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 f...
Apr 07, 2018•14 min
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 DN...
Apr 01, 2018•1 hr 27 min
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...
Mar 27, 2018•16 min
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?...
Mar 10, 2018•33 min
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 a...
Mar 01, 2018•1 hr 38 min
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 ...
Feb 25, 2018•12 min
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 ...
Feb 14, 2018•1 hr 42 min
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...
Feb 01, 2018•1 hr 10 min
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 M...
Jan 27, 2018•10 min
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.
Jan 09, 2018•1 hr 25 min
The Discussion: Paul avoids the big freeze with astronomy cheats, Ralph reads out the latest good and bad reviews, while Jeni becomes a ‘Who’s Who’ question at Cardiff University! The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: Voyager 1 shows it still has the skills and prolongs its own life An update on the extrasolar asteroid that just buzzed our solar system Physicists observe a reversal of the arrow of time in laboratory experiments The European Southern Observatory i...
Jan 01, 2018•1 hr 9 min
What to look out, and up, for in January! Ralph, Paul & Jen pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: The Red Planet Mars, makes a welcome return to our skies The Quadrantid meteor shower peaks on the night of 3rd/4th January Dwarf planet Ceres is at opposition on 31st January in Cancer Mercury is at greatest wester elongation on 2nd January And comet C/2017 T1 Heinze reaches mag 7-9 on 6th January Next up, we take...
Dec 30, 2017•10 min
There’s trouble in paradise as Christmas evening in the Cydonia bunker turns ugly. Alcohol may be the culprit. But equally, the blame may lie with suffering a whole day of pretending to like one another and f***ing Christmas songs! So, while tensions rise and arguments flare, Ralph, Paul and Jen run through the memorable space and astronomy events of 2017 and look forward to the treats in store for 2018. Then there’s the small matter of John’s annual outtake reel specifically designed to embarra...
Dec 25, 2017•40 min
In this podcast extra we begin a series, suggested by listener Sean Smith, of explaining the considerations involved in choosing practical astronomy equipment. This first in the series discusses one of the most important items in your amateur astronomy tool kit: Eyepieces. This discussion takes in: Why eyepieces are important The differences between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ eyepieces Choosing the right price point Our suggestions for good quality cheap and expensive eyepieces Don't forget our end of yea...
Dec 12, 2017•26 min
The Discussion: Jeni gets her name in lights – well, bold print, as she contributes (what else but graphs) to a published research paper and Ralph takes a look at Ben Cacase’s very own new asterism in the heart of Auriga and reads a defiant message from Michelle of ‘ze resistonce’. The News: It’s a very rocky month as we round up the following space and astronomy news stories: Earth’s moon had an atmosphere thicker than Mars’ for more than 70 million years Observations suggest Proxima Centauri h...
Dec 01, 2017•1 hr 7 min
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 Geminid meteor showers peaking on 13/14th December Uranus sitting in the constellation Pisces Mars & Jupiter lunar conjunctions Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – A binary star, a planetary nebula and 4 open clusters in Gemini Jen - The Pleiades open...
Nov 27, 2017•10 min
In this podcast extra episode Jeni discusses the recent detection of two colliding neutron stars and their observation in both gravitational waves and all areas of the electromagnetic spectrum. Jeni chats with Dr Edward Gomez, Education Director at the Las Cumbres Observatory and Cardiff University’s Gravitational Physics Research Group Leader, Professor Patrick Sutton about the historic observations, what we can learn from these events, the future of gravitational wave astronomy and how this ne...
Nov 17, 2017•48 min
The Discussion: Britain shows that it won’t just roll over and let America take the lead in intimidating academic freedom and Jen recounts her gravitational waves research conference in Brighton in October. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: Astronomers make the 1st observation of a neutron star collision Astronomers discover a missing chunk of the universe 3D videos of aurora that you can see at http://www.iap.fr/aurora3d/ The Interview: This month Cardiff Un...
Nov 01, 2017•1 hr 43 min
What to look out, and up, for in November. Ralph, Paul & Jen pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: A last look at Saturn for 2017 in the early evening sky A very impressive Jupiter/Venus conjunction on the 13th of November The Taurid meteor showers peaking on the 5th and 21st November and the Leonids on the 18th November Comet 2017 O1 ASASSN1 for binocular and telescope observers Next up, we take a deep sky pic...
