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email: Part 2 of the
Interstellar Project, discussing Direct Contact with Other
Intelligence, was now fully under way. Meetings were held at
G.U. Union on 16th Feb. and 19th May, and we had a memorable
visit to Airdrie
Public Observatory
on March 15. June. The idea
now was that I would write Part 1 of "Man and the Stars", on
interstellar colonisation, and Chris
Boyce would
write Part 2 on Contact (eventually, he introduced it with a
guest chapter). Now came the astonishing moment. In
following up what seemed to be a routine lead supplied by
John Macvey five years before, suddenly it seemed that I had
stumbled on to the first message from another civilisation.
Prof. Ron Brace well of Stanford University had suggested
that a probe from another civilisation might have tried to
contact us in the 1920's, and its first message might be an
image of a constellation - and it appeared to be true. That
month's social meeting was for the Presidential Toast, at
the Admiral in Waterloo St., and it was one to remember. Two
amazing years later, I finally proved myself wrong, but
whether Bracewell was right is another matter - of which
more anon. July 1.
Hamilton Sports Day exhibition. Another amazing situation
had arisen, in which JPL had gone on supplying us with
Mariner 9 photos, and we had been displaying them in the
window of the Guthrie St. rooms in a probably vain attempt
to tell the public that every received idea about Mars was
being stood on its head. Throughout this time we kept
offering to supply photos and articles to the Scottish
newspapers, but were met with a blanket refusal on the
grounds that the public wasn't interested. At Hamilton Sports
Day we put on a display of the photos in a van and were
visited by at least 250 members of the 'not-interested'
public. It remains one of the briefest but most intensive
ASTRA exhibitions to date. July 19.
Monthly social meetings begin in Glasgow at the Admiral Bar,
Waterloo Street. Dec.24. After
acceptance by the British Interplanetary Society for
publication (referee A.T. Lawton) the space probe hypothesis
appeared as a front page exclusive in The Sunday Telegraph.
It was promptly taken up by the BBC, then knocked right out
of the news by the Nicaraguan earthquake. When the world's
press remembered, more than a week later, they got the story
all wrong and lasting chaos ensued. By this time we had
solidly established a tradition of going to the local pub
after the meetings to watch 'Dr. Who'. This happened in the
Silver Tassie, the Clachan and ultimately in Skelton's
('Tout est bon, chez Skelton'). At that time, when 10
o'clock closing was still mandatory, astronomy societies
would mid up their meetings at 10.05 to emphasise that
nobody was going for a drink. Upon their learning that our
meetings were held between closing time and opening time on
Saturday afternoons, obviously we were beyond the
pale. 1973
1971
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