When I arrived yesterday it looked like the 254 email messages that had gone backwards and forwards to sort out the residency had been wasted. It's tricky to know whether it's a language problem or a question of different cultures. There are major problems with my wish list.
However I finally got out to the Observatory, through the security gates and into the land of universal wonder. The Director was called out of the International conference of the European Very Long Baseline Interferometry(VBLI) Network Technical Group to see me. I felt like a Very Important Person (VIP). I imagine it's the kind of meeting where it's good to take a break.
The Father of Astronomy – who is 82 and very dapper – then came out of the meeting and showed me the control room. I think he thought I understood everything he told me. But I couldn't get Pink Floyd out of my head when he was telling me about working with NASA on putting a radio telescope on the dark side of the moon. The dark side is a paradise for radio astronomers – the only place you can really get a bit of peace and quiet for a change. I nodded sympathetically.
I'm thinking of inviting him to my star party on the roof of the contemporary art gallery in Torun on Wednesday night. I don't want to be selling coal to Newcastle but I'm not sure the locals realise just how good they are at this astronomy business. Sometimes you can't see for looking and someone from outside can notice things you haven't really thought about before, in that way. Certainly the conversation astronomers might have with an artist will be different to the ones they have with other astronomers.
I'm going back to the Observatory on Monday. We've got a lot to talk about. The meteor shower starts tomorrow.
