4:40pm sitting in TQ staff room. I am waiting to go to the training session for Moonlandings Fact or Fiction. Being run for the first time tonight by Louise Ecclestone. Peter leant me his keys so I'm sitting in the room with 2 helpers, both in casual get up, both look very young, maybe 18-19.
Heather Frost turns up and says hello.
There's a catalogue of children's books and one of the helpers starts to read it and then poke fun at it. I don't know whether it is there for professional reasons or just happens to be around.
Dead on time we move next door to the conference room. Present: Heather Frost, Louise Ecclestone, a man in casual clothing whom I've seen before but don't know the name of (I'll call him Greg [Steve Perufo actually]), Tina Crimp, Peter, the 2 helpers from staff room.
One of the staff room helpers is called Sam, Louise mentions that he's an astrophysicist. Much joking around. "Greg" apparently has a telescope and is teased. He asks Sam if he has one, Sam responds "To be honest, I've never looked through one."
More people are ariving. A middle aged woman, Charles and Derek (helpers), some more helpers I don't know. We're up to 12.
There's a lot of banter going on. Conversation moves onto something that Greg is doodling and then to a person called Adam who has a shed and, it seems, likes to make lists.
Tina mentions bringing in cookies (I recognise an American accent). She gets teased by Louise and then others who call them biscuits. She responds that "I'm pregnant so I'll call them what I want." Then looks at me and says "Don't write that down." Much laughter, I ask "how do I write down that I am not allowed to write it down."
There is a lot of joking around Tina's "condition" and then one person makes a comment about "team building". Tina says "we all like each other around here." Peter says "no we don't."
There's an edge to Peter and I get the feeling that many of the others are not that comfortable around him. I start to wonder if he has been here a long time and had only minimal promotions. Although the banter is good natured there is a slight edge to it of the type you get when the "boss" is not around. Although Heather is head of public programmes I don't see any great deference to her (or Louise or Greg).
By the time the meeting starts proper there are 9 helpers, Tina, Louise, Heather and Greg. I'm not sure if Tina is a helper.
The meeting starts with feedback from the previous planetarium shows. It gradually becomes more serious. It is clear that there are several dominant personalities among the helpers (Charles and Derek - a sort of double-act - Jean and the middle-aged woman [she may be called Louise]). As I type this I wonder about the helpers who are not here. I saw the Muslim woman hoovering when I came in but there is no sign of her now.
I am suprised by this feedback. They discuss "Paw Prints" first. A puppet show for nursery children. The helpers like the lack of pre-recorded narration. Discuss the children's tendancies to come up with their own names for the constellations. The conversation is starting to get more animated.
Tina is chairing the meeting it seems and runs over the feedback areas one by one.
There is a long talk about a puppet called "Izzy". The helpers say that it is difficult to use the puppet and work the planetarium. Charles mentions that he often left Izzy out for "City Stargazing" and used him as a prop there.
One person mentions that "someone abused Izzy" (someone clearly being meaningful) and then someone else mentions that "Bruce is sitting in the corner recording everything." More laughter but they do rein things in a little and mention that someone got into trouble. This branches back onto a tangent about stealing Izzy.
There is a general consensus that the show had minor problems with pacing but was fun.
Tina brings up "City Stargazing." Everyone goes quiet. Intro music is described as "too long" and "cheesey." This leads into a critique of the video for Mars and Venus. Apparently the video and slides are intercut making it hard to operate and confusing to watch.
Greg spends some time justifying and explaining the issues. Difficult to get footage and slides of Mars as seen by the naked eye are far from exciting. He then says that they could use Hubble footage but that would be "disingenuous" because if you say "this is how you would see Mars" and then show a Hubble photo that people will be disappointed when they try for themselves.
Many more critiques all along the same line of the show being visually unappealling. It is about light pollution which means it's a show about not seeing very much. There are clearly presentional problems. Greg is not defending per se but trying to explain why it couldn't have been much better. Lack of footage limits what they can do. Louise says that they'll have to bear that in mind when developing shows.
