Since the past 5 years already (!) we can’t let a summer go by without meeting up somewhere in London. By ‘we’ I evidently mean the group of friends I got to know through Galaxy Zoo. Usually, we crash the Royal Astronomical Society picnic around this time, but the Olympics got in the way of that this year. No worries though, we have fun no matter where we end up and this is a short page of my diary about the day, if you will.
First we had decided to go and check out the newly opened (since the 28th of June this year) Emirates Air Line, also known as the Thames cable car. According to Wikipedia, it’s a “one-kilometre gondola line that crosses the River Thames from the Greenwich Peninsula to the Royal Docks.” Which is exactly what we did. Not to get from A to B, but to try it like tourists. You can just use your Oyster card for it and it’s a nice ride, with a great view.
Todd took this first picture, as we were ‘flying’ over the River. Geoff took the other two. One with the Millennium Dome of the O2 Arena in it, the other with Annie, me and Todd in one of the gondolas.
Next we couldn’t stay away from The Union again, where Annie built a tower of, well, things. (Even though we had ditched the idea of ‘making a tradition of trying to get thrown out of pubs for innocent reasons’ years ago). We had some good discussions, even non-astronomy related ones and Alice and I shared an ice-cream dessert (also with Todd as he was in the lucky position of sitting right in between us two).
One of the highlights of this meet for me (besides the ice-cream of course) was finally meeting Nick Howes, a.k.a. Nick Astronomer. We’ve been in touch through the ‘interwebs’ for quite a while now and we’ve physically attended the same events (Astrofest, for instance), just never on the same date or time. And this wasn’t even planned! I just mentioned on twitter that I was in London and he replied saying he was around too. As these things seem to go, he brought along two friends and we had a great party.
The picture of Annie being pleased with her art was taken by me. Todd captured our dessert. And Mark took the picture of the party, with (from left to right) Graham, Alice, Jane (and Alex behind her), Annie, Todd and Geoff. Last but not least, there’s finally proof of Nick and I being in the same room! Thanks to Alice for taking it. Oh and Nick, Teo Torriatte really is from the A Day At The Races album!
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Oh and forgot to say; kids, don’t try that ‘tower thing’ at home. Or indeed, in a pub.
Many astronomical discoveries are serendipitous and this was a day filled with serendipity! You couldn’t hope to meet a nicer bunch of people.