Awesome Astronomy

Download 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 John list five 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 lists his three top choices for beginner astrophotographers, armed only with a DSLR camera and a telescope, and two night sky photographic opportunities for those with just a DSLR. Paul runs through five deep sky treats for visual astronomers in September and througho

The Discussion: A dismissal of paranoid woo-pedalling, following what seems be an upsurge in space-based pseudoscience this month, and we introduce you to the first in our series of astronaut interviews recorded at Cosmiccon. The News: This month we get a little disappointed at the lack of news from the New Horizons team after the initial press releases of NASA’s Pluto flyby. We take a look at the nearest confirmed rocky exoplanet to Earth, at 21 light years away, and ask ‘could we send a probe there within the span of a human lifetime?’ New evidence from many of the world’s most productive telescopes that shows the steady heat death of the universe. And a happy story to end on as NASA are offering the public the opportunity to send their names to Mars encoded on a microchip on the Insight Mars Lander next year. The 5 Minute Concept: We follow up on last month’s first back-to-basics 5 Minute Concepts with an introduction to what you can expect to realistically achieve with amateur telescopes – and Paul g

This month we take a look at the constellation of Queen Cassiopeia for the beginners guide. We have: The beautiful Owl Cluster; NGC 7788 or Caroline’s Rose, discovered by Caroline Herschel. NGC 185, a dwarf elliptical galaxy discovered by Caroline’s brother, William Herschel. Next we round up the planets, solar system events and deep sky treats that are visible in August: Uranus, Neptune, Saturn & Mercury. We look at the month’s two lunar treats: a series of conjunctions between the moon and bright star Aldebaran. A perfect lunar eclipse for many listeners on the 28th September. Comet Churyumov Gerasimenko will be visible this month near the Beehive Cluster in Cancer (sadly we won’t see ESA’s Rosetta spacecraft orbiting it!) Our deep sky challenge delves into the constellatinos of Sagitta the Arrow and Vulpecula the Fox for a tour of clusters and a planetary nebula.

A longer episode this month as we have so much to discuss and cram into the show! The Discussion: Upcoming full-length interviews with 4-time Shuttle astronauts Kathy Thornton & Don Thomas, Skylab 3 & STS-3 astronaut Jack Lousma and Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden. Dragging Sokol spacesuits around the UK for educational endeavours, promoting astronomy with the UK Space Agency at the Harwell campus and enjoying Nelly Ben Hayoun’s asteroid movie, Disaster Playground, at the British Film Institute. The News: This month we take a look at NASA’s historic close up of the outer most classical planet as the New Horizon’s spacecraft flies by the Pluto system. CERN’s discovery of a new particle using the Large Hadron Collider – the Pentaquark. The possibility that those mysterious white spots on dwarf planet Ceres are creating a localised atmosphere. A Neptune-sized exoplanet orbiting so close to its parent star that its atmosphere is being blown away like a comet’s tail and Europe’s Rosetta spacecraft conti

What to look out, and up, for in August. This month we take a look at the constellation of Cepheus the King for the beginners guide – we have the first galactic tape measure: the original Cepheid Variable, a red supergiant star: Hershel’s Garnet Star and the Elephant’s Trunk Nebula. Next we round up the planets that are visible in August: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus & Neptune. We look at the month’s moon phases and enjoy a supermoon (or perigee-syzergy) on the 29th. August treats us to the best meteor shower of the year – the Perseids – falling on the 12th August with no moon to dampen the show. We also look forward to rare comet conjunction occurs in August with Rosetta’s Comet 67/P and comet 141/P sharing the same field of view in telescopes. For our deep sky challenge we look at the constellation of Aquarius for a tour of globular clusters and planetary nebulae.

