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:
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:
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.
So welcome to AstroCamp and we’ll see you very soon!
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 seen – the Large Hadron Collider. Then we sat down to enjoy a light lunch and discuss the ground-breaking work, detections and knowledge building that only CERN can accomplish.
Naturally, we also delve into the big issues in astronomy today – such as dark matter, the matter/antimatter imbalance and extra dimensions, all of which are being explored by CERN.
So, for anyone who’s excited by the frontiers of physics or puzzled by what CERN is or does, we’ve recorded a special podcast extra to shed some light on the impossibly complex and tantalisingly exciting world of particle physics, right on the very cutting edge.
This podcast extra should explain in simple terms:
With special thanks to CERN and Dr Steve Goldfarb
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:
With special thanks to LIGO, the National Science Foundation and Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy.
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 off the show with the best gaffes and outtakes from 2015.
So, happy holiday season, thank you for downloading as listening to us in 2015 and we look forward to spending 2016 with you too.
Ralph. Paul, Jen, John & Damien
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 Eye to investigate faint structures of galaxies using arrays of off-the-shelf Canon camera lenses and sensors.
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 400,000 views.
Please help Project Helium Tears achieve Objective 3 by tweeting:
#HeyJJ Can @MattKingsnorth & @TurboBungle come to the Force Awakens VIP Première @Bad_Robot? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7ub0mFVDV0
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.
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
