Awesome Astronomy

Informações:

Sinopsis

Awesome Astronomy explores the frontiers of science, space and our evolving understanding of the universe.Join Ralph, Paul & Jeni for informative and fun astronomy programmes dedicated to space and astronomy news and occasional podcast extras covering hot topics and special interviews in the world of science and astronomy.

Episodios

  • Sky Guide August 2016

    28/07/2016 Duración: 10min

    What to look out, and up, for in August. Our highlights of this month’s skies with the planet on offer to observers and imagers: Jupiter takes a bow as it departs until December Mars & Saturn – with a long conjunction at the end of August Mercury & Venus make their way out of the glare of the Sun Neptune & Uranus on offer in Aquarius & Pisces Next up is the meteor showers and, due to the long daylight hours and dearth of cometary debris in this part of Earth’s orbit this time of year, we only have one shower of note in August: The magnificent Perseids peaking on 11th/12th August The 2nd asteroid to be discovered in the asteroid belt, 2 Pallas, reaches opposition on 22nd August reaching magnitude 8.7 and can be found in the constellation Equuelus. Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Jeni – The Milky Way: Naked eye enjoyment of our home galaxy Paul – The Cygnus Loop/The Veil Nebulae Ralph – Albireo – the most colourful binary sta

  • Extra: Alan Bean, 4th Man on the Moon

    15/07/2016 Duración: 55min

    This podcast extra is our full length interview with the 4th man to walk on the moon aboard the Apollo 12 mission in 1969. In this interview we discuss: journeying to the moon on a Saturn V rocket getting your rocket struck by lightening the mission's colourful commander (Pete Conrad) what the moon looked and felt like underfoot the science conducted on the surface of the moon the future of human spaceflight The Martian Olympics!

  • #49 - July 2016

    01/07/2016 Duración: 59min

    The Discussion: Earthling slave John got married! The new fashion of requesting telescopes at weddings, a good time of year for solar astronomy, the scores are in for the results of Jeni’s master’s degree, Jeni gets a sciencey summer job and we make a joking (but no less genuine) appeal for astronomy equipment to review in future shows. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: NASA inflate Bigelow Aerospace’s inflatable habitat on the ISS Progress on NASA’s attempts to send humans beyond low Earth orbit Analysis of ALMA data hints at planetary formation beginning earlier than thought An update on the origins of the elusive Planet 9 The Jupiter-bound Juno spacecraft gets ready to orbit the gas giant Arizona astronomers find 65 young galaxies – the oldest galaxy cluster yet discovered 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 B

  • Sky Guide July 2016

    28/06/2016 Duración: 08min

    What to look out, and up, for in July. Our highlights of this month’s skies with the planet on offer to observers and imagers: Mars Saturn A Venus conjunction And a few tips on how to take images of the solar system’s largest bodies with a webcam, planetary imaging camera or DSLR. Next up is the meteor showers and, due to the long daylight hours and dearth of cometary debris in this part of Earth’s orbit this time of year, we only have one shower of note in July: Delta Aquariids peaking 28th/29th July Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Jeni – NGC6826: The Blinking Star Nebula Ralph – Epsilon Lyrae: The Double Double Paul – M22, a globular Cluster in Sagittarius. And we finish this sky guide with July’s moon phases and planetary conjunctions.

  • Extra: Marvelous Mercury!

    11/06/2016 Duración: 01h23min

    In this Awesome Astronomy podcast extra episode we bring you the key speakers from this spring’s AstroCamp in the Brecon Beacon dark sky reserve. As the transit of Mercury was the main feature of this spring’s camp, we were delighted to welcome (and now to share with you) speakers with detailed knowledge of planetary transits: Dr Rebekah Higgitt lectures history at the University of Kent and former curator at the Royal Observatory Greenwich. Rebekah tells us about the science goals of observing transits, foreign wars, treacherous seas and national rivalries that conspired to prevent observations and the successes and mishaps that befell many astronomers keen to use this method to measure the size of the solar system. London astronomer and professional gemmologist, Eric Emms, hosts many public solar and lunar observing events (the next of which will be in London’s Regent’s Park on June 23rd) and steers Central London’s Astronomical Society as a committee member of the Baker Street Irregular astronomers. Er

