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Just posted a blog for the Guardian website about the Isaac Newton Telescope.

CLICK HERE TO READ IT

And here's the video which inspired the blog.



And below are some pictures of the telescope from my recent visit to La Palma.

ORIGINAL SITE IN SUSSEX (Pic by David Brander)

NEW HOME ON LA PALMA

WHO LEFT THE LIGHT ON?

IN USE AT NIGHT

BRADY AND THE DOME

FULL MOON

ON THE RIDGE

HIGH ABOVE THE CLOUDS

FILMING TIMELAPSES (it was windy, needed the rocks!)

Received this picture and message from a long-time periodicvideos viewer.

"So for a while now I've been showing periodicvideos to my little sister, she's become a big fan of the Professor!

"Despite knowing this however, I still wasn't prepared for what she gave me for xmas.

"A periodic table mug and a tiny Professor!"

Professor Martyn Poliakoff has picked up a top award for his work on The Periodic Table Of Videos.



The Royal Society of Chemistry awarded him the Nyholm Prize for Education.

In our latest video, The Professor discusses how he missed out on meeting Ron Nyholm in rather tragic circumstances.



The silver medal is quite an impressive sight!

Next week Professor Poliakoff - who already has his medal, trophy, etc - will give a special lecture at the University of Nottingham as part of the whole prize-receiving tradition.

It's Australia Day.

Here are some videos - covering chemistry and astronomy - from our recent roadtrip Down Under.

Over the next year or so I hope to upload videos about all 110 Messier Objects.

This is astronomy's most famous collection of galaxies, star clusters, nebulae and other objects (and a few non-objects). 

Of course I have previously seen pictures of many of them (The Crab Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy, etc)

And, without knowing it, I have probably seen some of them with my naked eye as small smudges in the night sky.

But this video about M15 documents the first time I knowingly saw a Messier object through a telescope.

After my special moment, amateur astronomer Roy Gretton attached his camera to the telescope and also captured an image for posterity (right).

So there you have it... M15 was my first Messier object.

They say you never forget your first.

<iframe width="400" height="233" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/S-vLAg3bNDk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>iframe>

Solar flares, CMEs and aurora are back in the news.

Well the Backstage Science project has plenty of great stuff about them - fill your boots!









Backstage Science is a series of films I did behind-the-scenes with the Science Technology and Facilities Council last year.

The chap in these videos is solar scientist Chris Davis.

Hundreds and hundreds of comments are posted every day on our YouTube videos.

I try to read most of them, especially on newer videos.

And I try to reply to a dozen or so each day, just so people know I'm reading them.

But today there was a comment on a video that really made me smile!

It was posted on the latest Sixty Symbols video about 3D glasses.

The comment said:

"Ironically I'm watching this video when I should be revising for my physics exam tomorrow. Even more ironically, I'm revising for my physics exam so that I can go to Nottingham University to study physics xD So if I don't get in to Nottingham university, I'm blaming Nottingham university :L"

I shared this one with the whole Sixty Symbols team because I thought it would amuse them!