Interactive - Night
Fantastic
To accompany Light Fantastic the interactive service will offer a
real-time guide to the oldest source of light in the universe - the
stars.
It will run on the iTV stream immediately after each episode and continue
during the nights between programmes.
Everything described in the service will be visible in the sky that
night.
Having viewed the iTV loop users will be able to go straight outside
(weather and light permitting) to put their new found knowledge into
practice.
Using the Starry Night graphical universe - specially adapted for TV
use - users can navigate through the night sky, highlight individual
stars and constellations and speed up and slow down time to show how
the heavens change over time.
Programme one: Let There Be Light
In this opening instalment the star guide shows users how to orientate
themselves in the night sky and identify some of the more obvious constellations
and stars.
Mirroring the theme of the first programme it will explore how understanding
of the night sky was for centuries an almost paradoxical combination
of scientific observation and mythology.
Other notable stars in the constellations are also identified - Sirius,
the brightest star in the sky; bright red Aldebaran; the Orion Nebula
(best seen through binoculars); and the Pleiades.
Programme two: The Light Of Reason
This episode of the star guide shows how to spot the planets, and reveals
how by following their movements and the times at which they appear
it is possible to learn about the shape of the solar system and our
place within it.
Viewers can also see how the planets follow the same path across the
sky - demonstrating the planar nature of the solar system.
For those with a pair of binoculars a demonstration will reveal how
to spot the moons of Jupiter late at night - as Galileo did 500 years
ago.
Programme three: The Stuff Of Light
This instalment of the star guide will explore the source of light
of the different objects in the sky, revealing how to tell the difference
between those that produce their own light - stars - and those that
reflect light - planets.
Viewers will also find how to spot man-made objects in the sky such
as satellites and the International Space Station (ISS).
Images from the ISS will show how much electric light is produced on
Earth revealing how light pollution can effect what you are able to
see at night.
Programme four: Light Fantastic
This final instalment of the star guide shows how the shape and size
of stars reveal pertinent information about the shape and size of the
universe.
Users are taught how to track the movement of stars across the sky,
and see how accurately they can measure their progress.
The brightness of stars informs us about their relative size. The more
red they are the greater distance they are from Earth.
Also investigated is how the light from the stars is bent by the pull
of gravity as it crosses the vast distances of space.
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