CALLY'S FUNERAL

Keelings elevated to aristocracy – Grandpa nearly dies of exposure – Cally buried

As many of you know, Grandpas younger sister Cally died last Monday morning 13th December age 74 after a long illness almost certainly caused by her lifelong smoking. The funeral was yesterday in her home Lohr am Main, Germany.

Later in the Chapel

 It started in the catholic church in Lohr. Grandpa, Granny, Tom and I were there along with Nico, Christa, their two children Emma and Jacob and many other relatives and friends of theirs and Callys. The Keeling party were a bit mystified by the lack of a coffin in the church, but they do things differently here. It was a mass and the priest gave a sermon which also rather mysteriously began by talking about the composer Handel who was born in Germany and was buried in Westminster Abbey. It was a contrast with the man who left provincial Germany for cosmopolitan London and the woman, Cally, who did the reverse. He claimed that she was the daughter of the aristocrats Lord and Lady Keeling – a bit of an exaggeration. Sir and Lady Keeling – and we're not sure if that makes them aristocrats, but they were certainly posh. He went on to tell us about Callys great spirit, lack of diplomacy and sporting prowess – among other things she was an Olympic class horsewoman.

Emma and Jacob and two of their cousins also got up and said some words including how Cally had suffered her illness and frequent hospitalizations without complaint and how she kept her sense of humour.

Eventually the priest did his magic and we left the church. The village was sub-zero and clad in snow. Grandpa refused a lift to the cemetery and a coat proffered by Granny – 'he did not like it'. We proceeded at a very slow pace down icy paths. The cemetery has quite a large building in the middle, which is a sort chapel of rest, and there we found the coffin surrounded by flowers including an arrangement from Jocelyn Keeling and family (first pic).

Coffin exits

 Outside there was a large crowd of about 200 people. They waited while the close family filed past into the chapel of rest. We took it in turns to stand by the coffin, sprinkle it with water and pay our respects to Cally. Nico and his family were almost last and little Emma, who had been very chirpy up to then, was overcome with grief. She had to retire outside with Christa. The priest reappeared from a side door with his acolytes and intoned a few more words then the coffin was wheeled out, preceded by a flag bearer, round the back of the chapel to where the family grave is. Herbert was waiting there for his beloved Cally.

The family grave

 Most of us sprinkled earth on the coffin. Granny had a rosary, which I think that Cally had given to her Lady mother, and she threw that in as well. Grandpa by this time had swallowed his pride and donned the reviled coat. We had to hasten back to Nicos and Christas house which thankfully is only 100m away and warm the old chap up before he froze. We were then driven by the admirable Grigor to a hostelry in Sackenbach which is the village where Cally lived, right next door to Lohr. There we had a small wake and were able to become reacquainted with Werner, Gisela and Brigitta on the Seitz side, the very tall and on his third wife Freddy von Hutten (who confiscated my bow and arrow when I was small) and acquainted wth many of Christas relatives whose names I have already forgotten because I am so ignorant. Tom will supply.

May Cally rest in peace and may her descendants thrive - as they said when we left, "Next time, let's not meet for a funeral!

Grandpa wearing the reviled coat

Comments
Dear George, A very accurate and fair report. No wonder your daughter is a journalist. Thank you so much for being there and arranging our Paris hotel. It was just what we wanted. And we had an excellent lunch in the brasserie next door, which set us up for the last part of our journey arranged by Tom. Love Mum
Posted by: Mum | December 20, 2010 at 04:00 PM

Can anyone send the artilce about Cally' funeral to Mum as I know that she wold like to see it? thanks her email is: jocelynkeeling@mac.com
Posted by: NIck Crean | December 20, 2010 at 11:43 AM

George and Tom - well done! LoL Jim
Posted by: Jim | December 20, 2010 at 09:51 AM

Brilliant George. Practically feel I was there. Just spoken to Mum, she called from Paris, on their rather complicated return journey. Perhaps Dad can get himself a new jacket while he is there!
Posted by: Paul Keeling | December 19, 2010 at 10:45 AM

Thank you George that was very nicely done, Simon

Posted by: Simon | December 19, 2010 at 08:53 AM

OH MY GOD! DID YOU CREATE MATHEMATICS?

