Coming in after Carnival-celebrations at work on the Friday, meant I was in time for ice-cream-in-beer-glasses for dessert, but as usual I didn’t visit the Kensington Conference and Events Centre before the second day of this year’s AstroFest. Geoff and I had taken an early-ish train from Greenwich and Todd had joined us along the way. As we were one of the firsts, we found ourselves accidentally starting the queue to get in for the lectures.
Nick Risinger opened the morning session, showing us some stunning views which he’d cleverly stitched together, to get the result as shown on SkySurvey.org. Afterwards we were introduced and took a few pictures together. Also talking in this slot was the lovely Lucy Hawking, who spoke about her father, Stephen. And lasts up before the lunch break were ‘Cox and Ince’. I briefly said hi to Brian later and shook hands with Robin when we both recognised each other as twitter pals. I had only found out recently, but you’re missing out if you’ve never heard them on their Infinite Monkey Cage!
My favourite part of this year was the tribute to Patrick though. It would have been infinitely better if he’d just been there too, signing copies of his latest book – The Cosmic Tourist – with Brian May and Chris Lintott, of course. But instead he was with us in spirit. On stage, from left to right, it was friends and colleagues Robin Rees, Brian May, Allan Chapman, Iain Nicolson, Jane Fletcher, Chris Lintott and Jon Culshaw who shared memories of the great man. Afterwards they raised their glasses on stage, which we’d repeat in the pub later. For Patrick, for cats, the universe, and how wonderful it all is.
Jane had shared the good news here first, that the Sky at Night will continue on the BBC, just as Patrick would’ve wanted. Then Jon left me teary-eyed with his very moving poem, but I think we all had this smile on our faces too. This was the last official AstroFest part, after which there was this observatory cake, shared with some of the audience. I met up with a few more friends after the shows and the signings, before we headed to the traditional pub. It was nice knowing I had the week off after this weekend, so it wasn’t all over so suddenly…
