Awesome Astronomy

What to look out, and up, for in March. Our highlights of this month’s skies with the planets on offer to observers and imagers: The moon, Mercury and Mars close together on the 29th The King of Planets returns to our skies 4 comets to observe with amateur telescopes or the naked eye Next up, we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Jen – The Owl Nebula in Ursa Major Paul – The Virgo Supercluster and Markarian’s Chain of galaxies Ralph – Messier 67 and the Beehive Cluster in Cancer

This podcast extra takes a look back at the extraordinary life of navy aviator, test pilot and astronaut Gene Cernan who tragically died last month at the age of 82. In this memoriam we discuss: Gene's stellar career Pioneering rendezvous and spacewalking techniques on Gemini 9A The final test run for a moon landing on Apollo 10 Commanding the last ever moon landing mission on Apollo 17 The last footprints on the moon

The Discussion: Paul continues his herculean travels around the UK promoting the European Space Agency and teaching people about the science of spaceflight. Ralph’s waxing lyrical about a waxing moon and Venus, while Jen has a big announcement regarding her PhD research. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: Another asteroid hits the news as NASA look elsewhere for future missions ESO’s ALMA array turns its attention to the Sun Making refinements on the age of the Moon A new star to look out for in the sky in 2022 Hat of Woo: With the hat now empty and the world still full of loons, we reach out to you to tell us what you’d like to see replace this segment of the show. Q&A: Listeners’ questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we take a look at a listener’s submitted graph and explain the Roche Sphere: Can you please explain why the

What to look out, and up, for in February. Our highlights of this month’s skies with the planets on offer to observers and imagers: A last chance look at Mercury in the morning sky Mars a few degrees from Venus Jupiter in Virgo Saturn in the early morning sky Next up is the return of a couple of comets to our observing tick list: Comet 45P at its best on the 11th February in Hercules Comet 2P Encke returns to our skies in the constellation Pisces Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – the Rosette Nebula and open cluster NGC2244 in the constellation Monoceros Paul – open cluster M93 in Pupis Jeni – supernova remnant, Messier 1 – the Crab Nebula - in Taurus And we finish this sky guide with February’s moon phases, a conjunction with the Hyades Cluster on the 5th and a penumbral eclipse on 10th/11th February.

This podcast extra takes a look at the proposals from Boeing and Lockheed Martin to develop a lunar space station for NASA. In this discussion we cover: NASA’s current plans for deep space exploration Lunar and Martian exploration What exploration can be done from orbit Human vs robotic exploration The likelihood of contaminating other worlds with Earth organisms

The Discussion: As we welcome in the New Year Paul’s been mixing science with art, Jeni’s professional astronomy looks to be taking her to South Africa or Mexico and we read out some of our listeners’ emails The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: The death of John Glenn – a true pioneer and legend ESO’s Very Large Telescopes glimpses something from nothing And we take a look at NASA latest release list of its spin-out technologies Hat of Woo: In our latest and final Hat of Woo we put Astrology under the magnifying glass. Q&A: Listeners’ questions via email, Facebook & Twitter take us on a journey into the astronomy issues that have always plagued our understanding or stretched our credulity. This month we’re tackling a question about a recent news story covered in a previous episode: The number of bodies in the Solar System featuring subsurface oceans seems to increase with every planetary mission sent out there. Many of these are bodies of water of great d

What to look out, and up, for in January. Our highlights of this month’s skies with the planets on offer to observers and imagers: Venus at greatest eastern elongation Mars a few degrees from Venus Jupiter in Virgo Saturn & Mercury in the morning sky Next up is the other solar system wonders of note in January: The Quadrantids meteor shower peaking on 3-4th January with a ZHR of around 40 The largest asteroid, Vesta, at opposition passing through Cancer into Gemini Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Jen – M33, spiral galaxy in the constellation Triangulum Paul – NGC 2903, barred spiral galaxy in Leo Ralph – Messier 35, open cluster in Gemini And we finish this sky guide with January’s moon phases.

