Transit of Venus 2012

On June 6th this past Wednesday a historical event occurred. Namely the planet Venus would be clearly visible travelling passed our sun. A once in a lifetime event which won't happen again  until 2117. I feared that my camera phone wouldn't get a very good image but that didn't matter as I had technical issues with it in the end anyway. I wasn't too disappointed because just as I expected Twitter was all, well twittery about this, the astronomers of course being especially excited. Therefore I was expecting to see great photo's and I certainly was NOT disappointed. It doesn't matter what field of science you are from or indeed wether you are a scientist or not, who isn't in awe of our magnificent universe? Just as I imagined, thankfully and gratefully, there are many magnificent photographs and indeed YouTube videos of Venus gracefully making her way by the Sun. I love the internet and I think it is absolutely amazing that no matter where you are in the world (almost) you can witness this marvel and document it in some way and then share it with the rest of humanity online.
As I unfortunately didn't capture the moment I have searched the web for some fab pictures. I made a discovery which pleases me and makes me very proud. I didn't know this because even though I love the history of science I am a chemist and not directly involved with any field which does study the universe. My wonderful discovery was that back in 1639 the first transit of Venus was observed by a local (to me) amateur astronomer from Salford named William Crabtree. I found a beautiful painting of him making this very observation and here it is. I wish I could find out who painted it so I could give him proper credit.

There are lots of amazing photo's on the web of Wednesday's transit. Here are some beautiful pix I found on just the first page I looked at. I think this are glorious and I'm sure you dear reader if you've looked have found many more yourself.  I hope you enjoy these anyway

(Credit: Dreadnetcentral.com)

(Credit: Shellee/WV Outpost)

 


 


 Facebook has an entire page devoted to this so you can find more gems there

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Transit-of-Venus-2012/220307631417305

(Credit: nj.com/Bullit Marquez)

(Credit: HD image by NASA Goddard)

                                                                
For the nerds enquiring minds amongst us

(Credit: NASA)

(www.hko.gov.hk)

I'll finish with one of my favourite photo's. I think it looks rather like a scene in a western, perhaps a closing scene with the sun going down. Do you agree or am I wrong? :)

(Credit: Douglas Brown/The Denver Post)

TEDxSalford review

5 months later but better late than never right? :) I expected great things from this day and I wasn't disappointed. Even the sunshone for the whole event. The entire thing was organised by students from Salford University so well done to them. Every talk was great, every speaker was too. They were so inspirational, some funny but all made you think and some were heartwarming also. The theme was 'we are all explorers' so yes very inspiring. Thank you guys! Whilst I was fascinated by every talk I do have a favourite. Our mystery guest was a NASA astronaut and since learning this I have been excited to know his identity. I never thought it would be colonel Ron Garan with whom I have been following on Twitter for some time (@astroron). At the time he had only been back on earth for 6 months and had some awesome pictures he has taken from space to show us. Whilst a few of the talks on this day were about helping others this one struck a particular chord with me. The colonel spoke of what he calls the 'orbital perspective' there no real boundries really between nations so we should all try to help each other, help the developing countries. It is our responsibility to find solutions to our planets problems, clean water, an end to poverty etc. and all of us can do something. Wonderful , love it. I hope I am playing my part. See my other blog. He is Col. Ron Garan's talk

 http://youtu.be/lJNbjSLvtpI

Also, here is a link to the TEDxSalford Facebook page where you can enjoy all of the talks.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/tedxsalford/

 What's more on 5th April I was lucky enough to attend my second TEDTalk. This was entitled TEDxchangeSalford and was free to attend and took place over half a day. The exciting thing about this was that the second half involved a live link up to Berlin where we were treated to a talk by none other than Melinda Gates and what an amazing and moving talk it was too. Another amazing fact about this link up was that it was streaming live to 200 countries at the same time! I had my camera phone this time but my pictures are not good and unfortunately my mpg of the Berlin talks didn't work. Ah well I shall be more used to my phone by then as its new. I would recommend TEDTalks to anyone if you get the chance to go to one then please do. You will be glad you did. 

