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
Matt & Phil from Project Helium Tears & captured Earthling slave Damien join us in the bunker in this 3rd episode in the Sci-fi Wars series to appeal for your votes for the best book.
This is the third 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
Matt & Phil from Project Helium Tears join us in the bunker in this 2nd episode in the Sci-fi Wars series to appeal for your votes for the best TV series.
We’ve let catured Earthling slave Damien out of the dungeon too to add his favourite too.
This is the second 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
Matt & Phil from Project Helium Tears join us in the bunker to kick off this Sci-fi Wars series by discussing what makes a sci-fi.
We’ve let catured Earthling slave Damien out of the dungeon too to add more perspective.
This is the first in a four part podcast extra series to discover the best sci-fi TV series, book and film over the next four days. Your votes count at www.awesomeastronomy.com!
The Discussion: A cloudy but fun-filled AstroCamp dominates the discussions this month with glimpses of the planets and a hurried Messier Marathon in between gaps between the clouds. Nick Howes’ talk inspires reflections on the threat of asteroids and comets and how amateur astrophotographers can contribute to science.
The News: This month we take a look at NASA’s new draft 2015 Technologies Roadmap and discuss the advances in robotics, space propulsion, power transfer and nanotechnology that NASA hope to seed. Next up is some research from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that suggests the discolouration on Europa’s surface might be irradiated salt from the moon’s subsurface ocean. Finally, we take a look at the discovery, using ESO’s VLT, that globular clusters in the Centaurus A galaxy are far heavier than they should be – perhaps harbouring vast amounts of dark matter.
The 5 Minute Concept: Just a hundred years after Newton’s notion of Universal Gravitation, John Mitchell proposed an idea so futuristic that it was barely even noticed until Einstein showed the universe has space-time geometry. Then, in 1972, the predictions of Newton, Einstein and Mitchell were revealed as the mind-bending reality of black holes.
The Interview: This month we welcome back Dr Joe Liske from the European Southern Observatory to talk about the New Technologies Telescope that tested new ways to build ever larger telescopes and paved the way for the monster observatories we see today.
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 Ralph & Paul answer:
What to look out, and up, for in June.
This month we take a look at the constellation of Lyra the harp for the beginners guide – we have one of amateur astronomy’s favourite nebulas, M57 the Ring Nebula, hanging between the stars Sheliak & Sulafat like a suspended smoke ring and the Double Double stars – Epsilon Lyrae.
Next we round up the planets that are visible in June: Venus, Jupiter in the evening & Saturn later on. Comet Lovejoy continues to put on a show for those with small telescopes and Comet Kopff tempt those with larger aperture telescopes. and the Lyrids in the low eastern morning sky.
For our deep sky challenge we look at the constellation of Scutum the shield. We tour the Wild Duck and M26 open clusters, globular cluster NGC6712 and finish off with planetary nebula IC 1295.
A podcast extra episode to get you in the mood for the biannual dark sky weekend run by the podcast crew. We have renowned comet and asteroid hunter Nick Howes joining us to talk about the nature and history of comets and we’ll be giving away loads of astronomy prizes in our astronomy quizzes. And of course, 3 nights of enjoying the wonders of truly dark skies in the Welsh Breacon Beacons’ International Dark Sky Reserve.
If you’re not coming to AstroCamp in May 2015, there’s still a sky guide in this episode to give you stargazing inspiration wherever you are.
What to look out, and up, for in May.
This month we take a look at the constellation Ursa Major for the beginners guide – we’ll point you in the direction of an unaided eye binary star and a few of the brightest galaxies in the entire northern hemisphere sky.
Next we round up the planets that are visible in May: Mercury (early in the month), Venus, Jupiter & Saturn later on. We take a look at Comet Lovejoy as it’s still visible in small telescopes, and the Lyrids in the low eastern morning sky. For our deep sky challenge we take you on a tour of Hercules’ magnificent globular clusters and a couple of overlooked galaxies.
The Discussion: Paul savours a quiet month of teaching astronomy and enjoys sketching Markarian’s Chain of galaxies, while Ralph gets into a few debates following an article publication and gets back to imaging the planet Venus. All in a month when the Project Helium Tears balloon took listeners’ names to the edge of space!
The News: This month we take a look at the discovery of complex organics in a new star system 455 light years away, a new study of the movement of dark matter during galactic collisions, a gas cloud passing the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole turns out to be a star – lucky not to get destroyed, SpaceX suffer another setback, Russia announce bold moon ambitions, Dwarf Planet Ceres gives us a few more answers but also some questions and we take a look at the new Star Wars movie trailer.
The 5 Minute Concept: Returning to our sceptical roots, Paul digs out the tin foil hat and takes leave of his senses as he delves into the barking world of the moon hoaxer and dispels the myths.
The Interview: This month we relive the Project Helium Tears space launch as slave John tagged along with Matt Kingsnorth and Phil St Pier – mission controllers to the edge of space for £1,200. The we bring them into the studio to talk about the mission, lighting up social media, appearing on TV and going viral with ‘Objective 2’.
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 Ralph & Paul answer:
The Discussion: Paul’s been busy with Sirius Astronomy, promoting space and astronomy education at The Big Bang event and schools across the UK, meeting NASA astronaut Michael Fowle and ESA astronaut Jean Francois Clervoy. Ralph’s been arranging astronomy events for London’s Baker Street Irregular Astronomers. Both are excited about the upcoming CosmicCon event in July and they speak with Phil St Pier from the Project Helium Tears team to reveal the winners of their space competition.
The News: This month we take a look at what’s in store for NASA’s Dawn spacecraft now that it’s made it safely into orbit around dwarf planet Ceres, a quick few thoughts on NASA’s New Horizon’s craft as it approaches the Pluto system, Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Jupiter’s moon Ganymede throw us some tantalising clues about their watery interiors and further potential for life, and we round off with news about a huge ocean that covered 20% of Mars’ entire surface.
The 5 Minute Concept: As we enter the Hubble Space Telescope’s 25th anniversary in space, Paul takes a look at this astronomy wonder that nearly didn’t even make it to the launch pad.
The Interview: Paul catches up with Richard Garner, the organiser of CosmicCon, to find out about the astronauts, TV presenters and astronomers we can expect to meet when we get there.
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 Ralph & Paul answer:
