Many thanks to Norman Cates for his help with the Waiting For Frodo strip above.

Last night I attended the meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society with Jeff and Andy (both are members) to hear a lecture by Ivan Semeniuk, who is the astronomy columnist for the Discovery Channel, speaking about the current Mars missions - two Rovers are scheduled to land in early January.

Ivan is a fantastic speaker; his enthusiasm is infectious. Although I've always been interested in the idea of space exploration, I think I've grown a bit jaded over the years. I had seen some of the Mars photos in Ivan's slide show before, but last night I was struck by the wonder all over again. Some of these pictures weren't created in a Hollywood special-effects studio, after all; they were actual photos taken in a place 35 MILLION MILES AWAY. How cool is that?

Ivan giving his talk at last night's Royal Astronomical Society meeting.