Making a Space Camera

I'm very excited to have posted the first proper video for the Backstage Science video project.

It's all about a special camera being built to fly on a space telescope.



The camera is called MIRI - the Mid Infrared Instrument - and it will fly on the James Webb Space Telescope.

It was the first time I'd filmed in a "clean room" and wanted viewers to see how careful people must be when working on space instruments.

The most time-consuming job was cleaning MY video camera to take inside.

Have to admit I was quite excited by being up close to a camera which will fly in space and (hopefully) become so important!

Backstage Science is a project I'm doing with the Science and Technology Facilities Council.

They'll be letting me visit various labs, experiments and major facilities across the UK.

I'm hoping the videos will feel like we've all been given a "backstage pass" - seeing all the little details you don't always get to see in typical science videos.

I've already filmed at a few locations and look forward to posting more videos in 2011.

You can follow the project on YouTube or Twitter or Facebook.

There are also a few photos being posted to Flickr.