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Sky Guide August 2016




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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 star in the sky

And we finish this sky guide with August’s moon phases.

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Extra: Alan Bean, 4th Man on the Moon




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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!
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#49 – July 2016




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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 Big Hat of Woo, is moon landing hoaxers – the mother of all space-related conspiracy theories!

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 get a question about our own observing and imaging of the skies:

How do you think the name of Planet 9 will be chosen if it’s eventually discovered – is it too late to start a campaign for Planet McPlanetface? Gavin Mills from Canberra, Australia

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Sky Guide July 2016




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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.

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Extra: Marvelous Mercury!




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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.

    Eric takes us on a voyage to Mercury to show us why this is far from the dull dry world that many may think.
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#48 – June 2016




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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 Hat of Woo, is Flat Earth (heaven help us!)

The Interview: For the interview this month we welcome the University of Oxford’s Professor Daniela Bortoletto who helped build the Large Hadron Collider and researches the findings of the world’s largest atom smasher. We take the opportunity to discuss:

  • What is the Higgs boson and why it’s so important
  • Why was the Higgs so hard to discover
  • Daniela’s construction of LHC sensors & detectors
  • The possible detection of a new particle that breaks the Standard Model
  • Is the Standard Model broke or is this new particle a false discovery
  • How much certainty is needed for a new discovery at CERN

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 get a question about our own observing and imaging of the skies:

Loved the astrophotography verses visual conversation. Maybe you could talk about what astronomy set up you use and what you prefer, ie telescope type? @CosmicBeach from Norwich, United Kingdom

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Sky Guide June 2016




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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.

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Extra: AstroCamp Spring 2016




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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 wherever you are in the northern hemisphere.

  • Ralph’s top choices are for beginner astrophotographers, armed only with a DSLR camera and a telescope, and focuses on the Leo Triplet
  • Paul takes five deep sky galaxy treats for visual astronomers in May and throughout spring. The prime pick is a tricky tricky double galaxy to test your skills and help develop your averted vision.
  • John takes a look at the solar system objects available a little closer to home this month as he runs through the best of the planetary offerings and whets our appetites for the coming transit of Mercury on 9th May.

So welcome to AstroCamp and we’ll see you very soon!

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#47 – May 2016




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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 on these days to show better and better images and that seems to overtake the fun of astronomy a bit for some and peer pressure is getting to some.

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Sky Guide May 2016




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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.