I'm not blaspheming here. This really is amazing. It's a lovely example of mathematics. I read about it today. I never knew it before:

PLAYING WITH PRIME NUMBERS^a
The prime numbers below 100 are:
2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59, 61, 67, 71, 73, 79, 83, 89, 97
I have highlighted some of them. I'll tell you why a bit further on. You might like to try and work it out. It would be hard to guess.

If you divide up the highlighted ones from the others you get two lists of numbers
Bold prime numbers: 2, 5, 13, 17, 29, 37, 41, 53, 61, 73, 89, 97
Shy prime numbers: 3, 7, 11, 19, 23, 31, 43, 47, 59, 67, 71, 79, 83

Do you notice anything about them? The book^b hinted: "Try subtracting each number in the list from it's neighbour". I still didn't get it. I tried subtracting numbers in the different rows. Duh!

THREE IS A VERY NAUGHTY NUMBER
When you subtract the numbers for the first row you get
Bold: 3, 8, 4, 12, 8, 4, 12, 8, 12, 16, 4
and for the second row you get
Shy: 4, 4, 8, 4, 8, 12, 4, 12, 8, 4, 8, 4

I'm sure you've spotted it now. Apart from the naughty 3 at the beginning of the first row, all the numbers are multiples of 4: 1x4, 2x4, 3x4 etc.
And that rule applies to every other number in the sequences that you care to try.
And mathematicians have proved that:
1) Both sequences (both bold and shy prime numbers) go on forever
2) The further you go the closer the ratio of bold to shy gets to 1:1
3) All the numbers (apart from that naughty 3) are multiples of 4. (In fact they are more precise than that)

IT'S ALL ABOUT SQUARES
Oh, I haven’t told you how the prime numbers were divided into bold and shy ones. Simple: Bold ones are sums of two squares^c
2=1²+1², 5 = 1²+2², 13=2²+3², 17=1²+4² ...
the others are not.

So why is it that there is a relationship between multiples of four, prime numbers and sums of squares of numbers?

AND HERE IS WHERE WE GET BACK TO GOD
That old God chappy was pretty devious when he was creating the laws of mathematics and he sneaked that one in.
Or did God create the laws of mathematics? Or were they always out there? Please, one of my religious brethren, ask your priest and let us know.

Foot notes:
Just in case you have forgotten / didn't know
a) Prime numbers are whole numbers that cannot be divided by other whole numbers other than 1 and themselves.
b) The book is "I am a Strange Loop" by Douglas Hofstadter. Lent to me by David.
c) A square, in this context, is one whole number multiplied by itself. E.g.
two squared is written 2²=2x2=4,
five squared is written 5²=5x5=25.
The sum of two squares is what you get when you add two squares together.

Comments

I continue to be fascinated by things I don't understandPosted by: Mum | November 23, 2010 at 05:44 PM

Interesting but is it entirely surprising?All primes are odd (apart from 3) therefore the difference between any two primes will be a multiple of two. So of course you can split them into two groups both of which have two between them. I will bet you £100 that you can split them into 4 groups where the difference is between the numbers in each group is 8. I'd also bet (£50) that because primes are as good as random then as the series approaches infinity then the number of numbers in each group tends to 1:1:1:1.So to the last bit. Why can 4x+1 be described as a sum of squares, is this always the case or is it just for all the 4x+1 numbers that are primes. And conversely why is all of this not true for 4x+3 numbers?Posted by: Trevor the Younger | November 23, 2010 at 03:19 PM

There was an old chappy from heaven,Who asked "What is 30x7?"If it isn't a prime,You can give me a dime, And we'll send in our 2nd 11.Posted by: Mum | November 20, 2010 at 10:31 PM

No commentPosted by: Mum | November 20, 2010 at 03:34 PM

Reading this at the end of a VERY long week and I have to admit I'm not up to it. There's life in there somewhere, but not as I know it!!I'll have to come back to this when less tired.Posted by: Paul | November 19, 2010 at 06:45 PM

Barbara Gibbs: socialite diary Britain 1900-1980

Barbar

Click here for for edition 3 of Barbar's diaries: Barbara Gibbs: socialite diary Britain 1900-1980.  And if you have the technology, you might even be able to get it on your smartphone and read it on the train. It's a pdf this time: there are no missing pages, it's all legible and you can search for mentions of your good self. Do forward this page to cousins and other interested relatives who might be interested!

