Mooniversary

I’ve been loving all the coverage of the 50th anniversary of the first moon landing. I was born a couple of years after the event, so it’s always been something I’ve known about. But even with my interest in space I didn’t know all the ins and outs of how it was achieved. I’ve been making up for that by watching all the documentaries. I’ve watched Chasing the Moon, Stargazing Live, The Sky at Night, and, my favourite of a good bunch, 8 Days: To the Moon and Back which had original audio with actors recreating what happened. I’m also enjoying listening to the BBC podcast 13 Minutes to the Moon. All these programmes, with original footage, audio recordings, and news coverage from the time, made me feel as excited as if it was all happening right now! 

I created a playlist on my phone of all the space-themed songs I could find.

I treated myself to a mooniversary present, the book Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space. I’d bought it for one of my nephews for Christmas last year (I’d waited for some years after first seeing it, until he was old enough to fully appreciate it). I just love the retro style illustrations, which, very appropriately, seem to come right out of a science book of the 1960s. My favourite pages are those with the Apollo space suit and lunar module. With its stylish illustrations and interesting content, it’s definitely something that appeals to adults as much as children.

I re-read another book that's on my bookshelf, an amazing find from the Christian Aid book sale, which was released in 1964 in anticipation of the future moon missions, with amazing artists' impressions.  

By coincidence I’d also just ordered a silver and enamel pendant that looks like the earth and moon. In fact, it looks like a close-up moon with the earth in the distance, so very appropriate! This was actually my reward to myself for managing to run 10k without stopping, and it was only when I got it that I thought about how much it looks like the moon and earth.

I also ordered a couple of zines from Cutie and the Feast including one about animal astronauts, and a postcard pack that included one of female astronaut Mae Jemison.

Finally, I did a bit of moon related art as part of my 100 day project, with an illustration of an astronaut. I’d had this idea for a while and finally drew it after I was reminded of the idea by all the TV coverage.

Check out Marceline's post to find out how she celebrated the anniversary of the first moon landing - it was quite by chance that we both thought of writing about this same subject! I'll have to go and have another look at the plaques she mentions in Anstruther (not far down the road from me) as I haven't seen all of them yet!

Deep Thought card

I’ve had this card in mind for my brother ever since I turned 42 myself four years ago! For those who aren’t in the know, the number 42 is the “answer to life, the universe and everything” from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. My family watched the TV version when I was nine and my brother was five, and it’s become such an ingrained part of our family’s culture that we quote from it all the time.

For this card, I wanted to show the scene where the massive supercomputer Deep Thought announces the great answer after millions of years of calculation. And it’s not quite the answer anyone was expecting or hoping for! It’s one of my favourite scenes anyway, and very appropriate for my brother’s 42nd birthday.

I made the whole card out of green card, and simplified the shape of Deep Thought so that it formed the shape of the card. I also gave the computer a face. Then I added two figures, and speech bubbles. Each of the four sides of the card forms a panel in the story. I had fun positioning the heads of the figures to make it look like they were eager and then puzzled/shocked!

Adventures in Space

As a big fan of sci-fi (books, TV and films), this exhibition about science fiction and architecture was a must for me. 

I was a little disappointed about it in some ways, as there were only illustrations on the wall and no items associated with the books, films or TV shows the exhibition was about - I had hoped there would be display cases with old copies of books and comics, and some stills and props from films and TV shows, as well as some photos of the real-world architecture that they were being compared to. This seems to be a trend with exhibitions, as I felt something similar about the Nature of Art Nouveau exhibition last year. While it's nice to have some boards on the wall telling you about a subject, this is something that could be displayed in, for example, a shopping centre or park, and I expect a bit more from a gallery.

Having said that, it was great to be reminded of all my favourite sci-fi, and to see illustrations representing them all. And to see "Don't Panic" displayed in large friendly letters on the wall!

Space books

Along with geometric shapes and crystals, constellations are part of my theme for this month's posts. So I thought I would show off some of my books on the subject of space.

I got The Guinness Book of Astronomy around the time I was at university, and it was my astronomy bible in the days before I used the internet as my main source of information. When I got obsessed with the moons of Jupiter, this is where I found the list of them to memorise! Of course, years later I discovered there were lots more smaller moons, so I had lots more to learn (which really only comes in handy when watching the quiz show Pointless!).

The Ladybird books have gorgeous illustrations, and one of them was my first introduction to learning about the night sky. And the daytime sky too - we observed an eclipse using techniques from the book!

Oops - this one is not really mine!