Headforthe stars profile picture

Headforthe stars

I am here for Friends and Networking

About Me

My original roots are in the Vendee region of Western France but my adoptive roots took firmly on English soil in the English Midlands (38 years ago!!) I came over to Great Britain in the Seventies, travelled Europe for a while as backpackers today travel the world ( no cheap air travel then). Budgets were tight, plastic money non-existant, hair was long and trouser flares awesome.Youth and the spirit of adventure drove me. I loved the English and the Spoken Word so much that I married a permanent tutor, Christine, in a year of heatwave, drought and downpours (memories came flooding back litteraly in 2006 and global warming means we shall revisit this emotionally quite often!). We have loved to see our three children grow up and develop into lovely human beings because that is what we should all be in the end. We await with anticipation the birth of our first grandchild soon...

My Interests

My wonderful family (not so much an interest as a raison d'etre). Giving blood (should be every healthy body's duty). Astronomy and observing stars, comets, nebulae and galaxies with my own 10-inch telescope from my observatory. Practising astro-imaging with a variety of equipment and capturing the golden moments of 'heavens in action'. CURRENT MOON moon phases Growing things (professionally on the farm, in the garden and I don't do organic). Some artwork (drawing, painting). Building/making things, taking things apart and making them work again or else. Fighting light pollution (cut the waste and return to dark starlit nights). Going to live music concerts.

I'd like to meet:

Music lovers, eccentrics and regular normal folks. Fellow stargazers.ODDBALLS, READ ON***PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME FRIEND REQUESTS IF YOU HAVEN'T EVEN BOTHERED SENDING ME A MESSAGE FIRST, I WILL JUST DENY YOU!!!***THE PROBE 'CASSINI' ORBITING SATURN CROSSES THE PLANE OF THE RINGS (A faster run than what the Earth does every 15 years or so).. width="425" height="350" ....THE MOST IMPORTANT IMAGE EVER CAPTURED BY MANKIND and thanks to Starman for the linkFEELING THE BLUES COMING ON, GET HOOKED ON XANDER & THE SMOKE POCKETS MUSIC. HERE, PERFORMING 'BEAUTIFUL CONTRADICTION' (More on YOU TUBE)UNLESS YOU ARE A PLANETARY SCIENTIST WHO HAS DESIGNED ONE OF THESE LANDERS, YOU'LL FIND THIS QUITE FUNNY. IN FACT, IT HAS REALLY HAPPENED QUITE A FEW TIMES. May 26th 2008, the NASA probe Phoenix actually does the business and the science program begins. A New Horizon for Phoenix This flat horizon stretches across the red planet as seen by the Phoenix spacecraft after yesterday's landing on Mars. Touching down shortly after 7:30pm Eastern Time, Phoenix made the first successful soft landing on Mars, using rockets to control its final speed, since the Viking landers in 1976. Launched in August of 2007, Phoenix has now made the northernmost landing and is intended to explore the Martian arctic's potentially ice-rich soil. The lander has returned images and data initially indicating that it is in excellent shape after a nearly flawless descent. News updates will be available throughout the day.
Nuits De L' Astronomie Au Champ Du Feu Némésis 67
Uploaded by KiteGuy Is mine bigger/better than yours (telescope, of course), what can you image through yours? This could be an amateur astronomers meeting the world over preparing for a night under the stars and hopefully without any light pollution.
You scored as Anarcho-Capitalist. Anarcho-capitalism is perhaps more closely linked the libertarian tradition than anarchism as it favours a free market and a stateless society. Private businesses would replace the functions of the state. This form of anarchism is largely an American phenomenon and first emerged in the 1950s (although it arguably has its roots in 19th century individualist anarchism and classical liberalism). Key thinkers include Murray Rothbard.

