Awesome Astronomy

In this podcast extra episode, there was only one thing playing on all our minds - Space Force. What is it? Why is it? What will it look like? Just like us, I’m sure you’ll be none the wiser after this in-depth look into: President Trump’s plan to create the US Space Force The lesser known Welsh Force The International Space Treaty A few diversions into the future of aircraft technology

The Discussion: Jeni tells us about her more recent astronomy conferences in Eastbourne and Copenhagen. Paul gives us a round up of his astronomy outreach with interesting facts from and a rooftop star party. And Awesome Astronomy gets in deeper than intended with the Alan Bennet/Thora Hird gag that far outstayed its welcome. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: AMI in the Sky with Diamonds! Farewell Apollo 12 moonwalker, Alan Bean An old mystery about our moon is solved Has the Mars Opportunity rover bitten the dust? The Interview: This month Jeni speaks to Dr Tana Joseph about the MeerKAT telescope and how outreach is impacting science in South Africa. 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 solar physics: Will the Parker Solar Probe really touch the surface of the sun and what science will it

What to look out, and up, for in July. With no Jen this month (she’s off sciencing), it’s just Paul & Ralph’s highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: Mars at its most favourable opposition since 2003 Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto A super-long lunar eclipse Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year. Ralph – Messier 16, The Eagle Nebula Paul - NGC 6822, Barnard’s Irregular And we finish this sky guide with July’s moon phases.

In this podcast extra episode, released during Pride month, we return to this April’s European Week of Astronomy and Space Science where we spoke to Dr Ashley Spindler to find out more about: Galaxy evolution, the evolution of galaxy structures and star formation from the MaNGA project using Sloan Digital Sky Survey data South East Physics Network placement opportunities for post graduate students The challenges and obstacles that still exist for the LGBT community in the workplace and education efforts to make science environments more open and welcoming to all people. Ashley can also be found at @Ashley_Nova_ on Twitter.

The Discussion: Jeni’s talking science conferences while Paul’s doing impressions from his Who’s Who of Yorkshire legends. Ralph runs through this month’s pick of listeners tweets & emails with a focus on exoplanets and a big congrats to listener Dustin Ruoff The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: The earliest stars formed earlier than we thought! NASA’s latest wow-piece is a helicopter on Mars The first interstellar immigrant settles in our solar system The Interview: This month we have two short interviews - something for the adults, something for the kids: Astronomy on Tap and International Astronomical Youth Camp. 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 climate change (don’t groan!): What do you think the general (or astronomy/space) science community's approach to the problem of climate chan

What to look out, and up, for in June. Ralph, Paul & Jen pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: Asteroid Vesta at opposition Saturn An overview of Venus, Jupiter and Mars Comet 21P - Giacobini–Zinner in Cygnus Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year. Ralph - The Double Double, Epsilon Lyrae, in Lyra Paul - Globular Clusters available to view in Ophiuchus Jen – Colourful binary star Albireo in Cygnus And we finish this sky guide with June’s moon phases.

This podcast extra is a re-release of our full length interview with the 4th man to walk on the moon aboard the Apollo 12 mission in 1969. Alan Bean was not only a fighter pilot, Navy test pilot, astronaut, moonwalker, space station commander and artist, but he was also a very considerate, genuine and self-effacing gentleman. We are hugely saddened by the loss of such a lovely man but heartened that he passed away peacefully surrounded by his family. In this interview, recorded in October 2015 we discussed: journeying to the moon on a Saturn V rocket your rocket getting 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 and the Martian Olympics Farewell Alan Bean. You leave us with only four humans that have memories of walking on the moon but a rich legacy of technological and scientific accomplishments.

In this podcast extra episode, we take a look back at the extraordinary life and work of Stephen Hawking who died on 14th March 2018, leaving a legacy rich with cosmology insights, humour, altruism, science education and a changed landscape in astronomy.

The Discussion: Jeni, Paul & Ralph survived the wilds of the Brecon Beacon’s AstroCamp festival of astronomy, Jeni gathers a whole heap of astronomy interviews from the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science, and we read out a couple of emails requesting advice on amateur astronomy mounts, berating us for our April Fools’ Twitter gag and asking for more content relevant to the southern hemisphere. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: A galaxy containing no dark matter NASA launches its new exoplanet hunting satellite An exoplanet spotted using amateur astronomy equipment The Interview: This month Jeni caught up with Dr Jane Greaves & Dr Phil Cigan from Cardiff University to talk about their work finding phosphorus in the Crab Nebula – and why phosphorus is so important to life. 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 credu

What to look out, and up, for in May. Ralph, Paul & Jen pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: The ever-brightening Mars Jupiter at opposition on 9th May Venus in the evening sky The Lyrid meteor shower Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year. Ralph – The plethora of summer objects in Sagittarius Paul – Globular Cluster, Messier 5, in Serpens Jen - M57, The Ring Nebula, in Lyra And we finish this sky guide with May’s moon phases.

Welcome to AstroCamp! In this podcast extra episode, we welcome you to the practical astronomy arm of the Awesome Astronomy empire, as we take a run through what people can expect at our AstroCamp star party in the Brecon Beacons International Dark Sky Reserve on the extended weekend of 14-17th April 2018. We also take a look at the social and educational aspects of star parties and round everything off with some of our favourite solar system and deep sky objects visible this spring to observe for yourself. If you haven't booked a place yet and would like to come, head over to www.astrocamp.org.uk We're taking bookings all the way up to the 13th April 2018. See you under the stars!

