Fifty Years On...

Fifty years ago today, I was told to go to bed.

I wasn't allowed to stay up and watch the Apollo 11 Moon Landing on TV.  I was quite annoyed about that.

Later, I remember going to see the tiny piece of moon rock in the the Geological Museum in South Kensington.  And later still, I joined the Astronomical Society of Haringey and met Arthur C. Clarke.

But, given that first landing 50 years ago, I needed a visit to South Kensington.

When you enter what is now a side entrance to the Natural History Museum, you are encouraged upwards.

But if you look around on the ground floor, you come across this:

This isn't the same sample as the one shown briefly in 1969, nor the later display in the 70s.  But it's still moon rock.

Then next door to the Science Museum...

The LEM is actually a copy of the original, made slightly smaller so that it can fit into the gallery.

But just along the way, in the 'Icons' exhibition, is the real thing.  Charlie Brown:

I asked one of the staff if it seemed likely that Snoopy had really been found.  She hedged her bets, and said that if it had, we wouldn't be going out to recapture it any time soon!

The Science Museum also, now, has its own sample of moon rock:

As an aside, the Apollo 10 capsule is surrounded by other numinous objects of space and technology interest.  Like these:

 The Flying Bedstead, that lead to the VTOL aircraft.

 Puffing Billy - the World's oldest surviving steam locomotive.

A V2 missile, as launched by Germany during WWII.

Anyway, having sated on things Apollo, I spent time exploring the museum further, as I hadn't been there for many years.  Foucault's Pendulum has been revamped, the Information Age gallery is new, and the Mathematics display have been completely refurbished.

And that is where a couple of other iconic objects can be found:

But there were other things of great interest, like the Bill Phillips model of the economy:

And the pioneering statistical work by Harriet Martineau and Florence Nightingale:

The space displays have also been updated in many parts, from a mockup of the Huygens lander:

To a huge replica of Bepicolombo:

But, in and amongst all this new material and the many refurbished displays (and I haven't yet mentioned the changes to the Energy gallery where the huge Watt and Newcomen engines are displayed, nor the special exhibition on driverless cars... They will have to be the subject of other posts. And I didn't go to the much hyped Apollo 11 film they are showing), it was good to find some things remained untouched, as I remembered them.

For example, a model credited to Mat Irvine:

And upstairs, in a corner, this: