A job at Jodrell bank

What’s a job you would like to do for just one day?

WordPress does not have a photo of Jodrell Bank radio telescope near Holmes Chapel in England, so I’ve chosen a random photo of a radio telescope from their image selection.

I love visiting the place, but I wish I had an astrophysics qualification so I could sit in the control room and actually be involved in the discovery of something spectacular, like the radio signal of a pulsar, or the signal from an alien civilisation. To be the first to hear something new. Like Jocelyn Bell-Burnell who discovered the first Pulsar, a fast spinning neutron star that gives off radio signals which can be detected by the radio telescope. She didn’t get credit for the discovery and wasn’t included the nobel prize when it was awarded for the work she did.

If I could be there I’d even enjoy making tea for the astronomers, or just sit quietly in a corner, listening out for signals. I used to be a member of a citizen science group looking out for alien signals. SETI is really interesting and I also like the ZOONIVERSE  group that looks at data for several citizen science projects.

The trouble is if you let me in…. You won’t get me out!

Contact

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I’m just watching the film ‘Contact’ starring Jodie Foster. It’s about an astronomer who is searching for alien life. Her search leads her to find an alien signal and the story continues by exploring the affect on humanity.

The story was originally written as a novel by the astronomer Carl Sagan. He was also involved in the NASA Voyager programme, and suggested the spacecraft turned its camera back towards Earth as it headed out of the solar system. He coined the phrase ‘Pale Blue Dot’, when the image showed a single pale blue pixel where Earth sat in the darkness and infinity of space.

I love Sci-fi, and am interested in the possibility of contact with another civilisation. Who knows what might actually happen.

Video

I’m sitting here watching a Video. Yes you read this right…. A video.

I wanted to watch an old film with Jodie Foster in it called Contact. Based on a story by the scientist Carl Sagan. But unfortunately my digital TV is experiencing what used to be called “on the blink” . I think its lost some of its channels because of the weather. So instead of 150ish channels I only have 92. Well we only used to have had 2 channels, so you would think I would be satisfied  but I wanted to watch Close Encounters of the Third kind and then Contact. But the channel that they were on isn’t working. I like Contact because it is Sci fi and about Seti, the search for extra terrestrial intelligence, and I had a citizen science computer program running looking at fast fourier transformations and things like that… Well anyway. I’m watching it on Video. But it was recently announced one firm are stopping making DVDs! They are just going to concentrate on blu Ray and the next generation of data discs . It just makes me feel old….. And yet the video is an old friend. I need to find out if I can still play it if we have to get a new TV…. .