Anarcho-Capitalist


80%

Anarcho-Communist


35%

Anarcho-Syndicalist


25%

Anarcho-Primitivist


15%

Christian Anarchist


15%

Anarcha-Feminist


10%
What kind of Anarchist are you?
created with QuizFarm.com ANOTHER OF THESE FUN QUIZ. IF YOU REALLY DON'T KNOW WHERE YOUR THINKING TENDENCIES LIE, HAVE A GO AND FIND OUT. PERSONALLY, SOME TRUTH BUT THERE'S MORE TO A PERSON THAN JUST A SIMPLE QUIZ CAN REVEAL.

Music:

Most types with a penchant for Country and Americana (several good venues nearby). Too many artists to mention from Norah Jones to John Lester, an exponent of low harmonies. Very much into bass stuff, always pick the bass line first and imagine my son playing it. Bluegrass and Mountain music is another big attraction (try Iris DeMent for breakfast). A bit of folk, Dougie Macclean, Karine Polwart, Nancy Griffith, Lucinda Williams, Nickel Creek, Kathryn Tickell and her Northumberland pipes. Otherwise Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lucie Silvas, George Michael, Avril Lavigne, Amy Wadge, Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez (superb), Cara Dillon, Tift Merritt, Kim Richey, Patty Loveless, Julie Roberts (yes, not JuliA), Brian Houston, Dixie Chicks, Nerina Pallot and loads more..... Lately, I explore the Quebec music scene and find gems there, like Catherine Durand, Karine Tessier, Karine Arsenault, a prodigy in Samantha Schultz and Laurence Helie (she is Heaven). Makeda is an up-&coming artist with a strong mind. I stumble upon Hana Pestle who is a very melodious artist with incredible musical arrangements.

Movies:

Anything that grabs my attention but I'm easily distracted. Hates disaster movies (Jaws). Loves adventure films (Indiana, Bond) and mild tear-jerking (Sleepless in Seattle). Zabriskie Point, Flight of the Navigator, the English Patient. Will watch anything that has been filmed on location at Chicheley Hall (Enigma: Kate Winslet, Fourth Protocol: Michael Caine) and try to pick out the locals acting as extras!! Usual space-science related films like Contact, Space Odyssey 2001.

Television:

Anything that advances my knowledge like University Challenge and intelligent programming. Sporting events with a meaning. 'Taken' on DVD (preferably the whole series in one go), Heroes. The Sky at Night (poor Patrick Moore is getting old!)

Books:

Uriel's Machine (much better than Da Vinci Code), From the Ashes of Angels,The Magi and Meteorites, Burhams Celestial Handbooks (here is a guy, Robert Burham, who devised and wrote 3 books all about the objects in the sky, never made a dollar from them and died a pauper some years back). Nemesis (about celestial catastrophism), The measure of all things by Ken Alder (Revolutionary France and battling astronomer-surveyers), biographies, lots of astronomical books. 'Persian Fire' by Tom Holland. 'Meteorite hunter' by Roy Gallant. 'Measuring the World' which follows the travels of von Humbolt and Gauss in the 18C. In the meantime, tucking into Fred Hoyle's Biography and various others I need to spend time with. Currently reading 'The Sun Kings' by Stuart Clark, charting the rise of astronomical and scientific reasoning to mundane topics like the price of wheat and solar activity (Now, isn't that topical in 2008, year of solar minimum?)

Heroes:

My forebears: I made it to our times because of their ingenuity and privations. Thanks for ever. Real heroes: anybody altruitisc and not obsessed with wealth.

My Blog

Excitement in the skies

Hi to all and everyone of you, Last week ranks high on having to run high on activities and excitement.  One of my hobbies is skywatching and Oh Boy!, isn't there a lot to watch out there cartwhe...
Posted by Headforthe stars on Sun, 18 Nov 2007 11:20:00 PST

Visit my daily space!

If you've got Google Earth installed, have a fly around coordinatesN 52 deg 06 min 16 secW  0 deg 41 min 01 sec(central England)This is my working, playing, living space.  I tend the fields ...
Posted by Headforthe stars on Mon, 23 Apr 2007 01:17:00 PST