Oct 27, 2017•9 min
In this podcast extra, we discuss the changing value of the Hubble Constant since 2000 – or put more simply, our narrowing down of how quickly the universe is expanding. This discussion takes in: The history of the Hubble Constant Edwin Hubble’s dreadful scatter plot Further attempts to narrow down the universe’s expansion rate Why research papers are awesome and accessible to everyone
Oct 16, 2017•14 min
The Discussion: You’d be forgiven for thinking we recorded this episode drunk – but we assure you, we weren’t. And you’ll have to forgive us for our crappy audio and shameless national stereotyping! But in this show, recorded from our dark sky star party in the Welsh Brecon Beacons, we discuss the event, Jeni’s talk on exoplanet research and we take a look at listeners’ emails. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: A fresh look at the age and high metallicity of ...
Oct 01, 2017•1 hr 15 min
What to look out, and up, for in October. Jeni, Paul & Ralph pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: Blue/green ice giant Uranus The Orionids meteor shower brings us the debris from Comet Halley Saturn, recently liberated from the perpetual gaze of Cassini A not-to-be-missed conjunction of Venus and Mars on 5th October. Finally, a couple of comets that may be visible Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list...
Sep 30, 2017•9 min
In this podcast extra episode for the dark sky star party held by the Podcast Crew, we discuss: Fighting light pollution by getting local authorities to dim & turn off street lights The value of star parties to boosting your practical astronomy knowledge What to expect at the Autumn 2017 AstroCamp A round up of Ralph, Damien & Paul’s seasonal astronomy targets
Sep 18, 2017•23 min
The Discussion: Jeni’s back and the band is back together to discuss watching this year’s Perseid meteor shower and coverage of the Great American Eclipse The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: The shortlisted explorer and missions of opportunity being considered by NASA Jellyfish galaxies feeding supermassive black holes Goodbye to the Cassini Saturn explorer ‘The Other Section’: This month we keep Paul’s festering Hat of Woo out of sight and take a long look at ...
Sep 01, 2017•1 hr 24 min
What to look out, and up, for in September.What to look out, and up, for in September. Ralph, Paul & Jeni pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: Saturn and its ring system in the evening Mercury at greatest western elongation in 12th September Neptune at opposition on 5th September in Aquarius. Next up, we take a deep sky pick from our list of favourites for this time of year: Ralph – The Saturn Nebula in Aquari...
Aug 27, 2017•10 min
In this podcast extra episode we present our full length interview with test pilot, astronaut and lunar module pilot on Apollo 16, General Charlie Duke. Drawing on this unique set of experiences, we asked Charlie: What surprised you or what weren't you expecting to see on the moon? How did having a rover change the way you could explore the moon? How much fun was the lunar rover? Which was most exciting, being capcom on the 1st moon landing or walking on the moon on Apollo 16? Is the proposed 20...
Aug 14, 2017•26 min
The Discussion: Jeni’s bizarrely decided that a holiday is preferable to being locked in a bunker with two megalomaniacal Martians, so you’re left with an exhausted Paul and a jetlagged Ralph this month. What could go wrong? We discuss outreach at science festivals and a happy resolution to the light pollution issue in the Brecon Beacons dark sky reserve. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: The new Doctor is upsetting some people (get over it!) The hunt Planet ...
Aug 01, 2017•1 hr 30 min
Download Episode! What to look out, and up, for in August. Ralph & Paul pick their highlights for this month’s skies; starting with the solar system objects on offer to observers and imagers: Dwarf Planet Ceres for small telescopes in the constellation Gemini Saturn in the evening, Venus at dawn and Uranus high up in Pisces The long anticipated total solar eclipse for observers in the United States The Perseid meteor shower peaking on the night of 12/13th August. Next up, we take a deep sky ...
Jul 28, 2017•7 min
Download Episode! In this podcast extra, Jeni recalls her most recent research trip at the Japanese Infrared Survey Facility (IRSF) situated outside Sutherland in South Africa. This research trip continues Jeni’s endeavours to collect exoplanet transit data. In this episode we cover: The IRSF observatory The life of a research astronomer The heartbeat of professional astronomy equipment Future research for Jen...
Jul 18, 2017•21 min
Download Episode! The Discussion: Combating light pollution for the AstroCamp in the Welsh Brecon Beacons and fighting to help the National Park retain its International Dark Sky Reserve status. Then we turn our attention to politics in space science and listeners’ views on politics in podcasts. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: Another gravitational wave detection and what we’re learning from it The European Space Agency’s latest mission approvals NASA’s las...
Jul 01, 2017•1 hr 10 min
