Neptune All Night
| Neptune All Night | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Science |
| No. of episodes | 1 |
| Production | |
| Producer | WHYY-TV |
| Production locations | Wilmington, Delaware and Pasadena, California |
| Running time | 540 |
| Original release | |
| Release | August 25, 1989 |
Neptune All Night was a 9-hour TV program providing live coverage of the Voyager 2 space probe's flyby of the planet Neptune. The show, produced by the Philadelphia-area PBS affiliate WHYY-TV, was broadcast between midnight and 9:00 AM EDT on August 25, 1989, as Voyager 2 passed within 4,950 kilometres (3,080 mi) of the planet Neptune and within 40,000 kilometres (25,000 mi) of Neptune's largest moon, Triton.[1] Aired by nearly 100 PBS stations,[2] the program was occasionally referred to as "Voyager All Night".[3][4] David Othmer, the show's executive producer, favored "Beyond Uranus" as a working title, but was "voted down".[5]
Program description
[edit]The show provided live coverage of black-and-white images transmitted from the spacecraft interspersed with color images which had been digitally composited from data previously transmitted by Voyager.[1] Due to Voyager's 4.3 billion km (2.7 billion mi) distance from the Earth, the images were subject to a four hour and six minute delay, with the signal relayed through tracking stations in Australia, Spain, and the Mojave Desert in California.[6] The program's format included 20-minute segments with NASA and JPL scientists commenting on the most recent images alternating with 40 minutes of other material originating from the WHYY studio: a panel discussion with experts; commentary from science-fiction authors and well-known figures; analysis of Voyager's earlier encounters with Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus; and "a frivolous look at space travel in movies and science-fiction literature".[6][7] Viewers could call in with questions on a toll-free line, 1-800-FLY-OVER.[8]
Panelists included Jack Horkheimer, Judith Moffett, and Jesco von Puttkamer with Sedge Thomson hosting the show.[2] Other well-known people scheduled to appear included Ira Flatow, who would be conducting interviews from JPL; science writer Timothy Ferris; astronomer Carl Sagan; science fiction author Ray Bradbury; astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered the planet Pluto in 1930; and Apollo 9 crew member Rusty Schweickart.[9]
Funding for the show included a $35,000 (equivalent to $86,000 in 2023) grant from the Public Broadcasting Service.[2] In 1989, real-time dissemination of scientific data was a rarity; the live program was designed to address this, in conjunction with daily press conferences the Voyager team gave around the time of the flyby.[3] In a 2019 interview, Voyager project scientist Ed Stone said:[3]
One of the things that made the Voyager planetary encounters different from missions today is that there was no internet that would have allowed the whole team and the whole world to see the pictures at the same time ... The images were available in real time at a limited number of locations.
Reaction
[edit]Although commercial broadcasters, along with CNN on cable, had provided major reports in the week leading up to the flyby, Broadcasting described the noncommercial WHYY program as "the most dramatic coverage".[1] C-SPAN also provided coverage.[6] Kenneth R. Clark of the Chicago Tribune noted the coverage from commercial broadcasters, but said that "PBS's continuous coverage is by far the most ambitious".[8] Astronomer Christian Ready wrote in his blog that his attention that night was distracted from his observational work on Villanova University's 15-inch telescope by a TV set he had brought into the observatory to watch "image after raw, grainy image appear on the screen revealing an alien world as seen by the spacecraft".[10]
David Paquet, who worked for a PBS affiliate in Vermont, wrote in the White River Junction Herald that the program was "a bit in the style of a telethon".[7] Paquet said that the Vermont PBS archives does not contain an intact copy of the complete program. He believes that no complete professional recording was ever made, although multiple partial recordings can be found on YouTube.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Out of this World" (PDF). Broadcasting. 117 (9). Washington, D.C.: Broadcasting Publications, Inc.: 32 August 28, 1989. ISSN 0007-2028 – via World Radio History.
- ^ a b c Flannery, Mary (August 24, 1989). "TV That's Out Of This World: WHYY Hopes Space Fans Nep-Tune In at Midnight". Philadelphia Daily News. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. pp. 37, 45. Retrieved December 15, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ a b c "30 Years Ago: Voyager 2's Historic Neptune Flyby". NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Retrieved 2024-12-15.
- ^ A.S.Ganesh (2024-08-24). "Flying by Saturn and Neptune, eight years apart". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
- ^ "'Neptune All Night' on PBS". The Rock Island Argus. 1989-08-20. p. 29. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
- ^ a b c Weinstein, Steve (August 24, 1989). "Neptune Can Be as Close as Your TV". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ a b c Paquet, Kevin (May 5, 2022). "Spring Cleaning, Perpetual Loss of Art". The Herald. White River Valley, Vermont.
- ^ a b Clark, Kenneth R. (August 22, 1989). "Neptune Gets its Own Overnight Show". Chicago Tribune.
- ^ "Neptune All Night Oakland Tribune". Oakland Tribune. 1989-08-24. p. 39. Retrieved 2024-12-15.
- ^ "Neptune, 25 Years Ago Tonight – Christian Ready". 2014-08-25. Retrieved 2024-12-15.