Charles asks why they couldn't get footage from BBC or Channel 4. Louise and Greg combine forces to shoot this down and they seem annoyed that he brought it up. Charles returns to this several times until Louise says that they have tried but failed. Derek mentions a satellite channel "like Einstein TV" and Heather seems taken by the idea. They think that maybe an acknowledgement will be sufficient to get them to give out footage.
Tina asks for good points. Not much forthcoming. Very basic. One person says it's good for newcomers to TQ. Middle-aged woman (MAW) notes that she thinks it's useful for summer because she has many more 1st timers in summer. Rest of helpers agree with her observation. It seems that most helpers ask questions of visitors as they queue for a show to get an idea of them.
All in all the helpers don't like this show.
One Tina asks about length, several helpers mention a long talking bit which seems boring. MAW, who doesn't generally stick to the point, says that she likes to show the "summer triangle". Greg mentions that he doesn't like to just end with the lights down as a finale but to "give them more." Turns out that many helpers do the same.
Charles makes the point that if he only does "complete black" for 3 minutes that he feels as though he is ripping off the public. Says the come to see the stars, not light pollution. This is generallyagreed with and a discussion ensues about spending longer with the lights fullyoff to show the sky and then bringing them back to show light pollution.
Greg notes that they aren't really showing light pollution (which would be green) and that, anyway, you can see a lot from Cardiff centre as long as you get your eyes dark-adapted. He hints that what you need is a simulation not a copy.
The helpers seem to agree that it ends suddenly and is far too "cheesey" in general. They don't like it.
Greg says "of all the shows this is the one that" he then pauses, starts a couple of times and then says "that I like least." There is clearly a strict culture of not being negative. Even the helpers stick to humour rather than outright negativity and it was noteworthy that they were reluctant to venture an opinion at first.
5:29 To the planetarium for Louise's new show. It is an exploration of conspiracy theories about the moonlandings. I couldn't take many notes as it was dark. Louise starts to explain the premise says that it is basically "this is the scientific explantion for why" she then gets a bit stumped, mentions people who don't believe the moonlandings occurred and says "Éare talking a lot of crap." She then notes that that's note in the notes.
Derek Been turns up to watch.
Before it gets dark, the last thing Louise says "I hope it's not too cheesey." The show opens with an iconic man on the moon photo from NASA and some X-Files style music. Leads to laughter and accusations of "cheese". She says that the didn't write the music.
Throughout the show and discussion afterwards Derek and Derek Brown both semi-jokingly take the role of conspiracy theorists. Louise talks about some of the theories around and their scientific answer. She admits at one point that she cribbed the answers from badastronomy.com (the site with science in Hollywood) and isn't too confident. She is thrown by someone commenting the horizon on the moon is only about 7 miles away. (At this point I am having intense difficulty in not getting involved in the discussion).
Derek, semi-jokingly, mentions that the presention was so strongly in favour that the moonlandings were real that the ending "fact or fiction, you decide" makes no sense. Louise comments that the conspiracy theories are so easy to shoot down that you can do nothing else. She also says at some point that she gets very annoyed by the conspiracy theorists.
At one point Derek Brown says something sotto voce about the face on Mars that Louise hits him with her presenter's notes.
She concludes by saying "we're a science centre, we're just trying to show the science behind the debate."
I'm detecting some tiredness but Greg gets up and spends a long time discussing summer constellations and the positions of planets plus the summer triangle (Deneb, Altair and Vega). This is clearly Greg's passion. He's having a great time. Derek asks him if Deneb is cicumpolar and he doesn't know so he gets out the star maps and spends a lot of time rummaging.
Many constellations are shown and advice given about how to find them and what is worth poinitng out. His emphasis is on stars that are fairly high in the sky around 10pm so that they will be visible. An overarching emphasis here on only talking about things people will actually see.
After the training is over I'm waiting by the front desk to leave. Heather says to me "you do realise that that was only training for that show." I say yes but must look a little puzzled. Heather continues to clarify that they have "proper training" for being a helper in a general. It seems, again, that they're worried about me evaluating. It has been an evening of evaluation in general so maybe she simply has that on her mind.