"The Court dress followed rigid rules laid down by the Lord Chamberlain's office; 'long evening dresses with Court trains suspended from the shoulders, white veils with ostrich feathers will be worn on the head.....gloves must be worn. Veils to be no longer than forty five inches. Three small white feathers — the Prince of Wales Plume — must be worn slightly on the left side of the head.'"

"So to sum up this part of my story I am really sure, after all these years that except for the very gifted and unusual humanist, whom I have never met, life's full potential can only be lived against a background of spiritual faith."

"Nanny approves of it for the new baby 'Simon, called Henry' whose face she covers with a piece of muslin so that he looks like a holy relic being carried across the lawn."

"Un-put-downable - a fascinating personal account of upper class 20th century Britain" - The Snobserver

;-) George
Click the headline for credits and 4 comments

Keeling Family Narrative

For the last ten years or so I have accumulated notes on our family which have been the result of chatting with Mum and Dad about relatives who have slipped into the history books. The living family have also received a mention and one or two letters have also contributed to the story. Eventually I have typed out my notes and put them into some sort of order which has formed the basis of a family narrative. There are one or two family trees shown in the narrative but these are really only branches or twigs because I am not a good enough typist to compose big family trees on an A4 sheet of paper. At the same time as the narrative being available there is also my file on which there are more notes and manuscript family trees with further records of our family. I even have photos of the family tree which lives in Simon's old bedroom at Jacobs, to help with producing a potted history of the Finucanes' descent from a Spanish king (apparently). This is very much a work in progress and a never finished task because there will always be more information to add. Hopefully I will now attach my family narrative which runs to about twenty pages. Love Tom

Click here to read it
the_keeling_family_narrative_oct_2010.pdf
Comments
That made great reading on the train - wll done Tom
Posted by: Paul K | October 26, 2010 at 10:30 PM

What a work! Well done you! I have it safely printed, and clipped together, and Dad and I are looking forward to reading it, in our spare time of which we have masses! All love Mum
Posted by: Mum | October 26, 2010 at 12:46 PM


Tom, how amazing - printed and longing to read it. LoL Jim
Posted by: Jim | October 26, 2010 at 09:20 AM

Thursday 4th November (London, Bush Hall): That's this week!!!

Click on the image to enlarge

Amazing comedy rock band that Van is putting on this week in London (something between Spinal Tap and Jack Black's Tenacious D and Flight of the Concords - if you don't believe me check out the link on you tube (see below).  See them now, before they they go platinum and be able to tell your grandchildren you saw them up close and personal - your very own 'Cavern/Hamburg' moment.

 Keelings going to be there so far: Van, Paul, John, Tania, Fred, Jasper, Zak, Jack, Felix & Luke.

That's only 10 Keelings in the venue - SHRIEKS, we might be out numbered, can't we make it to nearer 30?? It would be great to see any of you there. It'll be massive!

To book tickets go to: https://www.hmvtickets.com/performances/5385/book

 or telephone 08432 210100

See a clip of their work on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I 

(and join 8 ½ million others!)

Who'da thought I'd ever be interested in finance....

I have a plea to the uncles and aunts out there who understand finance.

I want to learn how to understand financial accounts. This is because Money = Good Stories.

So I wondered if any of you financial-wizard adults fancy spending an hour talking me through what it is all about. I even have the accounts of some government suppliers that we could use as examples. I'm staring at them now, and feeling very stupid as a result.

Obviously I don't want something for nothing: I will cook/buy you dinner or do any sewing/patching etc that needs doing in return.

