Brian Cox (the Solar System bloke)

(as opposed to Brian Cox, the original Hannibal Lecter bloke)

Despite my love of the night sky I have to say my approach to these sort of programmes in the past has been taken from the late great Dudley Sutton in The Beiderbecke Affair: "There's a particularly good documentary on Channel 4 I intend to sleep through."

But this time I've learnt all sorts of fun stuff:
- Venus's day lasts longer than its year.
- Neptune hasn't completed one orbit since it was discovered
- the Aurora Borealis is our view of the magnetic poles deflecting the sun's breath.
Just for starters.

Most importantly though, on the last show, he demonstrated how to launch a Chinese lantern so that you (a) don't burn yourself and those around you, and (b) don't launch it 20 feet straight into a tree....

Life skills folks, life skills.


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