94elements.com

Oooh I so need to come back here and blog about TEDxSalford. In the meantime I have stumbled across an innovative new science and filmaking project called 94elements.com Please take a look and I hope you get excited about it too. Its a chemistry project to rival Nottingham universities The Periodic Table of Video's. I love it and to prove it I've made a financial contribution.

  http://www.indiegogo.com/94elements?c=activity#_=_

Also, Happy towel day :D

TEDxSalford

As this is my first post of 2012 I first of all want to wish you all a very happy, healthy and productive new year xxx I am insanely excited about attending my first ever TED conference tomorrow! In case you are not aware of these wonderfully, inspiring and innovative events TED stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design. Check them out on Twitter and Facebook. Anyway I am so pleased to have the opportunity to be going to a TED conference, it is one local to me: TEDxSalford, starting at 10am though we are to be there from 9am and finishing at 8pm although it may continue abit longer. I will be back with all of the glorious details as I'm planning on taking notes of each talk. I just can't wait to have this experience and to discover the identity of the mystery NASA astronaut! Here is one of there Facebook pages.

http://www.facebook.com/events/280651658652649/

I hope to see some familair faces and chat to some interesting people xxx

Manchester science Festival 2011: day7

So it is the last day already. Of course I enjoyed myself but I felt a little sad. I think we all did. It has certainly passed by very quickly! Again today I did the evening session at MOSI.

It was entitled Dr Sketchy's Sketchorama
and went on until10pm I think. Andy
and I left at 9pm. It was an awesome
and popular event with many participants and was described as a life drawing event with a science twist. Naturally! :)

I really enjoyed it and was responsible for signing people in. Again we had a bar but it wasn't as good as fridays ;). Just usual beer this time. We had some magnificent cupcakes though. Compliments to the baker for those.





First up on stage was a familiar face. One David Price, award winning Science communicator whom I remember being 'Mr Maths' last year. He also used to be the host of Didsbury Science bar. One minute he was dressed in a suit and the next he looked like a sumo wrestler. He was demonstrating an objects centre of mass/gravity. Then the drawing began. a 50 year old body builder posed in many ways and the audience had only one minute to draw each pose. It looked like fun but I hadn't brought any drawing materials with me. However, I did notice the MOSI managers joining in, talented they were too. In fact it looks like this event drew the right crowd, no pun intended! I don't really understand the significance of the skeleton either even if tomorrow night is halloween. The next act was a contortionist from Britain's got talent apparently! It was time to go home though for Andy and me, so all done and dusted for another year. What a way to finish, thanks MOSI! XXX

Manchester science Festival 2011: day5

Today Friday I did the evening session at MOSI. I have to confess that I didn't feel the best as we went to the Didsbury Beer festival lastnight, for the first time! Feeling sad as this is my penultimate event but everyone entered into the spirit of things and had a fab time. This event was called Spacetacular and that it truly was. I greeted people and encouraged them to visit the bar and dress up. Its great to see people joining in and there was alot of tin foil and glitter involved. There were bottles of festival ale and cocktails but I wasn't up to that. It was £5 a bottle but they all sold out! The first half of the night took place over the road in the power hall. Researchers to mingle with and talk too, a planetarium show and a caravan with a guy talking about Carl Sagan. I would've liked to see that myself but I did see some nice costumes.The second half was going on until 9pm so I didn't see it all. As I was saying goodbye to the lovely young lady on the desk, a familiar face popped up. His name escapes me but I must have met him last year. He was wearing a boiler suit and a black curly wig and had told me earlier that he liked dressing up lol. Anyway we wanted his picture taken with me which I thought was really sweet. We did see a fabulous astrophysics student named Jen Gupta doing a spot of stand up about Star wars. She was dressed as an imperial trooper including mask. I have a friend who would approve of that but to me the ultimate scifi movie is Blade Runner. Then a guy came on talking about his work making satelite parts. A lovely evening. 

Manchester science Festival 2011: day4

I spent the day at the Manchester Museum on Oxford Road working with another lovely volunteer by the name of Amena which she told me is israeli for trustworthy which is nice. The theme there this year is Egyptology. Setting up the crafts aspect this year was certainly quicker than in previous years! The kids were making pyramids. We directed people around the museum and then filled in evaluation forms. The afternoons event was awesome, we helped out in a class after lunch wich involved mummifying oranges. Good messy fun for kids of all ages. Alas we were not allowed to take pictures of that but I look forward to the teacher putting up pictures on her website. Don't worry, no toxic chemicals involved, and so one is allowed to take ones mummies home. I aim to try one myself when I have time.