Monday, May 28, 2018

FERRY CROSS THE RAPIDLY EXPANDING COSMOS

ABC   turns   blogger  into  a  Moon - mad  snapper .
An avid amateur  astronomer struggled aboard a  Townsville  to  Magnetic  Island  ferry  with a large , boxed telescope .She  had  enthusiastically   watched  the ABC's wonderful Stargazing  Live presented by  Professor Brian Cox and Julia Zemiro  which  had inspired  the nation's citizen scientists  to set  a Guinness  World Record,  discover  two  new  supernovae  and   extend  the  age of  the  universe. 
 
 By Peter Simon
 
Other stargazer friends, she said ,   had recently alerted  her to   a magnificent meteorite  shower  heading   towards  the   island . Her husband was  waiting  at the ferry terminal on the island to  come aboard and  carry off the  new telescope . 
 
During the ABC  show , I went   outside   with  binoculars and studied the Moon.Then , last night, unable to sleep , armed  with  a  powerful  new  camera , a  birthday present  from my starlets , I  tottered  out  at 3am and took shots of the Moon , one at the top of this post, which appears  to show that it has been colonised by  humanoids. Gazing  up in awe , memories of my exclusive  trip  to  the  Moon  in  an  office  car  came flooding  back.


 While living in New Zealand , before the first lunar landing , I was  invited  to  drive  from Auckland  to the  Taupo region  and   witness  a volcanic  eruption on  the Moon  .The  rare event was  due to  a Moon  obsessed  technician  involved in the production of geothermal power  in  the North  Island who  believed lunar craters  were  mainly  due  to  volcanic activity, not  meteorite bombardment .
 
To back up  his theory , he  planned    to divert  roaring  hot steam  coming  out of the ground  in  a  pipe  to  a  small  container with  a  glass viewing panel .  The steam was supposed to create  a venturi , a vacuum, which would cause  aluminium  powder , performing  the role of  magma,  to be sucked up a  narrow tube  and  fall  out  in  a circular, volcanic  eruption   pattern .

Only trouble  was , when he   threw the lever and released  the deafening   steam ,  the  chamber  instantly  became  totally  obscured  to   both  our  vision ...there was  a  massive  storm  on the Moon , you could say .  It  was  a  case of  having  to  go  back  to  the   launch   pad  .