  • #48 - June 2016

    01/06/2016 Duración: 59min

    The Discussion: Exam season is well underway for Jeni, Paul & Ralph ran the AstroCamp dark sky star party in Wales and the jet stream causes frustration for sky watchers in the UK. But the big event last month was the transit of the planet Mercury with a full day of observing this phenomenon for many parts of the world. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: A possible new particle that threatens the foundation of physics discovered at CERN Is the life-hunting Exomars 2 ever going to get off the ground? 1,284 exoplanets discovered: 550 are rocky, 100 are earth sized, with 9 in their habitable zones The May 2016 transit of Mercury and witnessing the black drop effect DIY carbon nanotubes among 56 patents released by NASA and space elevators SpaceX make Paul look silly (again) 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 Big

  • Sky Guide June 2016

    28/05/2016 Duración: 19min

    What to look out, and up, for in June. Our tour of the highlights of this month’s skies begins with the planets on offer to observers and imagers: Jupiter Mars Saturn Next up is the meteor showers and we have quite a few daytime showers that can be spotted in the pre-dawn sky as well as some more usual showers in June: Arietids Zeta Perseids June Lyrids June Bootids Then we each take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph - M13 The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules Paul - M8 The Lagoon Nebula Jeni - M57 The Ring Nebula And we finish this sky guide with June’s moon phases and planetary conjunctions.

  • Extra: AstroCamp Spring 2016

    03/05/2016 Duración: 17min

    Welcome to this AstroCamp podcast extra episode to tell you what you can expect from the weekend's festivities and listen to on the way to Cwmdu: 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. As the focus of this AstroCamp is the Transit of Mercury, we will also have two talks on the celestial event, from the University of Kent's Dr Rebekah Higgitt and solar astronomer Eric Emms. The Sky guides: In readiness for 3 nights of stargazing in the Welsh valleys, Ralph, Paul and John 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 wher

  • #47 - May 2016

    02/05/2016 Duración: 48min

    In this month's show: The Discussion Revision season as Jeni finishes her masters in astrophysics and preparations for AstroCamp in the Welsh Brecon Beacons. The News SpaceX make Paul look a right fool Stephen Hawking backs an attempt to send spaceships to Alpha Centauri More insight in to gravitational waves A new galaxy is discovered orbiting the Milky Way Narrowing down the whereabouts of Planet Nine Paul's Big Hat of Woo This month we look at planetary alignments and all those crazy notions that tsunamis or weightlessness might occur if the planets are in certain alignments, or something. Q&A Our question this month comes from Clemens Unger in Melbourne, Australia who helpfully suggested: If you’re looking for a topic to chat about in the show, how about the recent well publicised case of image theft in the Astro imaging community? A chap used a Damien Peach image and presented it as his own. But, as it’s a small world, Damien saw it by chance. There seems to be so much pressure o

  • Sky Guide May 2016

    29/04/2016 Duración: 18min

    What to look out, and up, for in March. We start a new look (listen?) sky guide this month. We begin the show with a discussion around the highlights to observe this May: The Transit of Mercury on 9th May International Astronomy Day on 14th May Mars at opposition on 22nd May Three meteor shower peaks, Eta Aquariids (6th), Eta Lyrids (8th) & Camelopardalids (24th) Next we each suggest and help you find a deep sky favourite to observe in May: Ralph – M51 The Whirlpool Galaxy Paul – M3 Globular cluster in Canes Venatici Jeni – M27 The Dumbbell Nebula Finally we round up the moon phases and a couple of nice planetary and lunar conjunctions.