Let me know if you can help.

xxxxx
Comments
I could help you with the patches or cooking. Sorry no accounts Love Granny
Posted by: Mum | October 09, 2010 at 04:35 PM

Wish Simply Books could help but Simon and Jim are your men! Love David
Posted by: David | October 09, 2010 at 10:15 AM

Ruth come in and see me or Jim for a lunch one day, love Simon

Posted by: Simon | October 09, 2010 at 08:25 AM

KEELING / GIBBS FAMILY PHOTOS 1915-1965

Well I promised you more and here it is: Some very old photos from Mum's album. I'll be using some of them in the new edition of Barbar's diaries (to be released imminently).

We start with one from 1915-ish - dates are approximate - and end in 1965 with the arrival of Paul. Mum, do tell me if dates need correcting. Click the headline for more. x George.

1915: Arthur Gibbs. My Grandfather.

THE EVILS OF GOSSIP

You may have noticed that I seem to have settled in Berlin. If you have, you're right. I'm buying a flat here. I hope to move in December or January. It's at Regenburger Str 27 not far from the one I rent now. It's an 'Altbau' built around 1900, with lovely high ceilings, old fashioned double glazed windows etc etc. Not dissimilar to St Marys Mansions, but a bit smaller.

Another similarity is the gossip mill. I haven't even moved into the place or paid for it, although I have signed a contract. My future downstairs neighbours, a nice couple with a three year old boy, phoned me yesterday and asked to meet me. I visited them today. They were complaining about the noise I am going to make when I move in. I am not joking.

PS: I am still a Londoner: I have bought a one bedroom flat in Vauxhall (@Ruth: oops). I won't be there all that often so I am holiday letting it. If you know anybody who wants, do tell them. Relatives get a special rate: 10% extra because you love me so much. But don't worry, I won't charge you if you visit me in Berlin. (Errm @Ruth: if I did a pro bono for homeless people two weekends a year would that be OK?)

PPS Not many posts going up here. Expect more rubbish from me and good stuff from Granny soon.

Poppy's play

Check out the trailer for Poppy's play - on from May 24 - June 11 at Limehouse Town Hall
[video now unavailable]
Comments
Book 'em Danno
Posted by: Paul Keeling | May 02, 2010 at 10:55 PM

What a brilliant trailer! I bet the show lives up to it. Good for Poppy. All love Granny and Grandpa

Posted by: Mum | May 02, 2010 at 04:34 PM

Lola's Puppies

Lola's Puppies ...... 7 surviving.......5 girls and 2 boys

Comments
Aaaah!
Posted by: Paul Keeling | May 02, 2010 at 10:56 PM

Snow White's hands holding the 7 dwarfs, whose names I have forgotten. What a lovely May Day present on a cold and wet holiday week-end. All love and congrats from Mum and Dad.

Posted by: Mum | May 02, 2010 at 04:40 PM

Why didn't Jim spot this?

Was this the village Jim was in and was he secretly out boozing every night?
This was in the daily Mirror today and lit up the blogosphere:
Officials in Pecica, a Romanian village, have ordered ten new road signs to be erected on approaches to the small village of 13,000. They depict a drunk on his hands and knees reaching for a glass. What does it say? Well, it doesn't say "Pecica - twinned with Pristina" or "Welcome to our picturesque village" but "Attention - Drunks!". Enough said.

Oh yes, apparently it's Romania, not Roumania, nowadays!
Comments
No comment! All love Mum
Posted by: Mum | March 11, 2010 at 11:46 AM

Blast, the secret's out! LoL Jim
PS I think you can probably spell Romania any of three ways - Ru, Ro and Rou ...
Posted by: Jim | March 11, 2010 at 09:36 AM

The next Sir John Keeling?

I was flying back to Blighty last Thursday and I picked up a Guardian newspaper and read an article about SeeSaw who are about to deliver lots of TV over the internet. In the article the name John Keeling popped up. That's almost certainly my cousin John1. He is platform controller there. (Is that like somebody who works at a railway station?) Then I searched on the Guardian website and it found 57 results, mostly mentioning him. If you get important enough in the meejia they sometimes make you a knight....

A bit further on in the paper I came across this photo. To begin with I couldn't work out what it was.

Dolphins in pods of up to 400 have been spotted by Greg Huglin surfing 25ft (8m) waves and leaping high into the air on the South African coast.

