Sneak Previews

Last week we revealed details of two new channels - part of a major launch by YouTube/Google.

The channels - numberphile and DeepSkyVideos - are about maths and space.

We now have short little "previews" showing some of our raw footage.






DEEP SKY VIDEOS
YouTube channel
Facebook Page
Twitter

NUMBERPHILE
YouTube channel
Facebook Page
Twitter

iPhone photo of Jupiter

This photo of Jupiter and two of its moons was taken last night with my iPhone.

iPhone pic of Jupiter and two of its moons

I was filming with amateur astronomer Roy Gretton, who lives nearby in Nottinghamshire.

(The film was for an upcoming film for Deep Sky Videos - more about that soon).

Jupiter is currently in opposition, meaning it's closer to Earth than usual.

Roy showed me the planet through his telescope.... it was amazing!

You could clearly see the striped bands of clouds and three of Jupiter's many moons.

Then, for a joke, I pointed my iPhone at the eye piece and snapped.

Although Jupiter is horribly overexposed, I was amazed that the planet and two of moons were pretty clear.

What would Gallileo say?

I haven't checked which moons they were - I'm sure the experts will tell me. The third moon was far off to the right in the above image.

Below is a video still also taken last night... Jupiter is clearly visible.

Roy and Jupiter (still from video camera)

Numbers and Stars

My next big projects have become "official".

Last night YouTube unveiled a list of new "original channels" - see their announcement and view the list of channels.

Among them are two by me - Numberphile and Deep Sky Videos.

Numberphile will be about, oddly enough, numbers.

James Grime at City Ground

Filming has already started and the films are full of great facts and figures.

Yesterday we were lucky enough to film at a championship football stadium - The City Ground, home of Nottingham Forest FC.

Pictured right is Dr James Grime sitting in the grandstand and discussing number 11.

James will feature in many of the Numberphile videos.

Each video will be dedicated to a different number - from zero to infinity!?

The second project is called Deep Sky Videos.

It's a series about space, featuring a selection of professional and amateur astronomers.

As a starting point, we're planning to feature the famous catalog of Messier Objects.

Roy's image of M15

Just last night I joined local amateur astronomer Roy Gretton in the backyard of his Nottinghamshire home.

I watched him capture this image of Messier 15, or M15 (right).

It is just a quick picture captured for my sake, but it still nicely shows the globular cluster of some 100,000 stars.

I'll be posting plenty more information here on the blog.

But below are some details about following progress on both projects.

DEEP SKY VIDEOS
YouTube channel
Facebook Page
Twitter

NUMBERPHILE
YouTube channel
Facebook Page
Twitter

Honorary Associate Member

Was really surprised today to learn I'd been made an "honorary associate member" of the Royal Australian Chemical Institute.

It was for the promotion of chemistry through the internet - namely The Periodic Table of Videos with chemists at the University of Nottingham.

Was really touched by such a nice gesture from chemists in my homeland.

And it follows an honor earlier this year from the Chemical Society of Ethiopia.

I was in Australia last month with Professor Martyn Poliakoff on periodicvideos duty. A couple of our films below:

A Busy Halloween

It's been a busy pre-Halloween week, with three videos uploaded.

Two are for Sixty Symbols (physics and astronomy) and one for the Periodic Table of Videos (chemistry).

For chemistry we created a video about laser dyes.

The idea was cooked up by our cult hero, senior technician Neil Barnes, who also models the skeleton suit.



The first Sixty Symbols video was about ghost paticles... Quite technical stuff, but we had some fun with the filming and editing.



And a bit easier on the brain cells but still fascinating was this video about witches in space.



Finally, to see some previous Halloween videos from years gone by, visit my last blog.

They were about blood, candles and smashing pumpkins!

Halloween is coming

It's that time of year again...

And for some reason we always make an extra effort with Halloween videos.

This year will be no exception, with three in production for periodicvideos and Sixty Symbols!

But before that, why not enjoy these pictures of Professor Poliakoff snapped by Samantha Tang last week.

And below them, our Halloween videos from previous years.

An arty periodic table

Another video from our recent trip to Australia.

Here we're in Bendigo and checking out a periodic table of artwork.

The Royal Australian Chemical Institute commissioned artists to depict each element, and this was the result.



It was a happy coincidence that the exhibit was in Bendigo when we were Down Under.

This is interesting because Bendigo is named after an old-time prize fighter from Nottingham (in a strange and indirect way)

And of course periodicvideos is based in Nottingham!

I told the story of this many years ago, in my BBC days.