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I had a role --as a paid consultant-- providing celestial navigation and astronomical analysis to help set the search area for Endurance22 back in the summer of 2021 and also in early 2022 as the search ship Agulhas II was entering the Weddell Sea near Antarctica. As we all know, they succeeded. They found Endurance by the judicious application of vast funding and a large professional team plus a lot of luck! As a "perk" for my participation on the team, I was invited to London for the world premiere of the new National Geographic documentary "Endurance" which tells tells the story of Shackleton's harrowing expedition in parallel with the search, now nearly three years ago.

The premiere was a "film event" hosted by the British Film Institute as a main event in their Film Festival at the 2500-seat Royal Festival Hall theater in the heart of London. I'm a big fan of celestial navigation, as you all know, but I am also a simpler fan of "the movies", and I could not pass up an opportunity to attend a BFI world premiere. I told some friends here in the US that I was off to a "red carpet" event, but no, I assured them, there would be no red carpet. Oh, but there was! Too fun. And although there were no celebrities about, there were some high-power film industry people. I was in the line out by the food stands before the show standing right next to Col Needham (I think it was him), who is the creator and CEO of imdb. The film itself was sympathetic, beautiful at times, dramatic, and artful. I imagine it will be nominated for various awards in the documentary category this year, but ya know... it's a tired tale, and I think it may possibly win best doc at the Academy Awards this year, but it's difficult for a story from a century ago with a modern technological epilogue to make waves. Here's a worthwhile review that gives it only 1.5 out of 4 stars.  Me I would call it 3.5 out of 4. You've only got two weeks to go to judge it for yourselves. I understand it will become available for streaming on Nov. 1.

Shackleton is a hero of a certain stripe, of course, but Michael Faraday is another hero, and I made a little pilgrimage to the Royal Institution to see that fabled lecture and demonstration hall and exhibits about him. I had planned on another "pilgrimage" to Greenwich, where I have been a number of times before, but they've got minds of their own and the trains weren't going that way on my preferred day, so I skipped it (plus I was catching a cold and decided a day off was a good idea). Next was Cambridge, great for walking around. I visited a few of the Cambridge museums, in particular the "Scott Polar Research Institute" or "polar museum" which houses some Shackleton and Endurance artifacts.

Just one photo for now... me before the premiere.

Frank Reed

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