Awesome Astronomy’s 2016 Christmas Panto. Think: HG Wells’ War of the Worlds meets Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator. The Eve of the War: Plans for our latest invasion of Earth are discussed over a nice, friendly and relaxed Christmas dinner. In London: A rousing and inspiring speech to the defeated peoples of Earth. The Earth Under the Martians: Jeni’s excited about her new taser and we all have a jolly Christmas wager. The Days of Imprisonment: Another speech to the assembled and compliant Earthling slaves. Dead London: John begins the human resistance with the release across all frequencies of the 2016 outtakes. The Wreckage: Jeni sees out Christmas Day with a few science and astronomy themed factoids. We don’t do Awesome Astronomy for money or to advertise, we just do it for fun and education. As long as we still enjoy creating it and you enjoy listening to it, we’ll keep on going. So if you want any changes, have any comments or suggestions, email us at theshow@awesomeastronomy.com Me

The Discussion: This month we take a look at the recent supermoon and what it takes to make the moon ‘super’; Jeni goes teaching kids about space and hones her exoplanet hunting skills; while Paul’s been hosting events with British astronaut Tim Peake. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: An update on Blue Origin’s spaceflight ambitions More on Shiaparelli and Exomars part 1 A NASA Director’s worries about science in a Trump administration An Ocean like the Dead Sea under Pluto’s ice sheets The roundest object in space Could dark energy actually be an emergent property of entropy? The dinosaur-killing asteroid may have turned planet Earth inside out The Hat of Woo: Delving into the rank and putrid world of conspiracy theories to debunk the nonsense that lies within. This month Paul pulls Project Pegasus out of his fetid hat where a young President Obama was part of a team of juveniles used in the 1980s to teleport to Mars and into the past. No, really! Q&A: Lis

What to look out, and up, for in December. Our highlights of this month’s skies with the planet on offer to observers and imagers: Venus shining brilliantly in the evening sky Mercury at greatest elongation on 11th December Jupiter returns to our late night skies Next up is the meteor showers and December brings us the greatest of them all: The Geminids peaking on the night of 13/14th December Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Jeni – IC 1396 - The Elephant Trunk Nebula in Cepheus Paul – M78 – a reflection nebula in Orion Ralph – NGC 246 the Skull Nebula in Cetus And we finish this sky guide with December’s moon phases.

Perhaps the most frequently asked question to the show (and apologies to Terry Dunlin who asked this question about 2 years ago!) is what you need to consider when buying a telescope or what makes the right telescope for you. So, in this podcast extra, we pool our collective brainpower to bring you a 20 minute discussion of telescope types, apertures, portability and capabilities to help you get the perfect telescope for you. If you’re thinking of buying your first telescope – or thinking of getting one as a gift for someone this Christmas – then this will give you all the considerations for that purchase. We recommend The Tring Astronomy Centre (www.tringastro.co.uk), but the most important thing is to buy from a dedicated astronomy retailer rather than the internet or ordinary high street stores. A dedicated astronomy retailer will be able to advise you from a position of knowledge and provide the aftercare you need.

The Discussion: In a month when the European Space Agency succeeded and failed in the first part of their Exomars saga, we go through the glory and the debris of Mars exploration, hanging out with astronauts Tim Peake and Tim Kopra, conducting exoplanet research, provide some advice about studying astrophysics and explain why the effects of dark matter aren’t witnessed in our own solar system. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: Exomars, round one Another look at the Viking mission data that may have discovered Martian life Hubble discovers that the universe contains 10 times more galaxies than thought A philosophical discussion about the chances of life existing elsewhere Venus was habitable when life began to flourish on Earth Elon Musk’s plans for colonising the solar system The ethics of colonising other planets An update of NASA’s Juno mission at Jupiter And the latest taikonauts and astronauts. The Hat of Woo: Paul’s Hat of Woo is the repository for all fester

What to look out, and up, for in November. Our highlights of this month’s skies with the planet on offers to observers and imagers: A last chance to enjoy views of Mars for 2016 The return of the King of Planets: Jupiter A Saturn and Venus conjunction And we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – Colourful binary star Almaak in Andromeda Jeni – The magnificent constellation of Orion and the Orion Nebula Paul – NGC 404, Mirach’s Ghost in Andromeda And we finish this sky guide with November’s moon phases.

This podcast extra features the talk given by Nick Howes at Spring 2015's AstroCamp about life and death in space. Nick takes us on a fascinating tour of our universe and explains: Dangerous phenomena in the galaxy Martian meteorites The places in the solar system where life may exist Exploring comets The marvel of the Rosetta spacecraft How comets are discovered and named The Oort Cloud - home to a trillion comets The potential for asteroid impacts Comet Shoemaker Levy striking Jupiter How can we prevent asteroid strikes? Look for new objects in your sky images and online Why we should be concerned about Earth impactors and what we, the public, can do to mitigate this inevitable disaster scenario.