You can buy photos off Mr Huglin  at http://www.greghuglin.com for $100 or more.

And let's not forget Granny's birthday on Wednesday!

Note 1) For those of you who aren't sure, John is the one who lived at Hurst for a few years. He's about the same age as Paul and has three sons, similar ages to Paul and Van's.
Comment
Cool stuff by John. Reference the dolphins, years ago I was on holiday in South Africa, surfing with Hector Christie. There was one day when we were joined in the surf by dolphins who rode the waves into the beach with us, which was pretty magical. Annoyingly the dolphins could turn round and swim back to catch another wave so easily, again and again. While I could only struggle out through the incoming waves getting more knackered!
Posted by: Tom | February 28, 2010 at 12:58 PM

Fishy German gossip

Its not only the British that talk about the weather, the Germans do it relentlessly too, and why not it has been -16°C here (and the day after it was +1°C).

During my lunch hour I went walking on a lake and underneath the bridge I found this fish.

To fill you in on a few facts:
*The water was shallow here and the ice was frozen completley clear to the bottom
*Apparently underneath the bridge is the last place where the ice forms
*The ice in the rest of the lake is white because of the bubble of gas escaping from it when it is frozen
*There were quite a few fish frozen like this but not an obscene amount, there must, I think, be fish elsewhere in the lake where it is deeper that did not share this sorry fate.

I have a few ideas about how the fish died but I welcome any other theories, perhaps we could test them at Jacobs, in the pool, with the freezers from the back rooms.

Trevor (the colder)
Dead fishy
Comment
We are fascinated with the frozen fish. Do they live again when the thaw comes? How hardy can you be, first to stop and notice the frozen fish and then produce a seemingly unfrozen camera.Try out anything you like at Jacobs. But thank goodness it is now warmer. All love Granny and Grandpa

Posted by: Mum | February 07, 2010 at 12:50 PM

ROUMANIAN ORPHANAGE

Saint Jim dragged his family to an orphanage in Roumania for Christmas. Here's the story:
The arranging of the whole trip, as you already know, was remarkable, with not a word exchanged, except via email, between us and the team that runs the orphanage: no phone calls, no letters and our only attempt at taking up a reference was an outright failure with the "referee" recommending that our proposed adventure was pretty risky. But I was reminded of the story of the bank teller who can tell good money from bad, not because they have seen a lot of bad money but because they spend so much time handling the good. The first and only email we got from the American who started and remains overall responsible for the orphanage just felt good – and I'm glad to say, with hindsight, that was proved right....

Eton reunion

Last Friday I went up to Eton for a 1979 leavers party. I was a little surprised to find myself doing this as I have been far from good at keeping in touch with my contemporaries from school since I left and with one exception had never attended a similar event. Maybe because I hadn't been invited to many of them....

The evening was helped by meeting Anthony deNormann en route and another pal joining us who conveniently drove us from Ant's house to Eton and back!

Everyone suffered slightly from needing to peer through the mists of time at faces that had changed in many respects, although there were a couple of 'Dorian Grays' who appeared exactly like they did thirty years ago. That was a bit spooky compared to others who looked like their dads, which seemed more natural. All the 'boys' were in great heart and the school looked after everyone very well and gave a delicious dinner in College Hall which was pure Hogworts as far as I was concerned.

Mainly for Dad:-Beforehand I had mentioned to Dad that I was going and he had told me that he had nearly but not quite attended an older version of this event. I did let this slip to the Provost who said that there are some reunions for older OEs and their wives at lunchtime nowadays.

The purpose of this post is general info, as usual. But also to say that the evening was very enjoyable with a lot of people who seemed mellowed with the years and happy to have a laugh with each other and at themselves. The rich and well-known were there as well as a self-employed carpenter who had got married for the first time this year. So quite a variety. I know of one or two who had needed a bit of persuading to turn up and even they had smiles on their faces at the end of the evening.

I've nothing to sell but I would recommend it to all of you if the chance arose.