  • Podcast Extra: CERN

    15/04/2016 Duración: 01h13s

    During a visit to Geneva in September 2016, the Awesome Astronomy team stopped looking out into the universe for a while to delve into the impossibly tiny world of subatomic particles and fundamental forces that fuels the heartbeat of the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Dr Steven Goldfarb, an experimental particle physicist from the University of Michigan, led a tour of the ATLAS Control Room, a few metres above the largest and most advanced engineering experiment the world has ever seen – the Large Hadron Collider. Then we sat down to enjoy a light lunch and discuss the ground-breaking work, detections and knowledge building that only CERN can accomplish. Naturally, we also delve into the big issues in astronomy today – such as dark matter, the matter/antimatter imbalance and extra dimensions, all of which are being explored by CERN. So, for anyone who's excited by the frontiers of physics or puzzled by what CERN is or does, we've recorded a special podcast extra to shed some light on the

  • #46 - April 2016

    01/04/2016 Duración: 01h10min

    Download Episode! The Discussion: This month Jeni has a PhD offer that’s getting us all excited, Paul’s been clocking up the miles to teach science and astronomy to schools and Ralph’s just excited because he’s got a new telescope. Mat & Phil from Project Helium Tears join us again on the day they launched their 2nd Star Wars themed balloon to the edge of space. The News: We start the news with last month’s total solar eclipse seen from parts of Asia before explaining the research that suggests an ancient cataclysm caused Mars crust & mantle to shift. Then we discuss the launch of ESA’s Exomars part 1. And we finish with a round-up of the news from NASA’s Insight mission, the 1st analysis of the atmosphere of a super earth exoplanet atmosphere and the latest SpaceX attempt to bring down the cost of commercial spaceflight. The Interview: For the interview this month we welcome Apollo 12 lunar module pilot and Skylab 2 commander Alan Bean. We discuss: 44 years of humans staying in Low Earth Or

  • Sky Guide April 2016

    28/03/2016 Duración: 08min

    What to look out, and up, for in April 2016! For the beginners this month Ralph takes a look at the Leo Lion who leaps across the sky all April. Leo hosts some nice colour contrasting binary stars (one with a gas giant planet of its own) and some galaxies to hunt down. Next Jeni rounds up the planets that are visible in December: Jupiter Mars and Mercury at one of its most favourable viewing opportunities. The moon makes a not-to-be-missed passage through the Hyades Cluster on 10th April. And we round off with the Lyrid meteor shower and a last gasp chance of comet Catalina. As spring is galaxy season, for the deep sky challenge Paul slews a scope through Virgo in a hunt for entire galaxies that can be seen with amateur telescopes. While the constellation of Virgo is quite indistinct it harbours a wealth of elliptical and spiral galaxies, culminating with the unique treat, Markarian’s Chain.

  • #45 - March 2016

    01/03/2016 Duración: 01h12min

    The Discussion: We bid a sad farewell to Apollo pioneer Edgar Mitchell who spent 33 hours on the lunar surface in 1971 on the Apollo 14 mission, celebrate the detection of gravitational waves and Paul regales us with his tales of clear skies for some long awaited eyepiece time. The News: This month the news is dominated by the death of Apollo 14’s Edgar Mitchell. We bring you the highs of collecting moon rocks and the lows of a retirement spent promoting pseudoscience. We follow this up with more information on the detection by LIGO of the last confirmed prediction of Einstein’s General Relativity, gravitational waves, and what this means for the future of astronomy. And we finish off with the observation by the European Southern Observatory of a flying saucer shaped forming planetary system. Woobusters: This month we don the tin foil hat of woo to debunk the Nibiru conspiracy theory. The planet predicted to crash into Earth and destroy all life without a shred of evidence to its name! The Interview: W

  • Sky Guide March 2016

    27/02/2016 Duración: 09min

    What to look out, and up, for in March. For the beginners this month we take a look at perhaps the most recognisable constellation of them all: Ursa Major, the Great Bear. In the Great Bear we go hunting for the easiest binary star in the sky and a host of big bright galaxies. Next Jeni rounds up the planets that are visible in December: Mars, Jupiter & ever more brief views of Saturn, before taking a look at this month’s moon phases – with a few conjunctions with Mars Saturn & bright star Antares. Finally we take the ultimate tour of easy and more difficult galaxies as we explore the rich bounty of the constellation Leo the Lion.

