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 ...
Aug 26, 2016•12 min
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 sp...
Aug 13, 2016•39 min
The Discussion: We’re cheering Jeni’s graduation with a first class masters in astrophysics and looking at the PhD options she has as she chases the dream of becoming Dr Millard! Paul & Ralph make preparations for September’s dark sky AstroCamp stargazing event and educate Jeni on computers from the 80s. The News: Rounding up the space and astronomy news this month we have: A new dwarf planet is discovered in our solar system The doomed Hitachi spacecraft reveals streams of intergalactic pla...
Aug 01, 2016•1 hr 8 min
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 ...
Jul 28, 2016•11 min
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!...
Jul 15, 2016•55 min
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...
Jul 01, 2016•1 hr
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/29t...
Jun 28, 2016•9 min
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 ...
Jun 11, 2016•1 hr 23 min
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...
Jun 01, 2016•1 hr
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 Herc...
May 28, 2016•19 min
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 ...
May 03, 2016•17 min
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 ...
May 02, 2016•48 min
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...
Apr 29, 2016•19 min
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 ...
Apr 15, 2016•1 hr
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 sugge...
Apr 01, 2016•1 hr 11 min
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...
Mar 28, 2016•9 min
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 mor...
Mar 01, 2016•1 hr 12 min
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 st...
Feb 27, 2016•10 min
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 ...
Feb 14, 2016•39 min
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 gravitation...
Feb 01, 2016•1 hr 13 min
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. Fin...
Jan 28, 2016•9 min
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 di...
Jan 01, 2016•1 hr 8 min
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 ...
Dec 30, 2015•9 min
This pantomime episode contains some mild bad language and puerile humour Join us for our yearly round up of our favourite stories & events from 2015 and discuss the most exciting space missions and astronomy events coming up in 2016. This festive season we welcome you back to our secretive Cydonia bunker - the scene of each Earth invasion attempt - as we share a brandy on the moon and give you a glimpse of the lives of our Earthling slaves at Yuletide. As tradition now dictates, we round of...
Dec 25, 2015•41 min
The Discussion: In this Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy contrived episode we look back over the movie The Martian, meeting Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, we gloss over the Bayesian statistics in Jen’s data analysis work and hear about a mathematics-based nightmare that’s been keeping Jen awake but should have mathematicians rolling in the aisles! The News: This month we revisit that alien megastructure around a distant star with an unusual light curve and reveal what alien signatures SETI h...
Dec 01, 2015•1 hr 25 min
For the beginners this month we take a look at the constellation of Gemini with bright star Castor providing a nice easy double star to split with a telescope. We move over to the feet of the Gemini twins to scan for some nice open clusters, including Messier 35, before hunting down the beautiful Eskimo planetary nebula. Finally, we go looking for a star known to have a planet of its own. Next we round up the planets that are visible in December: Jupiter, Venus & Mars are still around for ob...
Nov 28, 2015•8 min
During this spring’s AstroCamp event, hosted by the Awesome Astronomy podcast team, our new presenter, Jeni Millard, gave another of her inspiring talks. We were treated to a history of the much neglected Aboriginal dark sky folklore as we got tour of some of the most interesting objects in the southern hemisphere’s sky. Then we head off into the world of professional astronomy at the Australian Astronomical Observatory as we find out how Jen helped with the science that will enable the Huntsman...
Nov 14, 2015•52 min
The Discussion: We welcome astrophysicist Jeni Millard from Cardiff University onto the show as our new co-presenter! We discuss the astronomy lessons, tuition and events we’ve been involved with over the past month and name drop about an Apollo moonwalker we might have interviewed… The News: This month we take a look at NASA’s completed image collection of the Pluto system from the New Horizons spacecraft; ‘Water on Mars’ get the very first Awesome Astronomy award for Needing Another Sensationa...
Nov 01, 2015•1 hr 20 min
What to look out, and up, for in November. This month we tour a few simple objects that you can show to a child and spark their interest in the night skies. In our beginners’ guide, Ursa Major shows us now to find true north and points out a few galaxies to observe in a small telescope. Then we take a look at the moon, showing us some lovely phases in the middle of the month and finish with two dates on which the moon will help you find the outer most planets, Uranus & Neptune. Next we round...
Oct 28, 2015•8 min
Matt Kingsnorth from the Project Helium Tears debriefs us on his balloon launch to the edge of space, capturing images of the Earth, taking Awesome Astronomy listeners’ names onboard and filming a Star Wars X-Wing fighter against the black of space in May 2015. Quite by surprise, the onboard cameras even managed to capture images of the moon and a meteor streaking through the atmosphere below! The video (which you can see at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ub0mFVDV0) went viral with more than ...
Oct 18, 2015•39 min