The Discussion: This month’s Awesome Astronomy comes from the magnificent Cosmic Con event at the Manchester Airport Hilton. While looking forward to speaking with the stars of Meteorite Men and four astronauts, Paul recalls a fun June letting the public try on a genuine Russian Sokol suit at a multitude of astronomy outreach events, while Ralph’s been experimenting with ways to take deep sky images in heavily light polluted skies. The Walkaround: No news, 5 minute concept or Q&A this month but you won’t be disappointed as we tour Cosmic Con. The plethora of fascinating meteorites brought by Geoff Notkin and Steve Arnold from the Meteorite Men and space rocks from the British and Irish Meteorite Society gives Paul an opportunity to explain what a treasure trove of science and history meteorites are. Ralph’s in seventh heaven perusing The Space Collective’s NASA memorabilia – a signed Buzz Aldrin action man anyone? The Interviews: A whole host of interviews this month as we talk to astronauts, space a

Matt & Phil from Project Helium Tears return to the bunker for this final episode in the Sci-fi Wars series to appeal for your votes for the best movie. We've let catured Earthling slave Damien out of the dungeon to add his favourite too. This is the last in a four part podcast extra series to discover the best sci-fi TV series, book and film over the next three days. Your votes count at www.awesomeastronomy.com/scifiwars

Matt & Phil from Project Helium Tears & captured Earthling slave Damien join us in the bunker in this 3rd episode in the Sci-fi Wars series to appeal for your votes for the best book. This is the third in a four part podcast extra series to discover the best sci-fi TV series, book and film over the next three days. Your votes count at www.awesomeastronomy.com/scifiwars

Matt & Phil from Project Helium Tears join us in the bunker in this 2nd episode in the Sci-fi Wars series to appeal for your votes for the best TV series. We've let catured Earthling slave Damien out of the dungeon too to add his favourite too. This is the second in a four part podcast extra series to discover the best sci-fi TV series, book and film over the next three days. Your votes count at www.awesomeastronomy.com/scifiwars

Matt & Phil from Project Helium Tears join us in the bunker to kick off this Sci-fi Wars series by discussing what makes a sci-fi. We've let catured Earthling slave Damien out of the dungeon too to add more perspective. This is the first in a four part podcast extra series to discover the best sci-fi TV series, book and film over the next four days. Your votes count at www.awesomeastronomy.com!

The Discussion: A cloudy but fun-filled AstroCamp dominates the discussions this month with glimpses of the planets and a hurried Messier Marathon in between gaps between the clouds. Nick Howes’ talk inspires reflections on the threat of asteroids and comets and how amateur astrophotographers can contribute to science. The News: This month we take a look at NASA’s new draft 2015 Technologies Roadmap and discuss the advances in robotics, space propulsion, power transfer and nanotechnology that NASA hope to seed. Next up is some research from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that suggests the discolouration on Europa’s surface might be irradiated salt from the moon’s subsurface ocean. Finally, we take a look at the discovery, using ESO’s VLT, that globular clusters in the Centaurus A galaxy are far heavier than they should be – perhaps harbouring vast amounts of dark matter. The 5 Minute Concept: Just a hundred years after Newton’s notion of Universal Gravitation, John Mitchell proposed an idea so futurist

What to look out, and up, for in June. This month we take a look at the constellation of Lyra the harp for the beginners guide – we have one of amateur astronomy’s favourite nebulas, M57 the Ring Nebula, hanging between the stars Sheliak & Sulafat like a suspended smoke ring and the Double Double stars – Epsilon Lyrae. Next we round up the planets that are visible in June: Venus, Jupiter in the evening & Saturn later on. Comet Lovejoy continues to put on a show for those with small telescopes and Comet Kopff tempt those with larger aperture telescopes. and the Lyrids in the low eastern morning sky. For our deep sky challenge we look at the constellation of Scutum the shield. We tour the Wild Duck and M26 open clusters, globular cluster NGC6712 and finish off with planetary nebula IC 1295.

Download Episode! A podcast extra episode to get you in the mood for the biannual dark sky weekend run by the podcast crew. We have renowned comet and asteroid hunter Nick Howes joining us to talk about the nature and history of comets and we'll be giving away loads of astronomy prizes in our astronomy quizzes. And of course, 3 nights of enjoying the wonders of truly dark skies in the Welsh Breacon Beacons' International Dark Sky Reserve. If you're not coming to AstroCamp in May 2015, there's still a sky guide in this episode to give you stargazing inspiration wherever you are.

