The Royal Observatory at Greenwich is a magical place. It houses London’s only planetarium, together with some great spacey exhibits. It’s also where east properly meets west at the Prime Meridian, and home to a wonderful array of telescopes, as well as a splendid earthly view looking out towards Canary Wharf. Finally, you can get there via the Docklands Light Railway which means, if you’re very lucky, you can sit in the front of the front carriage and pretend you’re driving the train out to it.
On Thursday I was lucky enough to be invited there for the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Awards 2010 (thanks to my friend Anna who worked on a series of astrophotography Tutorials to accompany the exhibition). I’m fortunate that in my day job (when I’m not writing Johnny Mackintosh books) I get to travel the world, going to many scientific conferences, so can reveal that all the other scientists are jealous of astronomers because of their beautiful photographs and the way they can capture the public’s imagination.
Would you rather look at this MIT photo of a new fuel cell membrane (of course enormously important research) or of the Horsehead Nebula? However important the science, it’s no contest really. This Horsehead Nebula image won the 2009 Competition for amateur astronomer Martin Pugh. It helps show that, even now in the twenty-first century, amateurs can and do make a great contribution to this particular science.
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