The mainly non-mythological constellations of the southern hemisphere,
including Chameleon, Compass, Toucan and Telescope (source.)
The final Ships, Sea & The Stars of this series is up now, in which you can hear me read an A. A. Milne poem that was completely new to me (at 29:00) and a terrific account by Charles Darwin of his attempts to test the hearing of worms (at 4:17). The theme of this episode – in coordination with Heritage Open Days – is "Hidden Nature" which, according to guest and "preventive conservator" Maria Bastidas-Spence, unambiguously means bugs. It's rare to see an insect expert who actually hates insects, and weirdly rewarding. In addition to carpet beetles and constellations, the team discuss ship's mascots. It seems pretty much every species has at some point been considered for mascothood, including a polar bear.
This isn't him though, this is "Trotsky". As soon as I learnt of his existence, I whatsapped my Finnemore colleagues and... well, long story short: John has finally decided on a name for his first child. Unfortunately though, Trotsky – the photographed Trotsky above, not the putative Trotsky Finnemore – would be shot dead by a sailor tragically unaware that "ship's bear" was a thing. A very sad death then, but I can't say he was necessarily on the wrong side of History.
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