Earth Moon

Today was the first day of a new term, six weeks now until Easter, and it was the first session proper delivered to the secondary school in our rotation. The last time I was there was a taster session delivered to a great bunch of kids with a bundle of attitude. I love these kids. Today's session was delivered to their GCSE class with a couple of 'stepper-uppers', i.e. talented students from lower years. The subject was the Earth - Moon system, and I managed to export a great deal of knowledge in 45 minutes. We covered libration:



Libration is a 'wobble' observed in the Moon's orbital motion as it faces Earth. The GIF above demonstrates this by showing the motion greatly accelerated. 50% of the surface of the Moon is visible from Earth at any one time, but thanks to libration it is possible to see 59% of the Moon's surface can be observed.

We also talked about eclipses, total, partial and annular. We covered the landings, including a thorough debunking of the Moon Landing conspiracies, each with accompanying explanations of why they are so preposterous, and this is a very useful tool actually, an easy way to cover a diverse knowledge base very quickly. After that we had a general chat about the Apollo missions, Apollo 13 and various interesting elements of the missions like the Lunar Rover, the geography and topography of the Moon and a little about the formation.

It was a Monday morning lesson, sleeps heads in some ways, but nonetheless a great lesson and the shock and awe in the face of how cool astronomy is was absolutely clear.

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Binary Opposites, Black and White, Yin and Yang

Today we struck up a conversation with the excellent Mr Eclipse. I am sure I do not need to tell anyone what a man with such a name is renowned for. His website is one of the best amateur sites out there devoted to astronomy, and even more specifically eclipse chasing. One of the modules on the six week course we are doing in schools is devoted to the Earth - Moon system and therefore it goes without saying that eclipses are a large part of that presentation.

I have to confess that I love Erica's methodology. I happened to mention this guy (real name Fred Espenak) in passing whilst I was showing her an Annular Solar Eclipse and she instantly said

You like him? Let's talk to him!

This is what Erica does so well, essentially everything I don't! I assemble data and prepare and produce seminars and clubs based upon what guys like Espenak do. It never occurs to me to talk to these people. To be quite honest, if I did I would be so bombastic and aggressive that I would likely scare or offend them anyway. I am good with high impact, shock and awe. Not so much with chat and show. When we founded Beauty in the Universe we were kindly assisted by an academic at UCLAN who put us in touch with the right person at UCLAN, with whom we now share a fruitful relationship. This particular academic was kind enough to attend our introductory meeting with UCLAN astrophysics and afterward he quietly intimated to me that hooking up with Erica was likely to be the shrewdest move I will ever make. I have no hesitation in agreeing wholeheartedly with his comments. Her talents for fundraising, speaking business lingo and, quite literally, collecting people, know no bounds. Whatever I have brought to Beauty in terms of vision, energy, passion and knowledge she has more than matched with business prowess, financial acumen, people skills (something I am entirely devoid of) and compassion. Her Yin is every bit the equal to my Yang.

As a result my pipe dream of using the substantial talents and materials brought to bear upon astronomy by Mr Eclipse for educational purposes is now a distinct possibility, and that is all because of Erica's mastery of the art of talking to people. That is why she is Director of Implementation. A dream that never takes form is a tragedy. Erica turns intentions in to events, talk in to action, potential energy in to kinetic accomplishments.

For as much as the students we see learn from me in the sessions we deliver I learn just as much about how to do this thing called business. Naturally, in true Adam style I cannot say it in person, I am too busy being me, but the formidable presence a strong woman in business cannot and should not ever be underestimated. Of such relationships, careers, even lives are made of.

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