The Discussion: If you enjoy our attention to scripting, our professional quality audio and our stringent editing, then you’re bang out of luck! This show comes from our AstroCamp stargazing event in Wales and we’re making it up as we go along. This month we take you through the delights of dark sky stargazing among friends, Jeni becomes a paid scientist and we get the reactions of the gang as we reveal signed movie poster mock ups that we’re emailing to listeners. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: Gravity Spy – hunt for gravitational waves in this new citizen science project More details on NASA’s Asteroid Redirect Mission The first data from ESA’s Gaia spacecraft wows us all The Interview: This month we welcome back writer, broadcaster and researcher Dr Chris North from Cardiff University to discuss Gravitational Waves: what this means for the future of professional astronomy and what we can expect from this new field of astronomy in the future. Q&A: Lis

What to look out, and up, for in October. Our highlights of this month’s skies with the planet on offer to observers and imagers: Venus & Saturn in the late evening with a nice conjunction of the pair. Uranus as it reaches opposition on the 16th. Next up is the meteor showers and October brings us: The Draconids peaking on 7th October The Orionids peaking on 20th/21st October Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – Algol, the Demon Star & The Double Cluster in Perseus Paul – The Auriga open clusters: M36, M37 & M38 Jeni – and the Owl Cluster in Cassiopeia And we finish this sky guide with October’s moon phases.

In this month’s AstroCamp podcast extra episode: The Discussion: An introduction to star parties and enjoying practical astronomy under pristine dark skies away from the city. As the podcast crew run the AstroCamp star party, which many listeners attend, in the Brecon Beacon’s international dark sky reserve twice a year, we take you through the events, tutorials and workshops we run to help you hone your stargazing skills and win astronomy prizes from the Tring Astronomy Centre. The Sky guides: In readiness for 3 nights of stargazing in the Welsh valleys, Ralph, Paul and Damien choose objects to look out for this time of year. If you’re not coming to AstroCamp, these are still great night sky treats to try and locate wherever you are in the northern hemisphere. Ralph’s top choices take in the Owl Cluster, The Double Cluster and the vast North America Nebula. Damien takes a look at the solar system objects available a little closer to home this month as he runs through the asteroids, dwarf planets and

The Discussion: Jeni’s astronomy research yields its first results in the hunt for exoplanet phase variation and we revisit our Star Wars podcast extras with a listener’s book review. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: An ‘Earthlike planet detected by ESO around our nearest stellar neighbour The upcoming launch of OSIRIS Rex to sample an asteroid That bump in the data at CERN turns out to be a false hope That alien megastructure story just won’t foxtrot oscar The Cassini spacecraft spots methane filled canyons on Saturn’s moon Titan A meteorite lands in Yorkshire garden. Real or fake? Woobusters: Continuing our quest to debunk the myths and conspiracy theories that persist in every dark corner of the news and the internet. This month’s topic, picked at random from Paul’s festering Hat of Woo: Area 51 – the remote and secret installation in the Nevada desert where sanity gets dissected and reason is left to die. Q&A: Listeners’ questions via email, Facebook &a

What to look out, and up, for in September. Our highlights of this month’s skies with the planet on offer to observers and imagers: Mercury & Venus in the late evening or early morning Mars & Saturn – with a nice conjunction with the Moon and star Antares Neptune & Uranus on offer in Aquarius & Pisces The largest asteroid, Vesta, will be passing through the constellation Gemini into Cancer this month and asteroid 2 Pallas can still be found in the constellation Equuelus. Next up is the meteor showers and, following the magnificent Persieds last month, September has: The Alpha Aurigids peaking on 1st September The Epsilon Persieds peaking on 9th September Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – The Owl Custer in Cassiopeia Paul – globular cluster, Messier 2 in Aquarius Jeni – The Andromeda Galaxy in the constellation Andromeda And we finish this sky guide with September’s moon phases. Happy hunting and clear skies!

This podcast extra is our full length interview with Dr Helen Sharman, Britain's First astronaut and the first woman to visit the Russian Mir Space Station in 1991. In this interview we discuss: Tim Peake Access to space during a time of no UK funding The skills needed to be an astronaut Training for spaceflight at Star City in Russia The collapse of the Soviet Union just before launch Speaking with Mikhail Gorbachev from the Mir Space Station Comparing Mir to a camping trip! Acclimatising to spaceflight in the Soyuz capsule Science conducted by Helen on Mir The UK's reticence to fund human spaceflight NASA's plans for missions beyond Low Earth Orbit Post-Brexit uncertainty over science and collaboration Promoting space