  • Podcast Extra: Gravitational Waves

    14/02/2016 Duración: 38min

    For anyone who's still a little fuzzy or confused by the enormity of the recent detection of gravitational waves by the LIGO facility, we've recorded a special podcast extra to shed some light on the impossibly complex world of General Relativity, interferometry detectors and gravitational waves themselves. This podcast extra should explain in simple terms: What gravitational waves are Why they're so important How they were detected What this means for the future of physics & astronomy With special thanks to LIGO, the National Science Foundation and Cardiff University's School of Physics and Astronomy.

  • #44 - February 2016

    01/02/2016 Duración: 01h12min

    The Discussion: As we lament the passing of some great people we remember how lucky we are to live in an age of great discovery. We discuss British astronaut Tim Peake’s spacewalk with American Tim Kopra outside the International Space Station and take a look back at the annual festival of TV astronomy StargazingLIVE. The News: There’s a packed news section in this month’s show as we discuss: Have astronomers discovered another planet in our solar system? LIGO’s possible detection of gravitational waves Does an irregular star host evidence for alien life? A possible explanation for the ‘Wow signal’ The most powerful supernova ever detected Poor Philae gives up the ghost Attempting to photograph a black hole The Interview: This month Jen bags herself an astronaut. While celebrating the launch of Tim Peake, Jen grabs an interview with Spanish/ESA astronaut Pedro Duque: a veteran of two space missions having flown the Shuttle, Soyuz and the International Space Station. WooBusters: With a lon

  • Sky Guide February 2016

    28/01/2016 Duración: 08min

    What to look out, and up, for in February. For the beginners this month we take a look at the constellation of Auriga the Charioteer with a trio of open clusters from the Messier catalogue and finishing off with the Flaming Star that originated in Orion’s Belt. Next Jeni rounds up the planets that are visible in December: Jupiter, Mars & Saturn, before taking a look at this month’s moon phases – with a couple of conjunctions with Venus & Mercury and the occultation of star Xi 1 Ceti. Finally we go deep into the universe with an open cluster, a beautiful multiple star system and the vast Rosette Nebula in the constellation Monoceros the Unicorn.

  • #43 - January 2016

    01/01/2016 Duración: 01h07min

    The Discussion: In our first invasion of 2016 we discuss Paul’s work promoting British astronaut Tim Peake’s stay on the International Space Station and his visit to Parliament; Jen’s ongoing work in General Relativity and black holes; and John tells us about his trip to visit the Sutherland Astronomical Society in Perth, Australia. The News: This month we return to NASA’s Dawn spacecraft at Ceres where we might just have the answer to those intriguing white spots on the dwarf planet. Then we discuss the findings that put to bed the puzzle about why gas giant exoplanets don’t seem to have the right amount of water in their atmospheres. And we finish January’s news with a wandering Kuiper Belt object snapped by NASA’s New Horizon’s spacecraft. The 5 Minute Concept: We conclude our series of back to basics 5 Minute Concepts with a look at the last essential items in the amateur astronomers toolkit – eyepieces. Whay are they, whey do we need them, how to get the most from them and how to get the balance bet

  • Sky Guide January 2016

    30/12/2015 Duración: 09min

    What to look out, and up, for in January. For the beginners and young astronomers this month we take a look at the magnificent winter constellation of Orion with the belt and sword bordered by four magnificent stars. We take a look at a (cosmologically) near term supernova hopeful, a five star multiple star system, and the finest nebula of them all in small telescopes or binoculars. Next we round up the planets that are visible in January: Jupiter rising early to show us some lovely transits of its moons, with Mars Saturn and Venus providing breathtaking views for the night owls. Saturn and Venus give us a rare close conjunction too in January. Next we take a look at the phases of the moon this month and prepare for a conjunction with gas giant planet Jupiter and an occultation with bright star Aldebaran in Taurus. The Quadrantids provide us with a nice meteor shower early in January which can often give us more meteors per hour than any other meteor shower. Comet C2013 US10 Catalina continues to r

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