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Open your eyes, look up to the skies and read
Maev Kennedy in London
October 25, 2006
Starmen Brian May, the Queen guitarist, with the astronomer Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, a cosmologist, at the launch of their book on the history of the universe.
Photo: AFP
BRIAN MAY, the guitarist in the British rock band Queen, wore a rock-god crimson velvet jacket, the astronomer Patrick Moore wore his monocle, and Chris Lintott, a cosmologist, wore a slightly sheepish smile, when the most unlikely trio in the history of publishing took a curtain call in Britain.
"Feels just like a record launch. Amazing," May said, although there was a glaring absence of champagne, and the groupies wore parkas.
Their book, Bang! The Complete History of the Universe, was launched on Monday. It is aimed at the slightly nerdy boys all three once were, and every age after that.
Unlike Stephen Hawking's much bought but little read A Brief History of Time, Bang! is meant to be read and understood. "If I can understand this," May said, "I think there's a good chance we can make anyone understand it."
At the launch Sir Patrick called May "the world's leading guitarist and a very good astrophysicist". In return May called him "the greatest man in the country". They both called Lintott, a researcher at Oxford University, "the young gun of astronomy". He blushed.
Sir Patrick has only ever held one full-time job - as the director of the Armagh observatory in Northern Ireland - since he left the RAF after World War II. He has since become a famous face on British television, hosting the astronomy program The Sky at Night, the longest-running TV science show in the world.
May abandoned his doctorate on interplanetary dust more than 30 years ago to spend more time with his college band. Although the band, Queen, has done rather well - world record sales are estimated at between 150 million and 300 million - he promised guiltily to finish the doctorate as soon as possible.
The Sky at Night was first broadcast in April 1957, when Moore was 33, May was seven, and Lintott was not even a glint in a telescope's lens. What the three men have in common - apart from the fact that Sir Patrick wrote a comic opera called Galileo, which Lintott produced - is that the program changed their lives.
"When I was seven years old I got my first guitar for my birthday, and for the first time I saw Sir Patrick on The Sky at Night, and the two passions stayed with me all my life," May recalled.
In 1957 the program went out long past young May's bedtime, but he was allowed to stay up late to watch with his whole family, because it was educational. He credits the theme tune, At the Castle Gate, composed by Sibelius and chosen by Sir Patrick, with sparking his interest in music, and he became so besotted with astronomy that he and his father built his first telescope from a kit.
May has been a friend and regular guest on the program since he and Moore met in a television studio a few years ago. But during their journey to Scotland in 2003, to film an annular lunar eclipse, Sir Patrick suggested they write a book.
What rock gods and astronomers have in common, their weary editor said on Monday, is that both are nocturnal animals. The authors said they had already begun discussing the next book. What could possibly follow the complete history of the universe from the big bang until the poor cold Earth falls into the blazing sun?
"We've got as far as the title," Sir Patrick said. "But we're not going to tell you," May added.
The Guardian
http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/open-your-eyes-look-up-to-the-skies-and-read/2006/10/24/1161455723278.html
Maev Kennedy in London
October 25, 2006
Starmen Brian May, the Queen guitarist, with the astronomer Patrick Moore and Chris Lintott, a cosmologist, at the launch of their book on the history of the universe.
Photo: AFP
BRIAN MAY, the guitarist in the British rock band Queen, wore a rock-god crimson velvet jacket, the astronomer Patrick Moore wore his monocle, and Chris Lintott, a cosmologist, wore a slightly sheepish smile, when the most unlikely trio in the history of publishing took a curtain call in Britain.
"Feels just like a record launch. Amazing," May said, although there was a glaring absence of champagne, and the groupies wore parkas.
Their book, Bang! The Complete History of the Universe, was launched on Monday. It is aimed at the slightly nerdy boys all three once were, and every age after that.
Unlike Stephen Hawking's much bought but little read A Brief History of Time, Bang! is meant to be read and understood. "If I can understand this," May said, "I think there's a good chance we can make anyone understand it."
At the launch Sir Patrick called May "the world's leading guitarist and a very good astrophysicist". In return May called him "the greatest man in the country". They both called Lintott, a researcher at Oxford University, "the young gun of astronomy". He blushed.
Sir Patrick has only ever held one full-time job - as the director of the Armagh observatory in Northern Ireland - since he left the RAF after World War II. He has since become a famous face on British television, hosting the astronomy program The Sky at Night, the longest-running TV science show in the world.
May abandoned his doctorate on interplanetary dust more than 30 years ago to spend more time with his college band. Although the band, Queen, has done rather well - world record sales are estimated at between 150 million and 300 million - he promised guiltily to finish the doctorate as soon as possible.
The Sky at Night was first broadcast in April 1957, when Moore was 33, May was seven, and Lintott was not even a glint in a telescope's lens. What the three men have in common - apart from the fact that Sir Patrick wrote a comic opera called Galileo, which Lintott produced - is that the program changed their lives.
"When I was seven years old I got my first guitar for my birthday, and for the first time I saw Sir Patrick on The Sky at Night, and the two passions stayed with me all my life," May recalled.
In 1957 the program went out long past young May's bedtime, but he was allowed to stay up late to watch with his whole family, because it was educational. He credits the theme tune, At the Castle Gate, composed by Sibelius and chosen by Sir Patrick, with sparking his interest in music, and he became so besotted with astronomy that he and his father built his first telescope from a kit.
May has been a friend and regular guest on the program since he and Moore met in a television studio a few years ago. But during their journey to Scotland in 2003, to film an annular lunar eclipse, Sir Patrick suggested they write a book.
What rock gods and astronomers have in common, their weary editor said on Monday, is that both are nocturnal animals. The authors said they had already begun discussing the next book. What could possibly follow the complete history of the universe from the big bang until the poor cold Earth falls into the blazing sun?
"We've got as far as the title," Sir Patrick said. "But we're not going to tell you," May added.
The Guardian
http://www.smh.com.au/news/books/open-your-eyes-look-up-to-the-skies-and-read/2006/10/24/1161455723278.html
