, so now we can proceed and get on with things.

Yesterday we looked at office space. That was a weird feeling. This started in the last week of October and now we are three months on, looking at premises and actually proceeding. That is remarkably quick if you ask me. The challenge is to keep a rational mindset and to focus. Of course it would be great to move in to our own space and we fell in love with the place we looked at, but that means that my desire for what I want can coerce me in to bad decisions. I never decide on the spot about these things, particularly when it is money and could tie us up for a while. That is when a cool head is important and decisions made need to be thought through and intelligently assessed. It will happen, but preparedness and alertness in respect to the consequences of our actions and decisions forces regular, stringent reviews of ideas and plans and that process is what Beauty in the Universe is all about. We stand or fall on our ability to make shrewd, intelligent decisions.

Beginnings

2010-02-03T01:03:00.001-08:00

Beginnings is the de facto theme of 2010 for Beauty in the Universe. It sort of came about by accident really, but beginnings it is. We have begun our search for funding in earnest and have agreed several sources already, as always these things seem to take forever. We have begun a partnership with UCLAN, home of some of the smartest people I have ever met. We will work with them and their facilities to give students an experience to remember. We have something of a partnership with Sir Patrick Moore; he has sent us a letter of commendation. We have provisionally agreed to work with the Society for Popular Astronomy and that brings with it a connection to Jodrell Bank, a place I have been aware of for as long as I can remember. For five months' work, I think that is pretty damned impressive. We are now moving on to talking to Queen Guitarist Brain May, whom you may not be aware is a renowned astronomer and an expert on interstellar dust, and Sir Richard Branson who has recently founded Virgin Galactic.

Yesterday featured more beginnings. I delivered our first ever session in a local primary school to a class of forty year six students. The theme was... BEGINNINGS! The session featured an introduction with some cool pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope - that was such a joyous experience, to see how thrilled and utterly enthralled they were. We then conducted an experiment, followed by a long and in-depth discussion on the subject of Abiogenesis which was then neatly closed with the Clutching Stardust video. After that it was on to planetary accretion. We talked about Proplyds, nebulae and the creation of the Solar System. They lapped it up and I could have gone on all afternoon and they would have been fascinated.

Chalk one in the 'plus' column for Beauty in the Universe.

Tudor Trust

2010-01-31T01:08:00.001-08:00

The Tudor Trust are a funding group to whom we applied for funding for Beauty in the Universe. They said no. Not 'we considered you, but no thanks'. They didn't consider us. That is frustrating because I know how well this works for educating kids and building communities, but convincing a world that has ignored space travel and astronomy since the Moon landings that it will be effective is tough. They just think we are a bunch of nerds. To be fair, we are a bunch of nerds, but we are not JUST a bunch of nerds.

This Tuesday we deliver a taster session to a school in Burnley. I cannot wait to see the reaction from both teachers and pupils alike. They will get it then.

Reaching Further

2010-01-28T03:31:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was another pitch, this time delivered to Extending Schools Coordinators from across the region of Lancashire. This gives us the potential to extend our reach massively and the exposure can only be beneficial. The pitch was well received, particularly by a couple of the coordinators and we are starting to forge something of a small reputation, which is nice. At least people think our pitches are good and the phrase 'Clutching Stardust' is becoming iconic and memorable in a small way. We simply need to capitalise on this now and deliver the great experience we know we can. Despite this all happening relatively quickly we are dying to get on with this. This coming Tuesday I will be attending my son's school to deliver a session that will give them something of an idea what to expect, and that will be great. As soon as people see how mind-blowing this is then the sky is the limit. Erica and I are united in our belief in this.

Education and a Few Updates

2010-01-21T03:25:00.001-08:00

According to a recent study undertaken by an independent think tank, Burnley is at the bottom of the pile for economic recovery after the recession. I wish I had the words to express how much it irritated me to see my hometown, and by definition, my children written off in that way. I decided to adapt a video I was making in to some sort of response to this. I am sick to death of Burnley being the UK whipping boy, and I am fed up of the place being a symbolic representation of all that is bad about our country. We have the highest BNP vote and the lowest level of education. This cannot be a simple coincidence. This is what Beauty in the Universe is all about. We are going to make a change in this town.

Genesis

2010-01-20T10:43:00.001-08:00

So this is the first post, not only on this blog, but on on any of the Beauty in the Universe blogs. This comes after three months of planning, pitching and preparation, none of which was paid I might add. The good news is that all of this has gone very well and there is plenty of interest for the service we offer to schools. We have verbally agreed upon our first contract, to deliver sessions to a cluster of five primary schools in Burnley and then take a group of children away on a summer camp to Cumbria. The logistics of this will prove a challenge, and in the hands of lesser people this would be a problem (translation: I have no idea how I am going to do it). None of that matters though. We have got this far and are beginning to see the fruits of our labour.