The Discussion: The Beast from the East makes practical astronomy difficult and we take a look at listeners’ emails that accuse us of imperialism, suggest we throw away some solar filters, provide an alternative look at solar system creation and reveal their own astronomy outreach experiences. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: China’s space station is about to fall out the sky Genetic sequencing looks at an alien find Did a year in space alter Mark Kelly’s DNA? More delays to the James Webb Space Telescope A new European Space Agency telescope gets the green light Famous Astronomer: This month we give you a primer on an upcoming podcast extra on the life of recently departed Stephen Hawking. 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 answering difficult questions: I live in a part of the World with

What to look out, and up, for in December. Ralph, Paul & Jen pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: The features visible on Mars Jupiter visible in the morning sky Venus in the evening sky The Lyrid meteor shower Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year. Ralph – The Beehive and King Cobra open clusters in Cancer Jen - M82, The Cigar Galaxy, and M81, a starburst galaxy in Ursa Major Paul – A tour of the Virgo cluster of galaxies and Markarian’s Chain And we finish this sky guide with April’s moon phases.

An extended Hat of Woo if you like, but for this podcast extra episode we dip our hands back into the festering corners of Paul’s hat to take a look at the root causes and the psychology of belief in conspiracy theories. Not why are they wrong but why do humans believe in conspiracy theories at all? Do we shoot ourselves in the foot through our educational policies and methods of teaching? Are we just hardwired to believe in falsehoods, whether more elaborate or more simple than the truth?

The Discussion: Jeni and her Welsh brethren suffered an Earthquake and Ralph takes a look through listeners emails which prompts a discussion about the range of educational outreach that AweAst listeners undertake. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: A new and pointless star ‘graces’ our night sky We wave goodbye to the concept of the Late Heavy Bombardment Astronomers publish results on the oldest supernova detection Astronomy Concept: We delve into the wide array of visual observation and astrophography filters in response to John Lonergan’s request. 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 the nature of black holes: 1) I heard in the reporting that the black hole had a physical spin. Does that support the idea that a black hole cannot be a singularity/point since it has a physical spin? 2) Th

What to look out, and up, for in March. Ralph, Paul & Jen pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: Prepare for this year’s Mars opposition as it increases in brightness Jupiter at 21 degrees in the pre-dawn sky Bright Venus, Mercury and the moon in conjunction on 18th March Comet 2016 R2 PANSTARRS in Perseus A lunar conjunction with the Hyades Cluster and occultation of Aldebaran. Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – Messier 81 & 82, Bode’s Galaxy & The Cigar Galaxy in Ursa Major Jen - Messier 3, globular cluster in Canes Venatici Paul – The Leo 1 group of Galaxies in the constellation Leo And we finish this sky guide with March’s moon phases.

This Awesome Astronomy episode is inspired by last week’s incredible SpaceX launch and listeners’ requests to talk a bit more about SpaceX and the advances in commercial spaceflight. In this Podcast Extra, we’re joined by spaceflight aficionado Gavin Price (@pilliarscreatio) to discuss: The inaugural Falcon Heavy launch and what it achieved Was the launch awesome or all hype? How good is the Falcon Heavy really? Will Falcon Heavy or Elon’s next ambitious rocket make NASA’s rocket redundant? How about other organisations? (ULA/Arianne/Blue origin etc) Where do the commercial companies leave the likes of Soyuz? (TsSKB-Progress) Where do we see access to space in ten, fifteen, twenty years time? Will Elon make good on his plan to colonize Mars?

The Discussion: Friend of the show and lecturer at Jeni’s Cardiff University, Dr Ed Gomez is launching a Kickstarter project to create and distribute a children’s comic book to encourage children to take an interest and career in science. Jeni tells us about Ada’s Adventures in Science, which you can give your support to at http://kck.st/2DI43hg. Paul suffers the adverse effects of being travelling science salesman and Ralph reads out some listeners’ emails - including one interesting email that suggests ‘Kim Jen Un’ may be getting into peoples’ heads. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: An update from Cassini on the strange orbits of Saturn’s moon Janus and Epimetheus and a look at a research paper shedding light on the ring they create around the gas giant. We mourn the loss of yet another Apollo astronaut as we say goodbye to John Young with a look back at his NASA career. Recent analysis of Martian meteorites and current Martian atmospheric constituents tempers our

What to look out, and up, for in February. Ralph, Paul & Jen pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: Track Mars’ passage through Scorpius & Ophiuchus Jupiter in Libra gives us a shadow transit and a look at its Great Red spot Dwarf Planet Ceres at opposition on 1st February & Comet Heinze in Pegasus Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – Open clusters Messier 67 and the Beehive Cluster in Cancer Jen - Messier 101, the Pinwheel Galaxy, in Ursa Major Paul – NCG 40, the Bow Tie nebula, in Cepheus And we finish this sky guide with February’s moon phases.

In this podcast extra episode, we're joined again by The Essex Space Agency's Phil St Pier as we take another sideways diversion into science fiction movies as we cast a critical eye over the recent big sci-fi blockbusters: Star Wars: The Last Jedi Blade Runner 2049 This episode is dedicated to Matt & Ali's arrival of their daughter Evangeline Rosa Kingsnorth.