Download Episode! The Discussion: Paul savours a quiet month of teaching astronomy and enjoys sketching Markarian’s Chain of galaxies, while Ralph gets into a few debates following an article publication and gets back to imaging the planet Venus. All in a month when the Project Helium Tears balloon took listeners’ names to the edge of space! The News: This month we take a look at the discovery of complex organics in a new star system 455 light years away, a new study of the movement of dark matter during galactic collisions, a gas cloud passing the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole turns out to be a star – lucky not to get destroyed, SpaceX suffer another setback, Russia announce bold moon ambitions, Dwarf Planet Ceres gives us a few more answers but also some questions and we take a look at the new Star Wars movie trailer. The 5 Minute Concept: Returning to our sceptical roots, Paul digs out the tin foil hat and takes leave of his senses as he delves into the barking world of the moon hoaxer and dispe

What to look out, and up, for in May. This month we take a look at the constellation Ursa Major for the beginners guide – we’ll point you in the direction of an unaided eye binary star and a few of the brightest galaxies in the entire northern hemisphere sky. Next we round up the planets that are visible in May: Mercury (early in the month), Venus, Jupiter & Saturn later on. We take a look at Comet Lovejoy as it’s still visible in small telescopes, and the Lyrids in the low eastern morning sky. For our deep sky challenge we take you on a tour of Hercules’ magnificent globular clusters and a couple of overlooked galaxies.

The Discussion: Paul’s been busy with Sirius Astronomy, promoting space and astronomy education at The Big Bang event and schools across the UK, meeting NASA astronaut Michael Fowle and ESA astronaut Jean Francois Clervoy. Ralph’s been arranging astronomy events for London’s Baker Street Irregular Astronomers. Both are excited about the upcoming CosmicCon event in July and they speak with Phil St Pier from the Project Helium Tears team to reveal the winners of their space competition. The News: This month we take a look at what’s in store for NASA’s Dawn spacecraft now that it’s made it safely into orbit around dwarf planet Ceres, a quick few thoughts on NASA’s New Horizon’s craft as it approaches the Pluto system, Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Jupiter’s moon Ganymede throw us some tantalising clues about their watery interiors and further potential for life, and we round off with news about a huge ocean that covered 20% of Mars’ entire surface. The 5 Minute Concept: As we enter the Hubble Space Telescope’

What to look out, and up, for in April. This month we look in the direction of Leo the Lion for the beginners guide – taking a look at the bright binary stars and a very special grouping of entire galaxies to observe in our spring skies. Next we round up the planets that are visible in March 2015: Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and the return of Mercury. April brings us some nice lunar conjunctions and a well timed Lyrid meteor shower. And for our deep sky challenge we take you on a galaxy tour of Virgo and Coma Berenices.

In this podcast extra Paul & Ralph went off topic from astronomy to discuss the health (or otherwise) of science in the US and Europe. Via a circuitous route, they take a look at research outputs, educational outreach and perceptions of science, and finish off with a game of Top Trumps in which you don't want to playing against an opponent who holds the Newton card.

Download Episode! The Discussion: A final check-in with the Helium Tears team before they release their camera laden balloon to the edge of space and a free Awesome Astronomy competition to let you get involved in this adventure. The News: This month we take a look at a star that zipped through our solar system during human history, get excited about the Dawn spacecraft’s close up views of dwarf planet Ceres, bid a sad farewell to Leonard Nimoy and look forward to this month’s solar eclipse. The 5 Minute Concept: This month Paul takes a look at the most recognisable and unmissable object in the night sky: the moon. But how much do we actually know about our nearest celestial neighbour? Until the 1950s, actually, barely anything. The Interview: Dr Joe Liske from the European Southern Observatory returns to the show for this series of interviews telling us about ESO’s groundbreaking telescopes. This time it’s the turn of the revolutionary Very Large Telescope. Q&A: Listeners’ questions via email, F

What to look out, and up, for in March. This month we look in the direction of Cancer the Crab for the beginners guide – taking a look at open clusters Messier 67, The Beehive Cluster and the planet Jupiter beaming down from up on high. Next we round up the planets that are visible in March 2015, say goodbye to Comet Lovejoy, take a look at this month’s eclipse, explore the phases of the moon and finish off by rounding up the galaxies and globular clusters for telescope observers in Canes Venatici.