Tom

STUFF TO GIVE AWAY

I've nearly sold my flat in London and should complete in early December. On the proceeds I'm going to buy property in Berlin and become an evil landlord. There's some stuff that I have in London, that I will either give to the new owners free of charge or throw away: Double bed with mattress, futon bed with mattress,  iron and ironing board, a very dodgy little cupboard, a very heavy wardrobe, chest of drawers, retro television, fridge freezer, five standing lamps, 4 speakers, two bedside tables, two person sofa, old fashioned stereo, huge telly and a partridge in a pear tree. Or not. There are also curtains. If you want any of these, get in touch with George! You must pick up yourself
Comments
Now purchaser only wants:
- The wardrobe and matching bedside table in the small bedroom immediately to the right as you enter the flat.
- The standing lamp in the bedroom between the wardrobe and the master.
- The rug in the reception room.
Posted by: george | November 23, 2009 at 04:09 PM

And for my own info, the purchasers said they wanted
Kitchen: Fridge, Dishwasher
Small room: Chest of drawers, Wardrobe - possibly
Sitting room: Mirror over fireplace possibly, Rug
Bathroom: Wash machine and drier
Trev's room: Bed
All standard lamps.
Friends take priority!
Gavin wanted some of the standard lamps too
Posted by: George | October 27, 2009 at 12:50 PM

Dad! You've solved ALL of your daughter's furnitue/white good problems in one fell swoop!
Can i have:
The double bed and mattress (not the futon)
The dodgy cupboard
The fridge freezer
The white lamp
The steel lamp
The sofa
The wardrobe
The spare room chest of drawers
And if no one wants the small speakers, I will also have those.
Thanks xxxxxxxxx
Posted by: Ruth Keeling | October 17, 2009 at 12:49 PM

Hey George, has anyone claimed the stereo? Are you really giving it away? If you are I would most definitely like it and a pair of the speakers and maybe the telly. Is that too much? I can come and get them any time....
xxxx Poppy
Posted by: Poppy | October 17, 2009 at 11:56 AM

Your simple mother thought that there was a modern cooker up for grabs and then found it was some sort of record player!

Posted by: Mum | October 17, 2009 at 10:30 AM

Van's new show at the 606 club in London

On 15th October at the 606 Club, Lots Road, Chelsea: Nephews & Nieces get bargain tickets for £20 (inc supper), it'll be great and even better to see some of you there! Give Van a call on 077400 49014 to get the special price.

George has noticed that there is a small but crucial omission in the information above: The 606 is at 90 Lots road and the bar opens at 7.00 with the show at 8.15, but of course you would have been told this at the 'point of sale' I'm sure.

Sorry Trev - might be a bit of a stretch from Berlin, even at £20!
Comments
I'm in Dad. It'll be nice to see you xx
Posted by: Ruth | October 02, 2009 at 03:12 PM


I'll come if any other brothers or nephs/nieces do. This may be a stupd question, but is it at 606 lots road? And when does it start?

TREV'S MOVED TO BERLIN

Trevor (the younger, taller and better looking) moved to Berlin at the beginning of September. He has been staying with me this month and moved into a flat of his own yesterday. He has had an internal transfer in his building firm. The plan is to stay here for six to twelve months. Hmm, that was my plan too. He seems to be getting on pretty well.

Best wishes, George
Comment

Ich bin ein Berliner

Posted by: Paul | October 01, 2009 at 09:22 AM

Kepler

Hey all,

There is so much interesting stuff happening here, but one in particular happening in the building next to mine is very, very interesting.

The headquarters of Kepler is here at Ames. Now Kepler is a NASA planet hunter telescope and you can imagine it being like a next gen Hubble telescope. It's in space, huge, but a lot more advanced.

Unlike the Hubble, which rarely looks at an object for more than a week, Kepler’s field of view of millions of stars never changes.
From what is known of the formation of solar systems it thought that there should (no-one knows yet) be planets around nearly every star. And not just one or two,  but a whole multitude like in our system. Roughly 300 hundred planets have been found around other stars in other experiments (the Hubble even managed to take a photo of another planet), and the largest number of planets found around 1 star is 5. Of course no one yet knows if these are huge exceptions to the rule, or not.

