What a delight it was to be back with Leicester’s Astronomical Society this week launching the print edition of our latest title, Rosetta’s Midnight Barge. Under the bubble-wrapped dome of the National Space Centre’s Rocket Tower, Siobhan Logan blended poetry, performance and powerpoint lecture to celebrate ESA’s Rosetta mission (2004-16). Channelling her ‘inner Egyptian Goddess’, Logan recited spells from her ‘Book of Hours’ to protect ESA’s spacecraft on its adventure.
An enthusiastic audience were the ‘crew’, called upon to raise torches and fend off dragons as Ra’s midnight barge navigated the underworld of comet 67P. Together we defeated the wily attempts of Apophis to capsize our boat and learnt the comet’s long-buried secrets along the way. And after a close call Weighing of the Heart ritual, dodging the monstrous Devourer of Souls, the astronomers plied us with tea and biscuits.
Presented with a gift mug by the Astronomical Society’s president, Ann Bonell, Logan commented: ‘I feel like an honorary astronomer now.’
The whole event was a reprise of the performance Space Cat hosted for the British Science Festival in Sept. 2022.
But it was rather special to be experiencing it in the inspiring surroundings of the National Space Centre, with a room full of star-gazers.
And here is some lovely feedback we received from our audience:
‘What a fabulous evening! … It was brilliantly informative and I thoroughly enjoyed the words and images and performance – and waving my “torch”.’
‘…what a wonderful way to mix art and science.’
‘What a performance and so interesting too.
Space Cat Press 