6/12/09 ... A film
crew for the History Channel program,
"The Universe," came up to Santa Cruz to
interview me for an episode that will appear next
fall. It turned out to be quite an adventure,
because it was extremely windy! The wind blew their
reflector (a piece of white foam that is supposed to
reflect light onto my face, softening the shadows)
right into the nearby estuary. (We were filming at
Natural Bridges State Beach.) Fortunately, they
had a backup, and my wife, Kay (who had come along
to watch the interview) was recruited to hold onto
it. Here she is, showing what exactly a "grip" does!
Meanwhile, I'm pontificating about something or
other.
Also, I had prepared a
demonstration of axial precession, using a
gyroscope. We recorded two takes successfully, but
on the third take I accidentally let go of the
string. When I looked down, the string was nowhere
to be found ... the wind had already blown it away!
So much for the gyroscope demo. (No great loss... If
you REALLY want to see a cool gyroscope, take a look
here.)
We also had to interrupt
filming a couple of times to let people walk by. And
then there was the park ranger who said that the
film crew had to move their vehicles because they
hadn't gotten a permit. Actually, the film crew
had gotten permission to film anywhere they
wanted in the park -- but no one ever mentioned to
them that they couldn't park anywhere they
wanted.
In spite of all the
mishaps, it was fun, and I am looking forward to
seeing what comes out of the interview. Of course, I
fully realize that they will probably only show a
few seconds on TV, out of a three-hour interview ...
I just hope they pick some good clips.
11/15/08 ... I
presented "Moon and a Mocha III" at the
Capitola
Book Cafe. Once again the
Santa
Cruz Astronomy Club provided telescopes. Some
clueless customer at the drug store next door saw
one of the telescope stands with a wire coming out
of it, thought it was a bomb, and called the police
department! By the time the police arrived, the
telescope was set up, and Bill Seiler, whose scope
it was, invited the policeman to look through it to
confirm that it was not a bomb. Also, I invited Tony
Colaprete of NASA Ames Space Center, the Principal
Investigator behind the
LCROSS moon mission, to talk about his work on
NASA's first mission to the Moon in more than a
decade.
2/20/08 ... The
Capitola
Book Cafe hosted my second "Moon and a Mocha"
event on the night of the lunar eclipse. (Last total
lunar eclipse until 2010!) I told some of the lore
and science of eclipses, while in the sky behind me
the Earth's shadow blocked out the Moon. Even though
it was a cloudy night, the clouds were thin enough
that we could actually see the eclipse, even during
totality. Unfortunately, we could not see Saturn
because of the clouds. It would have been the only
chance this millennium to see Saturn and an eclipsed
Moon side by side.
1/7-10/08 ... I went
to the
Joint Mathematics Meetings in San Diego. One
highlight was an exceedingly cool animated film of
"Flatland," produced by Seth Caplan, directed by
Jeffrey Travis and Dano Johnson, and starring Martin
Sheen as Arthur Square. I have written an article
about this movie for
The Alcalde, the alumni magazine of the
University of Texas. (Caplan, Travis, and Johnson
all went to school there.) Also premiering at the
meetings were two films by director George Csicsery:
"Hard
Problems," a documentary about the U.S. team at
the 2006 International Math Olympiad, and
"Julia Robinson and Hilbert's Tenth Problem," a
documentary about the first woman president of the
American Mathematical Society.
11/26/07 ... The
Capitola Book Cafe hosted "Moon and a Mocha," a
community science event. I showed clips from the
episode of
"The Universe" that I appeared in, and talked
about some of the science that didn't get in the
show. As it turned out, the audience was much more
interested in hearing me talk about the Moon than
watching the DVD! After the talk was done, some
members of the
Santa
Cruz Astronomy Club set up telescopes and we
looked at the gibbous Moon and Mars, which was
extremely close to the Moon that night.