Stars come in a variety of sizes and the bigger they are the faster and hotter they burn. The biggest stars only last for a few millions of years, and as it took a couple of billions of years for the Earth to form there’s no point looking at the biggest stars. The Sun though is about half way through its 10 Billion year life and due to the fact we’re here and even able to look suggests stars of a similar size are a pretty good place to start looking.
Therefore Kepler is looking at 200,000 stars simultaneously that are roughly the same size as ours.

There is a partular zone around a star called the 'goldilocks' zone. It sounds ridiculous but if a planet is orbiting in this zone it shouldn't be too hot or too cold for liquid water to exist on the surface. Why this is important is that wherever you find liquid water on Earth you find a perlephera of life. Earth you'll be unsurprised to find is slap bang in the middle of this zone.
Kepler then is hoping to see an Earth sized planet orbiting a Sun sized star in this zone.
What Kepler is looking for is a slight dimming of these stars due to a planet crossing in front of it. This dimming is in the order of 20 parts per million. It’s like trying to see a glow fly in front of a car's full beam headlights from 10 miles.
But this telescope can do it. Not only that but before they launched NASA weren't sure exactly how good precise it would be but they've found that it is able to see 5 parts per million. This is easily low enough to see an 'Earth' size planet.
It's only been working for two month and they've already seen hundreds of planets, and even one only twice the size of the Earth that orbited in the Goldilocks zone.  Why they only 'think' they've seen this is that a planet like the Earth orbiting at roughly the same distance as us from its star will have an orbit of about a year as well. This means that it will be another year before they can confirm it.  They even think they've also seen a planet smaller than the Earth so hopefully seeing a new Earth will be possible.
And it really is as simple as that. Once a month they get a download from the telescope and each time they do there is a higher chance of seeing a new Earth. Everyone is very excited about it .
What Kepler should also be able to do is detect reflected light off any atmosphere the planets might have.  What this might mean is that the people here might be able to see what elements the atmosphere is made up off i.e. look for methane, co2, or carbon hydrogen chains, all pretty good clues for life!
Kepler has also discovered a planet orbiting a binary star system. 45% of systems are binary (two stars orbiting very closely to each other) and a scientific paper ten years ago 'proved' that planets wouldn't be able to form
 around them. The fact they can further increases the chance of finding these new Earths. I asked the guy runnig the show (he came to our house for a barbecue) how many Earths he thought they'd find. If they were very pessimistic with their models they predicted they see about 50, but from what they'd seen so far he thought maybe more like 500. Some computer models gave a figure of 2000! And don't forget that Kepler is only looking at 200,000 stars and the galaxy is made up 100 billion stars (100,000,000,000). There might be quite a few earths out there.
Well I really must go as my boss just came in and saw that I was obviously not working.
All the best,
Harry
P.s. Sorry for the essay!

Comments
Fascinating stuff. Don't apologise for the essay Harry, write a book, or be a teacher. You've got a good touch. Tom
Posted by: Tom | September 14, 2009 at 01:04 PM

Fascinating I must say. Don't apologise for the essay Harry, write a book, or be a teacher. You've got a good touch. Tom
Posted by: Tom | September 14, 2009 at 12:59 PM

cool! perhaps we can find another one to muck up! xxxxxxx
Posted by: camilla | September 12, 2009 at 01:40 PM

Harry - Fantastic updates from tomorrows world(s) keep 'em coming
Posted by: Paul | September 12, 2009 at 12:34 PM

Edward triathlon

Yesterday Edward took part in a triathlon at his school and won. The race involved a continuous 276 m of swimming, 3700m of bicycling then 2000m of running. The last leg was uphill to the finishing line and Edward completed the race at a sprint, well ahead of the pack. Marvellous!
Comments
2012 here we go!
Posted by: Paul | September 12, 2009 at 12:34 PM

Hooray for Edward love from Grany
Posted by: Jenifer | September 11, 2009 at 11:46 AM

Well done Edward!
Posted by: Carrie | September 11, 2009 at 11:18 AM

Good work Edward!

Posted by: Harry | September 11, 2009 at 04:29 AM